New Delhi: As the students' protests demanding the reopening of physical classes at Delhi University intensified on Tuesday, a student of the varsity tried to set himself ablaze - dousing himself in petrol just as the police stopped him before lighting a match and took him to a hospital.
The protests started on Monday over the lack of a notification from the varsity administration regarding its reopening — now that the Delhi Disaster Management Authority had directed higher education institutes to completely shift back to offline mode.
The protests were spearheaded by Left student bodies such as the Students' Federation of India, All India Students' Association, and others and also joined by right bodies such as the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad. On Tuesday, the Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti (Aam Aadmi Party's youth wing) also joined the stir but chose to distance itself from Left bodies over ideological differences.
The 23-year-old MA (Buddhist Studies) who doused himself with petrol on Tuesday in front of the arts faculty building was identified as Kamal Tiwari, who is also said to be affiliated with the CYSS.
While the Delhi government and the DDMA had asked all higher education institutes to reopen for offline learning from Monday, several varsities started physical lectures such as Jawaharlal Nehru University and Ambedkar University.
But the DU administration has said that it is still working out whether and how it wants to reopen the campus to students, which prompted the students to protest on Monday outside Vice-Chancellor Yogesh Singh's office. Several students had to be forcefully removed from the protest site on Monday after the administration called the police.
On Tuesday, the police said that Tiwari was rescued by officials at the spot and taken to Hindu Rao Hospital, where he is being counselled.
"Our team at the spot immediately stopped him and the student was removed from there and taken to HRH hospital. It is learnt that the liquid that he poured on himself was a mix of petrol and water. Further antecedents are being verified," said Sagar Singh Kalsi, Deputy Commissioner of Police (North).
While the CYSS claimed that Tiwari had been arrested, the police denied this, adding that the student was taken to the hospital before he could physically injure himself.
"He is at present being counselled by the Mental Health Professionals of Hindu Rao Hospital," the DCP said.
Meanwhile, students leading the protests have said that they intend to continuously picket till the varsity issued a notification for the reopening. As students raised slogans, held banners and marched onto Chhatra Marg, there was heavy deployment of police personnel. The students said they were blocking the road before planting themselves on the road inside the university.
The varsity is yet to clarify why it continues to remain shut and when it will reopen for physical classes. In the meantime, online classes are being run but since Monday, a large number of students have been boycotting the classes with the SFI calling for a "sadak pe kaksha" protest from today.