Ramjas clash row | ABVP gives clarification: Violence provoked by outsiders, blame put on us

The RSS-backed Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) on Tuesday claimed that the recent violence at DU's Ramjas college was provoked by "outsiders" and the blame has been put on them by the "anti-nationals".

The student outfit has called for a protest on March 2 against the entry of outsiders on campus and their alleged attempts to "pollute" the atmosphere.

"There is lot of hue and cry about ABVP's involvement in the violence. We would like to put on record that the violence was provoked by outsiders and the 'anti-nationals' have put the blame on us," Saket Bahuguna, ABVP's National Media Convener said during a press conference.

"The outsiders are not only polluting the academic and peaceful atmosphere of the university but are also provoking violence. We had not gone to attack anybody but only went to calm the situation that day and to ensure that there is no clash of ideologies in our classroom," he added.

Ramjas college had last week witnessed large-scale violence between members of the AISA and the ABVP. The genesis of the clash was an invite to JNU students Umar Khalid and Shehla Rashid to address a seminar on 'Culture of Protests' which was withdrawn by the college authorities following opposition by the ABVP.

"This is for the first time that such widespread violence has been witnessed at Delhi University and it is not because of ABVP. Our organisation has been part of the students union for years, why such violence took place now is because of the involvement of outsiders," Bahuguna said.

"We have called for a massive protest on March 2 to agitate against the presence of outsiders on DU campus and their attempts to vitiate the atmosphere," he added. 

Meanwhile, the ABVP had earlier in the day approached police to lodge an FIR against those who have threatened army martyr's daughter Gurmehar Kaur of raping her. 

Kaur, who had last week started a social media campaign "I am not afraid of ABVP" which went viral, had claimed that she had received "rape threats" allegedly from members of ABVP.

However, she withdrew from the campaign on Tuesday and left for her hometown in Jalandhar.