On 8th January, what began as a peaceful demonstration against Professor Dhaniram of the Commerce Department, who is accused of sexual harassment at Ramjas College, quickly devolved into a site of violence.
Reportedly, the violence against common students was perpetuated by the RSS-backed student wing ABVP. The violent attack by Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad’s students left several injured, and the incident raised serious concerns about the potential threat to minority communities in public universities.
What was the matter?
Reportedly, the incident of sexual harassment took place on December 2, 2024. Professor Dhaniram, who is said to be already having three sexual harassment complaints in ICC, chased a first-year female student of the Commerce department. Dhaniram is the teacher in charge of the commerce department and was the joint dean of welfare at Delhi University.
While speaking to Sritanuka, a final-year student of the statistics department at Ramjas College, she said, ‘It’s been heard that three complaints have been already made against Dhaniram’s harassing behaviour with students, particularly female students, and he passes vulgar comments on women in the classroom, but no actions were ever taken; his connections seem to be strong with the authorities.’
For the first time, this incident came to light when several voice notes started revolving and students from the commerce department started putting it out on social media. As per the posts, on 2nd December, Dhaniram sat in the same rickshaw the girl took to the metro. He tried to kiss her. Later, he followed her on the metro and asked for sexual favours and her breast size. He even got off at the same station as hers and threatened her to not complain in the ICC; otherwise, he will not give her internal marks. The girl didn’t come to the college for a few days, but on 9th December, a voice note started revolving around where the whole incident was mentioned. This created rage among the college students, and soon the survivor made an ICC complaint.
Stanzin, the vice president of the Ramjas College Students Union, told us that she was in constant touch with the survivor. Ten days passed, but the ICC didn’t take any concrete action. She further said, ‘When Dhaniram kept coming to the college despite an ICC complaint, the students’ union submitted a memorandum to suspend him, and as a result, he was given a teaching suspension for 4-6 weeks, but neither the survivor nor the students of the college were provided with an official notice for the same. He was still not restricted from entering the campus.’
‘The ICC is an independent body, which, as per UGC, should have members who have worked on gender. However, three of the current members of Ramjas ICC are accused of having no work or knowledge of gender. One of them reportedly has a case against him,’ added Stanzin.
A peaceful protest turned into a bloodbath of students
Stanzin, the only union member of Ramjas College, called for a protest on 8th January asking for an official notice restricting Dhaniram’s entry into the campus and reconstitution of the ICC. Around 12:30, when students didn’t even start the protest, some male students came and stood in the corner of the lawn. ‘They were the students of ABVP, but we thought they had come to join the protest, leaving aside ideological differences. All of a sudden, they started snatching away our posters and tearing them up. One of them pushed me,’ stated YS*, a first-year philosophy student.
Stanzin told us that soon the ABVP students started raising slogans like “Vande Mataram” and “Bharat Mata ki Jai” and started manhandling a few male students.
As the situation worsened, Professor Debraj Mookerjee, an Associate Professor in the Department of English, intervened to save the students. He tried to stop the ABVP students, but they even pushed the professor and falsely accused him of slapping an ABVP student. One of the ABVP students even threatened the professor to take away his job. ‘This is the audacity of the ABVP goons that they can even threaten a professor. It is in no darkness from where they get this much power,’ said Sritanuka. ‘We saw that the professor was just trying to control the violence; he didn’t even touch a student,’ added YS.
Gender minorities and attack on a northeastern students
One of the major students who was targeted and faced severe violence was a student of history from Mizoram. ‘One of the guys from the crowd specifically targeted this northeastern student, showing the racist attitude of their organisation. They abused him and slapped him,’ added Stanzin.
‘I didn’t even get what they were saying since I didn’t even know Hindi. Out of so many students, they specifically targeted me only, but Professor Debraj and the brave girls saved me for once. They went away for a while but soon came back with lathis. One of them tried to throw a flowerpot at me. Despite the efforts of the professor, they beat me up with lathis, especially my head. I started bleeding badly, and I was taken to the hospital,’ stated the third-year history student.
The chauvinist attitude of the ABVP men was very evident. First, they tried to protect a sexual harasser. Secondly, while beating the innocent student, they even injured many girls, including Amulya from SFI.
Amulya, Joint Secretary of SFI, noted how the ABVP’s attack on common students in the protest call given by Vice President Stanzin was not only a concerted attempt to shield Dhaniram but also to silence protesting students of marginalised sexualities. It reflected patriarchal assertion and an attempt to ensure no one raised their voice against Dhaniram.
Furthermore, Sritanuka said that one of the ABVP men told her to keep her eyes down and her voice low while speaking to him.
What did the authorities do?
‘When the violence was taking place, the police were outside the gate, and the guards were watching the whole violence. No one came to our rescue,’ said Stanzin. After the injured students were taken to the hospital, many students went and sat outside the admin office. When students told him the entire scene, he assured them he would suspend the students who did the violence. The students therefore submitted all the videos and pictures of the violence. However, when asked for an official notice restricting Dhaniram’s entry on the campus, he said it was under the ICC’s jurisdiction.
The students raised concerns regarding three members of ICC: Dilbag Singh, a non-teaching member, Savita Barjugar, and Hemant Rajor, teaching representatives, who are accused of having no work on gender; therefore, they are not eligible to be ICC representatives. The principal told the students to write an official application to the ICC and assured them he would replace the members if they were found ineligible.
Further, one of the union members claimed after the protest that one of the ICC representatives who is a part of the investigation committee has a case registered against himself in the ICC, the very body he is a part of. This shows the corrupt nature of the ICC.
On the face of sexual harassment, Ramjas students
In the evening, Ramjas students in large numbers, led by SFI and joined by AISA, protested against the violence perpetrated by ABVP. Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) president Ronak Khatri also joined the students and asked the principal to officially suspend Dhaniram. In a public statement, Stanzin said, ‘I want to emphasise that they will not be able to silence us, and we will continue the fight resiliently. The administration is complicit in protecting him, and we demand his immediate suspension and the ICC be reconstituted. Since our demands have not been fulfilled, our fight continues.’
The exploitative mentality of certain scumbags sitting in the echelon of power backed by the goons of abvp is disconcerting beyond words. The irony is that if someone raise their voice against these filthy element whose intention is to harass, impose threat and make lewd sexual advances, they are willfully attacked and shushed with verbal and physical torture. I sometimes introspect, has education really liberated us from the narrow confines of despicable rigidity? Criminals and goons like Dhaniram will use their political power to go scot free as they are backed by certain ideological elements but to be shushed is not our choice, we have to fight and protest against monsters and predators like Dhaniram in every dimension.