ABVP clash with FTII students over performance

Four students of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) in Pune were beaten up by members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) group after they held a programme meant to be a homage to anti-superstition activist Dr Narendra Dabholkar, who was killed earlier this week. Other reports (such as this one in DNA) claimed that two ABVP activists and two FTII students were hurt in the clash. According to a report in the Indian Express, the institute had invited Kabir Kala Manch (KKM) artistes for a performance. A police ‘bandobast’ had been arranged for the programme, but it was to no avail. The FTII students have said that the performance was being opposed by the ABVP because they claimed that the artistes had connections with Naxals. [caption id=“attachment_1053609” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational photo of ABVP flags. AFP image[/caption] The ABVP, meanwhile, has claimed that the students attacked their activists first. "They claimed that KKM artistes are Naxals. As the argument heated up, we asked the KKM artistes and their supporters to leave. But the ABVP persons shouted slogans “ABVP Zindabad” and “Naxalwadi Bhag Jao” and then attacked us," said one of the injured students, Ajayan Adat to the Indian Express. Senior Police Inspector Manohar Joshi of Deccan Gymkhana police station told the Pune Mirror that he was not aware of any such incident. “We had given a strong bandobast on the campus and the programme was conducted in a peaceful manner,” Joshi said to the Pune Mirror. Two of the students spoke to Tehelka about the incident in a video, which you can watch below: