PM avoids BHU girls, Yogi’s police return to thrash them

Upset over public demonstration by girls students of BHU, which forced the police to divert the Prime Minister’s motorcade through a narrow, unscheduled and pot-holed road on Saturday, hundreds of UP policemen and members of the infamous Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) entered women’s hostels at night and beat up the girls. Four of them are said to have sustained serious injuries, one of them on the head.

“The police chased the students and beat them, the media was also targeted,” AD ,a columnist whose house is very close to the BHU campus told National Herald. “I was there from around 12:30 am; but I could spot only one lady constable while the policemen were going berserk…”way ladkiyo ko bhaga bhaga ke maar rahe thhe,” he added.

He had received a call on Saturday evening from some of the protesting students he knew, AD recalled. They had apprehended trouble and requested him to keep his house open in case they needed to take shelter, he added. Tension was building up through Saturday when girl students came out on the street to have a word with Varanasi MP and the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and union minister Smriti Irani, who were expected to drive through the area.

When attempts to disperse them failed, police force had to divert the PM’s motorcade. “Two cars cannot be driven next to each other on that narrow lane but rather than speak to the students, the PM’s handlers opted to take the lane instead to whisk him away,” he recalled.

Police waited till the PM left the city on Saturday evening before returning to the campus in their hundreds.

Rubbishing claims that students pelted stones at the police, eyewitness accounts alleged that some of the policemen were seen carrying stones by people in the neighbourhood. They also rubbished BHU officials’ claims that students threw petrol bombs.

Two motorcycles belonging to the police were indeed set on fire but eyewitness accounts again challenge the police version that students and anti-social elements did it. “The students were facing the police while the two bikes which were burnt were right behind where the policemen stood,” one of them, BM, told NH. “ How could the students have done it ?” he asked.

As reported earlier, the unrest began on Thursday when a girl student was molested while on her way back to her hostel. The situation took an ugly turn after complaints made to the Warden, Proctor and the Vice Chancellor elicited no action.

The girl students were also outraged because they were asked to get back to the hostels by 6 pm and told that otherwise they would be responsible for molestation and rapes. The Vice Chancellor refused to meet the girl students and the complainant was advised to remain quiet in view of the PM’s visit.

One of the speakers at the protest that snowballed alleged that the Proctor told the complainant, “Tum rape karwaogi kya jo itne raat to ghoom rahi ho.” (Do you wish to be raped by wandering around the campus late in the evening ?)

People sympathetic to the students told National Herald that the girls had listed reasonable demands. They wanted better lighting in the vicinity of the hostels and CCTV cameras to be installed. They demanded 24x7 security around the girls’ hostels and deployment of policewomen. They wanted action to be taken against the culprits and a sexual harassment committee to be set up.

“They just demanded that lights should be installed near the girls’ hostels, security should be beefed up and CCTV cameras should be installed,” Dasgupta said, adding, “the area is actually very dark and guys masturbate outside the hostels.”

BHU earlier had just two girls’ hostels inside the campus but as number of students increased, two more hostels were constructed behind the VC’s residence. The area, however, is isolated and ill-lit. There is also a petrol pump near the girls’ hostels so men have the pretext to drive to the area and some of them misbehave with the girls. There have been complaints of men masturbating outside the hostels and making lewd gestures. But such complaints were not taken seriously.