With Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav lifting the ban on the elections of student unions in universities and degree colleges, the educational campuses in the state are witnessing a dangerous rise in violent incidents as the warring groups are triggering violence there.
On August 13, six lecturers and readers in Kanpur’s prestigious DAV College were severely thrashed by the members of the Samajwadi Yuwajan Sabha while the police remained a mute spectator. The injured teachers were rushed to the hospital where two of them were admitted for head injuries while others were discharged after the first aid.
Around 11 am a student, Vipin Shukla, owing allegiance to the Samajwadi Party (SP) and escorted by a police guard, reached the DAV college campus brandishing a rifle. Chief proctor Oudhesh Pal Singh asked him to leave the college immediately. Shukla refused and abused the chief proctor and called the district president of the SP, Chandresh Singh, national president of the Samajwadi Yuwajan Sabha Amitabh Bajpai and senior leader of SP Surendra Mohan Agarwal.
The SP leaders had beaten up Oudhesh along with other teachers. Following the incident, Oudhesh rushed to the Kanpur police station with his colleagues and lodged a complaint against the erring students. As soon as the complainants came out of the police station, hundreds of students supporting the SP and its leaders gheroed the police station and beat them up with iron and wooden rods. The policemen, however, remained deaf to their cries.
Later, the police took the injured to the hospital. Shukla was taken into custody for the violation of Section 144 of the IPC. The SP supported youth leaders and students had beaten up teachers, university officials and students in universities of Lucknow, Allahabad and Gorakhpur in the past also. The BSP government had put a complete ban on the elections owing to the growing lawlessness on the campuses in the name of students union poll.
The SP is already grappling with the wayward ministers and party functionaries assaulting government officials. Last month, one leader of the ruling party slapped a deputy CMO in Meerut in full public view.