New Delhi sources have stated that the ripples of the Delhi University violence that stoked a debate on free speech in India, have now reached foreign shores. Largely critical of RSS-affiliated ABVP, a large number of students, studying in USA, UK and across Europe, have come out in solidarity with the DU.
Meanwhile as a mark of resistance, they have
changed their profile pictures on Facebook a step that LSR student Gurmehar Kaur
had taken, igniting a nationwide debate on free speech. A series of events have
been lined up across continents in Oxford, Columbia University, Durham
University and University of Trier in Germany to lodge protest against the DU
fracas.
It was stated that in Solidarity with the students of Delhi University,
who have bravely resisted the fascist forces at their gates, and their valiant
teachers who, despite being dragged through the streets, beaten and bruised,
stood their ground to protect the universal values of democracy. A joint statement
has put out by these students as "Separated by time and space, we could
not be there when you they were attacked. But history connects us”.
As part of the initiative, university staff and students are photographing themselves with solidarity posters and messages and posting them on all available social media platforms and the issue had figured in the ongoing Oxford Radical Forum, described as a "festival" of radical ideas and Culture, while a talk has been organized on the same at Columbia University tomorrow.
