NEW DELHI: Taking an arbitrary stand, ABVP leader and DUSU president Shakti Singh on Tuesday installed the statue of RSS icon Veer Savarkar alongside Bhagat Singh’s and Subhash Chandra Bose’s at Delhi University’s North Campus, evoking controversy and criticism from other student groups. This step comes ahead of DUSU elections.
According to the ABVP, Singh took up this installation without their support. ABVP media-in-charge Monica Chaudhary said that it was his “personal decision”.
“We truly feel that images and statues of freedom fighters should be put across campuses of universities but it should be done according to the norms. The university gave us permission to install it at DUSU office...various letters were written to the admin for their permission to install it at Arts Faculty but there was no response,” Chaudhary said.
Singh, however, said that he had written five letters and had in-person sought permission from the Vice-Chancellor “but like other student issues, this was also not taken seriously so I had to take this step”.
Even though Singh’s decision didn’t have ABVP’s approval for this step, it drew huge criticism for the RSS-affiliated group from other student organisations.
NSUI National President Neeraj Kundan said it was “shameful” to juxtapose Savarkar with Bhagat Singh and Subhash Chandra Bose.