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February 21, 2017

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A two day seminar on Cultures of Protest, organised by Wordcraft, the Ramjas literary society and the English department of Ramjas college, was disrupted when members of the ABVP protested against Umar Khalid speaking at the conference. Khalid is a PhD scholar from Jawaharlal Nehru University and a student activist who was slapped with sedition charges last year. The two day seminar was set to explore the representations of dissent in literary productions, and Umar Khalid was invited to speak on the theme ‘The war in Adivasi areas’.

ABVP protested against Khalid’s presence inside the college campus. They went to the Principal’s office claiming that the majority of the students were against his speaking at the conference as well, and therefore the conference should be cancelled. “Majority of the students were against Umar Khalid speaking and they were calling us up, asking us to stop the event from taking place. Moreover, the organisers had no approval from the faculty. So we marched inside and managed to stop the conference from taking place,” said Priyanka Chawri, the Vice President of the Delhi University Student Union.

We spoke to one of the teachers-in-charge of the event, Vinita Chandra, who said, “We had approval of the principal and we had been planning this event for months now. We have official proof of the invitations as well. The Principal expressly said, ‘I believe in tolerance and I believe in freedom of speech’. I have always assured my students that when teachers are there, nothing is going to happen to the students. In my 30 years of teaching here, for the first time I feel no confidence at all in being a teacher.”

Apparently, the faculty was aware prior to the event that there could be some form of protests but the college union president assured that all protests would be peaceful in nature. Moreover, the police had said that they would not be able to provide protection to Khalid or the members of the organising team if any major disruption takes place. Apprehensive of any violent outbursts, members of the literary society decided to cancel Khalid’s talk and proceed with the conference. Before beginning, the teachers and students organised a short march around the campus, protesting against the disruption in the day’s events.

After the session was about to resume, the ABVP protesters turned violent and started throwing bricks and stones at the windows. Groups with lathis and rods were seen rioting around the area and the police had to resort to the necessary means to quell the violence. Students and teachers attending the conference inside the conference hall were locked in and the power was cut. The police had to barricade the entrance to the conference hall to stop the protestors from getting inside. After an hour of struggle, the police formed a human chain and helped the students trapped inside to exit safely through the backgate of the college. A student present in chaos said, “The protesters abused and threatened even the teachers of the college. Goondagardi hai yeh toh.’’

In the entire process, a few students were injured and one had to be taken to the hospital for immediate treatment. Umar Khalid in response to these events, posted on Facebook, “ Such open brazenness is only possible because of the institutional impunity ABVP goons enjoy in universities’’.

Feature Image: Arindam Goswami for DU Beat

Arindam Goswami

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NSIT,  known for its perfect amalgamation of cultural vibrancy and academical gimes, proved it’s USP once again with its entrepreneurial extravaganza held lately on February 11th and 12th,2017.
As the ballyhoo of entrepreneurship amongst the masses is eCell NSIT’s, entrepreneurship society of NSIT, raison dê etre, the dais hosted it’s second edition of the Entrepreneurship Summit a.k.a. the esummit 2017. With a mammoth footfall, the event turned out to be a big success, yet again, fulfilling it’s aim to provide budding entrepreneurs an opportunity to showcase their theoretical business knowledge and get an exposure to the practical world of competition.
With its 8 flagship events and an exciting streak of informal events, the summit witnessed a participation of around 327 teams, from which 80 were selected for on campus round, from all the colleges across Delhi-NCR, competing to be the best.

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The Summit kicked off with the enriching speaker’s session with speakers belonging to different arenas of entrepreneurship, whether it be the founder of Chaayos, Mr. Nitin Gupta, whose love for “chai” led him to start with his venture or be it the co-founder of Coding Ninjas, Mr. Ankush Singla who is the pioneer in the world of tech entrepreneurship and not to forget Mr. Ajitabha Bose, the national record holder for the shortest love story- The Bestseller. Each speaker gave an exquisite insight to the world of entrepreneurship in their own way rushing the entrepreneurial adrenaline in the veins of untrodden in the field. Followed by this, there was a panel discussion with personalities like, On the dais who gave their viewpoints on the topic “Can Entrepreneurship be taught?” and was very well moderated by Mr. Bhavya Bansal, General Secretary, eCell NSIT. The event was succeeded by the aforementioned flagship competitions namely, Instaseed: the 10 minute funding, wherein the participating startups were given 10 minutes to pitch their ideas and bag the seed funding of upto 2 crores along with incubation from the whole panel of investors across the country, startup wars, in which each and every participant team was given a problem statement and they had to find a viable startup idea in lieu to the former, Unravel: the case study competition, Bellwether: The best manager, Marketing Maestro, mockstock and Global Strategy, which was a true amalgamation of strategizing and MUN experience.
Along with this, 1.5 month long Delhi entrepreneurship Challenge came to an end with an engaging group discussion and presentation rounds. Moreover, the informal events added an unmatched grace to the event and the plus point of each of the informal events was the fact that each one had a tinge of assessment of entrepreneurial skills, whether it is “Be Like Bappi” or “Bazinga” or be it “Beg Borrow Steal”, each one had an unmatched level of intellect into application. No praise could be less than the fact that even the speakers were eager to attend each and every event to be a part of never experienced before extravaganza which makes it clearly evident of the magnificence of the event The organisation- Entrepreneurship Cell, NSIT, believes that the best way to promote entrepreneurship is to establish and run a club/society/team which connects and acts as a network to the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem. Making it successful requires immense passion, determination, innovation and knowledge, which happen to be the same stones one must skip to be successful in the start-up world. And it is quite impressive the way they just followed their vision and were successfully able to give a plug to the entrepreneurial skills amongst the masses.

The event gave a whole new level to the world of competition, which is not just about winning, but about learning and grooming as a whole. Hence, with all the zeal and zest, the event was ended on a good note which gave all the budding entrepreneurs an enriching experience and a whole new exposure to the practical world of competition.