The Law Faculty of Delhi University on Saturday adjourned the talks to be held by senior advocate Prashant Bhushan 20 minutes ahead of schedule. Prashant Bhushan had arrived to discuss a topic called “Challenges to the Indian constitution” and the faculty stopped his program citing the behavior of the students. Prashant Bhushan delivers a short lecture on the street after being denied entry to speak at the Law Faculty campus.
Prashant Bhushan, however, alleged that there was pressure to cancel the event in view of the subject as his stand against the present government. Usha Tandon, Dean of Law Faculty said, “It is informed that the permission to organize the program related to ‘Challenges to the Indian constitution’ organized by some students of CLC (Campus law centre) has been cancelled. According to the decision of the meeting of the Seminar and Conference Room Booking Committee, this decision has been taken due to the unbearable behavior of the students from March 25.
Vivek Raj, a student who was one of the organisers, said, “We were allowed to hold the event in the seminar hall. We were asking for keys since last evening but we were denied. We told them that the room is closed for the last two years due to the pandemic, so we need a key to clean and fix the room. After this we started the protest, after which the officials called the police.”
At the same time, during the uproar yesterday, Deputy Proctor Gunjan Gupta said that the decision to cancel the program was taken from above. Today in the notice they are saying that it is because of our behaviour. When asked the reason behind canceling the event, Proctor Gupta declined to comment saying, “I am not the right person. You should talk to the authorities.”
At the same time, Prashant Bhushan said about the whole matter that, “The officials had told the students who organized the informal informally that talks would not be allowed. University officials must have got some instruction from their political masters that how can you allow Prashant Bhushan to deliver speech here? I went today because it was my duty and responsibility to meet the students. Today was an example that the speaker whose views are against this government will not be allowed to speak in this university.”