NEW DELHI: Visually-challenged students from Jawaharlal Nehru University on Wednesday protested outside Delhi Police headquarters against the force’s alleged baton charging on students during their protest against the hostel fee hike on Tuesday.
A delegation of five visually-challenged students also met with Delhi Police PRO and submitted a memorandum of demands.
In the memorandum, the students said that police PRO Mandeep Singh Randhawa “was apprised of instances of manhandling of disabled students during peaceful protest march” against the Hostel Draft Manual that proposes fee hike.
The memorandum demanded an official inquiry into the instance of baton charging and derogatory remarks made by the police personnel such as ‘Andha Hai Toh Protest Mein Kyun Aata Hai’
“Where will we go to protest? Don’t blinds have the right to protest? This kind of mentality and lack of acceptance for the blinds is shameful. We don’t want this to happen in the future,” said Ravendra Kumar, 25, a protester.
The memorandum also said that Randhawa agreed to issue a circular to sensitise Delhi Police personnel with regard to dealing with persons with disabilities (PWD) and that a delegation level dialogue will be arranged with Commissioner of Police Amulya Patnaik.
The protesting visually-challenged and specially-abled students claimed that their fellows became victims of baton charging by police during a JNU protest march on Monday at Jorbagh while one video showing such an incident went viral. The student being beaten up by police in that video is Shashi Bhushan, who narrated his ordeal during a presser on Tuesday.
WATCH | 'PM must step down for how he treated us' cries visually-challenged JNU student
Shaikh Mohammad Kaish, Convener of JNU Visually Challenged Students’ Forum, alleged that police tried to divert their protest for an hour. “We were first told to protest at (New Police Headquarters on) Jai Singh Road for a meeting the CP but were later told to come to ITO. Police have no right to divert our protest,” he said.
Meanwhile, after meeting with the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) on Wednesday, the high-power committee constituted by the Ministry of Human Resource Development has called for a joint meeting of the panel members, students and university officials on Friday.