[Reader-list] DU allows ‘seminar’ blasting Govt; Geelani is star speaker

[Aditya Raj Kaul]

*DU allows 'seminar' blasting Govt; Geelani is star speaker

**Staff Reporter | New Delhi

The Daily Pioneer

Link -
http://www.dailypioneer.com/132900/DU-allows-%E2%80%98seminar%E2%80%99-blasting-Govt;-Geelani-is-star-speaker.html
*
*Parliament attack accused incites youth to end 'fascism' in India, take on
ABVP 'goons'*

Under heavy police bandobast, the Delhi University (DU) on Thursday
facilitated an "interactive session" where venom was spewed on the
Government's counter-terrorism initiatives and a known anti-national — SAR
Geelani, accused in the Parliament attack case — was hero-worshipped.

Addressing a gathering of about 50 students and teachers at the Arts Faculty
seminar hall, Geelani said the Batla House encounter was stage-managed by
Delhi Police. He said that different parameters were being applied in the
handling of Islamic terrorism and the so-called Hindu terrorism. Geelani was
speaking on 'Communalism, Fascism and Democracy — Rhetoric and Reality',
organised by a barely-known campus group called University Community.

"There is no democracy in India. The Government, in the name of national
security and war against terrorism, is targeting select people and letting
others go scotfree. There is a huge difference in the way the Government
deals with the so-called Islamic terrorism and those spread by Hindu
extremists. *Aur zyaada janne ke liye aap baad mein miliye* (Meet me later
for further explanations)," said Geelani, who was an accused in the 2003
Parliament attack case and was later comforted by the Supreme Court. He said
that fascism and prejudice had crept into the four pillars of democracy in
India. "Even the Chief Justice of India has been accused of corruption," he
said.

About 50 persons, including some teachers from different departments of DU,
participated in the talk. Amid slogans like "Civil Liberties Long Live" and
"Hindu goons wapas jao", the speakers -- including two working journalists
and a professor from the Department of Sociology, Jamia Millia Islamia,
Nehsat Quaiser -- professed the cases of banned Muslim group, the Students'
Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), and the likes of Afzal Guru.

Talking about the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) activists
opposing the branding of Hindu groups as terrorists, Geelani said, "Inquilab
comes from the youth. You should not fear these goons and end this fascism."

Another speaker said the Malegaon blasts accused, Pragya Singh Thakur, was
not a sadhvi but the face of Sangh terror. University sources said a teacher
from the Department of English had booked the hall for organising 'a talk'.
University officials said they were not informed of the topic and that
Geelani was supposed to deliver a lecture. University Proctor Gurmeet Singh
even called the organisers repeatedly, asking them to cancel their talk in
view of the protests incited by Geelani's and others' views. The meeting,
however, went on.

The ABVP members, on the other hand, demonstrated outside the seminar room
and shouted slogans, 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai' and 'Vande Mataram'. An activist
even managed to reach the dais and spit on Geelani's face, saying 'shame,
shame'. The ABVP activists then damaged some windows, doors, chairs and the
microphone to disrupt the meeting. However, the meeting continued despite
the disturbance. Later, police arrested some ABVP activists.