Jaipur: The recent students’ union elections in Rajasthan have charged up the political atmosphere in Sikar. The Left Front has stood up against the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the alleged manipulation of votes in a government college in the region and the subsequent state police’s crackdown on the students and party leaders of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
The general secretary of the CPI(M), Sitaram Yechury has also written to the Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot condemning the lawlessness in the state. The party is also planning a protest in the district later this month against the Congress government.
On August 28, after the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) candidate Ruchi Chaudhary won the election for the post of president by one vote in Sikar’s Shri Kalyan Government Girls College, the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) alleged manipulation of votes by the college administration in favour of ABVP and demanded a recount in their presence.
When the college administration denied the allegations, the students led a protest to the collectorate. Sikar police intervened and allegedly manhandled the female students, severely injuring them. A video of the police beating and abusing female students has also gone viral.
Ekta Sharma, an SFI candidate for the post of vice-president at the college and five other girls were lathi-charged by the police on their way to the collectorate. “The police hit our legs with the lathis and made us sit in their jeep. Then they went after the boys in the nearby Jat hostel and nabbed about 90 students. Meanwhile, some of us had gone to the CPI(M) office. The police, under the supervision of the superintendent of police, barged into the party office and took into custody several students and party leaders, including former MLA Pema Ram,” Sharma told The Wire.
The college had elections for four posts, of which SFI won two seats – general secretary and joint secretary – and ABVP grabbed the other two – vice president and president. There is a dispute over the seat of the president in which ABVP was declared the winner.
Amra Ram, former MLA and current state secretary of CPI(M) in Rajasthan, has claimed that SK College principal Bhupendra Dhulad, who is also a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) member, had deliberately forged the elections to make way for ABVP, the student wing of the RSS.
“First, the college administration cancelled the admission of the SFI candidate who had been studying in the college for the past three years. When the party put forth a new candidate, she was made to lose the election by one vote. The students had demanded a recount of all 1,900 votes in front of them. When the college administration refused, the students marched a protest to the collectorate. However, while on their way, the students, especially the women, were badly beaten up by the police,” Amra Ram told The Wire.
Sikar’s Shri Kalyan Government Girls College
“The police also abused the women students and said things like ‘Ladkiyon ko uthao, gaadi mein bithao (Pick up the girls and put them in the car)’. Later, the SP entered our party office and said ‘Yahan rajneeti hoti hai (You do politics here)’ and arrested all the students and party leaders present in the office. While the students were released at night, our leaders – Pema Ram and Kishan Pareek – were kept in custody for a day. No medical treatment was provided to the injured for five days,” he added.
Speaking to The Wire, principal of Shri Kalyan College, Dhulad said, “From the college’s side, elections have been concluded. Now, the police is taking care of the matter. We can’t comment on anything.”
The Congress leaders in the district have also blamed the CPI(M) for its interference in the student body elections. “CPI(M) is raising the issue unnecessarily. We are concerned about the innocent students who were beaten up because of some others who were politically driven. An inquiry at the level of additional superintendent of police in the matter is ordered,” Nand Kishore Maharia, former MLA and Congress leader in Sikar told The Wire.
Following police action on the CPI(M) leaders, Yechury wrote a letter to the chief minister of Rajasthan Ashok Gehlot expressing his protest and condemnation over the matter. He wrote:
“In an unprecedented action, hordes of uniformed policemen illegally entered the office of the CPI(M), arrested former MLAs and CPI(M) leaders Comrades Amra Ram and Pema Ram and dragged out scores of others who were in the office. Subsequently, while Amra Ram was released, Pema Ram was taken into custody and had to apply for bail which was granted to him the following day in court. This is totally unacceptable.
I have also learnt that the police dealt in a brutal way with young men and women students who were peacefully demonstrating against what they consider was a manipulation of the results of a women’s college. Young women were manhandled by male police. Press photographs and videos show the extent of the brutality leading to several students suffering fractures.
I hope you will take immediate action against those responsible.”
However, the police have claimed that action has been taken against the policemen for their conduct. Speaking to The Wire, Gagandeep Singla, superintendent of police in Sikar, said: “In all the photographs and videos that have surfaced, it’s the male students that the police had lathi-charged. There was only one photograph where the constable and sub-inspector were seen manhandling a female student and they both have been attached to the police line.”
He also said that a case was pending against certain CPI(M) leaders for which they had the authority to arrest them. “Students started pelting stones at the police and entered the CPI(M) office because of which the police too got in. We had the permission to arrest the CPI(M) leaders since March but somehow it couldn’t happen. When they were found that day, the police arrested them but this was not in connection with the students’ union election. It was an altogether separate case,” added Singla.
According to political experts in the region, the Left Front is setting the stage for the upcoming local body elections scheduled for later this year. “In Sikar, both the Congress and the BJP stand united against the CPI(M) and the same happened in the matter of students’ union elections. Elections for the panchayat committees are due this year and the CPI(M), which is an expert in issue-based politics, is trying to use this matter for the upcoming elections,” Ashfaq Kayamkhani, a political analyst based in Sikar told The Wire.
