Agnivesh manhandled near BJP HQ

Social activist Swami Agnivesh was allegedly manhandled on Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Marg in New Delhi on Friday when he was on his way to pay tribute to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Soon a video went viral on social sites in which a group of people can be seen following Agnivesh down the road. Talking to media person after the incident, he said he was informed that some people from Bhartiya Janta Yuva Morcha (BJYM) and Akhil Bhartiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (ABVP) were protesting outside the hotel against him. “I told them that they could come and talk to me about their objections. But nobody came,” said Agnivesh.

He said when he was heading towards BJP headquarters to pay his respects to Vajpayee around 20-30 men surrounded and pushed him. “These workers from BJP started calling me traitor and stopped me to go towards BJP head quarters. While they were abusing and pushing me my padgi (turban) fell down,” said Agnivesh.

Agnivesh alleged that some policemen were also standing during the incident. “The crowd pushed me towards Vishnu Digamber roundabout and in crowd some women even showed me slippers,” said Agnivesh.

“I had already informed Union Minister and other few BJP leaders bout my visit to pay respect to Atal Bihari Vajpayee. I had filed a police complaint. I was attacked earlier also and no arrests have been made in the case. There is an atmosphere of violence and intolerance,” he said.

Whereas BJYM claims that they had programmed to show black flag to Agnivesh in view of his support to Naxals. “BJYM workers were not involved in the assault. I have seen the video,” said a member of BJYM.