Rahul criticises violence during DU seminar

NEW DELHI: Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi was critical of the alleged vandalism by ABVP activists at a seminar in Delhi University last week which was attended by S A R Geelani, acquitted in the Parliament attack case.
    
At a closed-door session with a group of students of St Stephen's College here, his alma mater, Gandhi took exception to the action of an alleged ABVP activist who spat on the face of Geelani.
    
When he was told by a student that they were scared to protest against the ABVP action, Gandhi reportedly said, "you should go out. Take the risk. Involve yourself in politics because if you don't go, someone else will step into your shoes."
    
"He said 'they (ABVP) were scared of the democratic system. That's why they are taking that way," Manoj Rawal, a third year student, quoted the scion of Nehru-Gandhi family, as saying.
    
Gandhi also appealed to the students of the premier college to join politics so as to make a difference.
    
"We need to involve ourselves in it to make a difference," he said.
    
A group of alleged ABVP activists went on a rampage three days back at Delhi University campus, vandalised the venue of a seminar on 'Communalism, Fascism and Democracy, Rhetoric and Reality', disrupted the programme briefly in protest against
the presence of Geelani.