NEW DELHI: One could not have imagined this happening in India. ABVP (Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad) did today at Delhi University main gate,what the British colonial regime could not do. The British colonial regime could not disturb or disrupt either Bhagat Singh's own meetings under the banner of Naujwan Bharat Sabha, or during the period of his imprisonment and eventual execution when meetings were held in his support.

Ahwan, a student group organised a meeting on The Life and Writings of Bhagat Singh to mark his martyrdom day which falls on March 23, but due to vacations ahead,they held it on March 18 by inviting me to speak. ( Prof Chaman Lal is a retired professor of JNU ,who has many books on the martyr).

I reached the venue at the DU gate,students were denied a place by the University even for a lecture on Bhagat Singh,so they were forced to move to the open venue. Students informed the area police,which was present in good numbers,at one time more than the students! Around the same time at an adjoining location a theatre group was to stage a play on 'The true happenings in JNU'. This group just had 4-5 actors and within five minutes of their starting the play, a mob of 10-15 young boys and girls encircled the play area with violent and threatening attack shouting Bharat Mata ki Jai and Vande Matram slogans, calling the group 'Deshdrohis' and threatening to throw them out of India.

Police which was initially outnumbered tried to separate the two groups. As Awahan group lecture on Bhagat Singh chairman Dr. Vikas Gupta invited me to speak,the same ABVP group tried to disrupt the lecture by loud shouting of Bharat Mata ki Jai slogans. I pleaded with police present to ask the disrupters to listen and ask questions later or hold a separate meeting. The police did try to intervene, but the slogan shouting mon was in no mood to listen and kept shouting.

At one time both sides were shouting full throated slogans- ABVP group with- Bharat Mata ki Jai Kehna Hoga and Vande Matram Kehna Hoga. Awahan students responded with Netaji Subhas and Pt. Nehru slogans, Jai Hind and Bhagat Singh zindabad, and Inquilab Zindabad.

The ABVP students were not allowing me to speak on the writings of Bhagat Singh on religion,communalism and atheism. But I finally had my say and later even a question answer session was held. After the lecture ABVP group kept threatening us but we refused to be cowers down and refused to leave the place under threat.

This was a sad day, to see how Bhagat Singh, a 'Patriot and Nationalist' of the country was treated by phoney and violent nationalists,who had played no role in the freedom struggle. They are now insulting the freedom struggle of Gandhi, Nehru Subhas Bose, Ambedkar and Bhagat Singh that brought freedom for India.

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