ABVP workers protest outside Rajbhar's house for calling them 'goonda'

Lucknow, Sep 3 (PTI) Workers of the RSS-backed ABVP on Wednesday demonstrated outside the house of Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) leader Om Prakash Rajbhar, denouncing him for calling its workers goons over a protest at a Barabanki university.  The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad workers also allegedly threw stones at the state minister's house in the Hazratganj area.  On Monday, the group's members protested on the campus of Shri Ramswaroop Memorial University over the alleged lack of affiliation of a law course.  Footage online showed baton-wielding officers confronting demonstrators.

Several students were injured in the confrontation, and a glass of the Gadia police outpost was broken.   The ABVP workers alleged that Rajbhar supported the lathi-charge and called them goons.  The group demanded that Rajbhar apologise and urged the government to sack him and burnt his effigy.

ABVP, in a statement, accused Shri Ramswaroop Memorial University of expelling two students illegally, collecting fees arbitrarily, and fining them Rs 5,000.

The varsity also opposed their Continuous Tricolour March held on August 15, it said.  "ABVP strongly condemns the insensitive remarks made by Rajbhar against workers," its national secretary Ankit Shukla said in the statement.  "Our clear demand is that Minister Rajbhar must apologise to the students and ABVP workers the state government should immediately sack him," he said.

ABVP's Awadh Prant secretary Pushpendra Vajpayee also condemned the remarks and said the group will continue its struggle for the students.

Arun Rajbhar, son of Om Prakash Rajbhar, in a video statement, decried the demonstration outside his father's house.  He alleged that protestors pelted stones, used abusive language, vandalised vehicles, and tried to intimidate his family.

This is "hooliganism, not student activism," he said. PTI ABN VN VN