When Teachers Fall Foul of BJP/ABVP: Assaulted In Gujarat, Arrested in Uttarakhand

NEW DELHI: Two incidents in two days had teachers who ran foul of the ruling BJP and its students wing in Gujarat and Uttarakhand assaulted, and jailed respectively.

A 57 year old teacher Uttara Bahuguna was arrested on charge of “disrupting an important gethering’ through a direct order by the Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Rawat who she dared question. The widowed teacher, who has been working for 25 years in Uttarkashi, lost her husband three years ago has since been trying for a transfer to Dehradun to be with her children. However, her plea has been in vain and it was with this in mind that she tried to raise the issue again at a meeting being addressed by the CM.

The heated exchange between her and the CM was videographed, where she gives back as good as she gets. Rawat dismissed her plea and she wanted to know why.Rawat is heard first telling the authorities to arrest her, and then to suspend her. She was given bail later.

ANI released a video that captures the heated exchange:



In this the teacher, starts crying:"I lost my husband in 2015 and my children stay here (Dehradun). I can't leave my children here. I spoke to the Chief Minister but he did nothing. I asked him the reason. He suddenly raised his hand and said you are a teacher, behave yourself," Bahuguna said.

Former Chief Minister Harish Rawat hit out at Rawat and accused him of insensitivity. "Our system has become so insensitive that a widowed teacher remained posted in a remote area for 25 years and no one listened to her? I advise the Chief Minister to revoke her suspension," he said.

In another recent incident a professor of Krantiguru Shaymji Krishna Verma Kachchh University (KSKVKU) , Giri Baxi was assaulted and his face blackened allegedly by supporters of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the students’ wing of the RSS, in Bhuj town, Kutch district, Gujarat. He was then kept ‘hostage’ for almost an hour while the students alleging discrepancy in electoral rolls gheraoed the Vice Chancellors office.

A video of the professor, Girin Baxi, being paraded with the ABVP men chanting ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’, ‘Vande Mataram’ and ‘ABVP zindabad’ has gone viral on social media. The incident took place ahead of the university’s senate elections, scheduled for July 22. Baxi, associate professor and head of the Chemistry department in the university, is coordinator for the elections. The ABVP had accused him of selectively rejecting voter registration forms.

Baxi was rushed to a hospital after he complained of severe skin irritation following the attack.

The vice-chancellor of the university, Chandrasinh Jadeja, told Newsclick, “It is very disheartening to see such an incident happening in our campus. The investigation is going on with the help of the Kutch police. So far, based on the CCTV footage, four people have been identified who are associated with the RSS.”

The vice-chancellor said those identified were not from the university campus, but from some other college affiliated to the Krantiguru Shyamji Krishna Verma Kachchh University.

“This is the first time that a teacher from our university has been assaulted. This must not happen again because it will also ruin other students’ careers,” he said.

Vardhan Yadav, national general secretary of the Congress-backed student outfit National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) in Gujarat, told Newsclick, “It is not the first time that the ABVP has behaved like hooligans, even with the teachers. Since the Modi government came to power in 2014, such horrific incidents have become very common. It is evident in how they recently tried to saffronise the Jawaharlal Nehru University. They did the same in the University of Hyderabad and the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, as well.”