Students allege manhandling by ABVP members at Dyal Singh College

A section of Delhi University (DU) students on Monday alleged that they were manhandled by the members of RSS-backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) during a protest meeting being organised at the Dyal Singh College against its bifurcation. The meeting was also attended by a section of teachers, who are opposing the move.

According to the students, the ABVP members not only disrupted the public meeting but also manhandled them. "They hurled sexist abuses against female faculty members and girl students," said Prashant Mukherjee, Delhi secretary of the student wing of the Communist Party of India (CPI).

The students, however, formed a human chain around the college's amphitheater and continued the meeting. "The unity of struggling students forced them to backtrack and the students formed a human chain to ensure that the meeting be continued," he added. The ABVP, however, denied the allegation.

Dyal Singh Evening College has been in the eye of the storm after its Governing Body (GB) "unanimously" passed the resolution to change its name to 'Vande Mataram' and make it a normal shift college in November last year. The change in the name, however, has been put on hold after HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar objected to it.

The college, which was set up in 1958 as the first evening college of DU, has both morning and evening shifts. 

Earlier this year, the college had decided to bifurcate the campus and convert the evening college into a day college. The move triggered a controversy as the DSC (morning) teachers protested against the decision without allocating it a separate campus.