ABVP disrupts Teesta’s lecture on Gujarat violence at University of Hyderabad

Civil rights activist Teesta Setalvad releasing ‘Pigeon of Peace and Brotherhood’ in Hyderabad on Saturday

Andhra Pradesh, November 18, 2012: A lecture on Gujarat communal violence organized by the student union of Central University of Hyderabad run into chaos when Akhil Bahrtiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) activists raised slogans against the guest speaker and civil rights activists Teesta Setalvad.

Mrs. Setalvad was delivering the lecture at Ambedkar Auditorium in the university premises on the topic “Politics in Gujarat: Communal violence and the quest for justice”. ABVP activists in the middle of her speech started rising slogans demanding her to leave the campus.

But soon ABVP activists were forced out of the venue by the police and Student Federation of India (SFI) activists who were the main organizer of this lecture.

ABVP claimed that it was annoyed over Student union of UoH for organizing the program without informing ABVP which was also having two members in the student union which is dominated by the leftists.

The ABVP activists also claimed that their patience was tested when Mrs. Setelvad during her lecture made comments on new generation of Hindu youths getting communalized.

However the protest from ABVP doesn’t stall the program, Ms. Setalvad continued with her lecture and answered many questions from the participants.

Later in the day Ms. Setalvad also addressed a public meeting at Madina Education Center which was organized by INSAF a sister organization of CPI (M). The seminar was titled ‘Atrocities on Minorities’ which was organized in the back drop of communal violence in many parts of India and recently in Hyderabad.

Mrs. Setalvad in her speech claimed that majority of communal riots are politically orchestrated to polarize the society and vote banks. She also termed the recent rise in the communal violence all over India is nothing but a preparation for the 2014 Parliamentary elections.

– tcn