Hours before the seminar was to begin, as many as 14 members of the SFS including the President, Damanpreet was detained by Chandigarh police and kept under preventive arrest.
Tension was palpable in Panjab University (PU) after its decision to deny permission to Left-leaning Students For Society (SFS) to hold a seminar on fascism on campus, drew protests from the student organisation which alleged that permission was withdrawn due to pressure from Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) which had threatened to oppose the event.
Hours before the seminar was to begin, as many as 14 members of the SFS including the President, Damanpreet was detained by Chandigarh police and kept under preventive arrest. Activist Seema Azad who was invited as the main speaker at the seminar was also prevented from reaching the venue.
However, SFS claimed that Azad had visited and addressed the students, dressed up as a Sikh woman wearing turban, escaping the attention of ABVP which had threatened not to let her speak. Azad was introduced to students as 'Preeti'. "University is the right platform to raise such issues, and SFS has shown that they understand what it means to be educated," she is seen speaking in a video which went viral after the protest concluded peacefully.
"Authorities withdrew permission after ABVP threatened to protest. When we decided to hold the event in the open, they detained our members. But we succeeded and Azad was able to address the students," said Ramanpreet, SFS member.
SFS members alleged that representatives from Dal Khalsa, All India Sikh Students Federation (AISSF), Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU), Sikhs for Human Rights and otherss expected to attend the seminar were also detained and could not reach the university.
Heavy police security was deployed at all the entry gates of the university and the entry of outsiders was under check. Undeterred by the detaining of its members, SFS held a sit-in protest outside the VC office and invited its speakers to address the students, which included Professor Jagmohan Singh, nephew of martyr Bhagat Singh.
"We denied permission in view of the prevailing tension between the student groups on campus. We cannot allow any outsider to visit campus and deliver speech that could lead to tension between student groups. Peace on campus should not be disturbed," said Emanual Nahar, Dean Student Welfare (DSW), PU, while talking to DNA.
ABVP had threatened to oppose the seminar. "We will never allow any anti-nationalist to speak on our campus. The speaker Seema Azad was charged for sedition and faces life imprisonment. How can we allow an anti-national to vitiate the campus?" said Harmanjot Singh, member Central Working Committee (CWC), ABVP.
SFS concluded the sit-in protest peacefully, soon after Azad addressed the students.
The seminar titled 'Smash the rising head of fascist forces' was initially scheduled to be held in university auditorium. However, days after Delhi University (DU) succumbed to clashes between student organisations over swirling nationalism row and freedom of speech, PU authorities seemed wary of any tension and denied permission to hold the seminar on campus. A clash was also reported between ABVP and SFS on PU campus on February 27.
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