Gargi College Gatecrash Rekindles Questions Of Power, Safety On Women’s Campuses

Nearly a week after a group of men forced their way into Gargi College during student council elections, many students say the shock has given way to anger and uneasy reflection. What some now describe as a “laughing matter” was, in the moment, a stark reminder of how quickly the autonomy of women’s campuses can be challenged.

Students say that they have been left feeling shocked as members of ABVP, allegedly, along with DUSU President Aryan Maan, entered the premises of the college following allegations of irregularities in the polling process.

Shivi*, a student at Gargi College said the incident has now become a “laughing matter”, largely because female students stood their ground at the time and forced the men, including Maan, to leave the campus in less than an hour. “At that time, it seemed surreal to see all these men enter our college,” she says.

Videos from the incident show men, allegedly affiliated with Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing linked to Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, forcing open Gate No. 1 of the campus while several police personnel stood nearby. They were eventually escorted out by the police. According to students, the election process continued without violence or disruption.

Anwesha Patel*, another student, said the gate is meant exclusively for authorities and teaching staff. “They clearly thought, ‘It’s a girls college, ‘we can do what we like’. But it did not work out in their favour,” says Patel.

Students said the confrontation began after student council presidential candidate Pratishtha Dwivedi alleged irregularities in the election process and intimidation by college authorities. She claimed repeated attempts to raise her concerns had gone unheard.

In a video uploaded by Maan, he is seen speaking to a faculty member, saying the authorities had not spoken to Pratishtha. A faculty member is seen blocking the entrance and preventing him from entering the college premises. In the video, Pratishtha can be heard saying that she would only speak to the authorities in Maan’s presence.

However, students said the men had neither prior permission nor any formal standing to enter Gargi College. The college is not affiliated with DUSU and conducts its own student council elections. Patel said, “Mann came under the pretence of helping one sister, but ended up making the other thousand of us uncomfortable.”

Speaking to Outlook, Pratishtha said she had called her sister, Sakshi Dwivedi, to Gargi College on election day after facing harassment on the campus. Sakshi, she said, then contacted Aryan Maan.

Pratishtha alleged that fellow presidential candidate Kevya Sharma enjoyed an unfair advantage because she was already part of the student council. According to her, the council’s access to official college WhatsApp and society groups gave Sharma greater visibility and support.

“The council has access to college WhatsApp groups and society groups, and the candidate was supported by the council,” Pratishtha claimed. She also alleged that while other candidates were allowed to campaign in classrooms, she was prevented from doing so.

Outlook contacted Sharma for comment but had not received a response at the time of publication.

Pratishtha added that on April 15 she had called DUSU Joint Secretary Deepika Jha to the campus in an effort to draw the authorities’ attention to her complaints. According to Pratishtha, Jha suggested that the elections should be postponed.

Describing events on polling day, Pratishtha claimed another student began recording her while she was speaking to a friend. She said she briefly took the phone to check the video, after which the device was taken back from her and the footage deleted. It was then, she said, that she called her sister for support.

“My sister called Aryan Maan when the faculty did not respond to our request. When the college did not listen to me, I went to the university level,” she said. Pratishtha claimed she did not know whether Maan was affiliated with NSUI or ABVP.

However, she maintained that those accompanying him had initially tried to enter peacefully. “They were not allowed to, so they opened the gates to enter,” says Pratishtha. She insisted that none of the men misbehaved and that Maan had arrived in his capacity as DUSU president rather than as an ABVP member.

Many Gargi College students, however, were deeply unhappy with how events unfolded. “Even if the faculty were not listening to her, the students would have heard her case,” Patel said. “She cannot just call ABVP and the mob.”

Shivi disputed suggestions that one candidate had dominated campaigning. There were “a lot of posters around”, she said, and students encountered several candidates in person rather than solely through WhatsApp groups. “I never saw Pratishtha, but of course she was out and about with everybody else, campaigning and doing her things,” she added.

Gargi College has not issued an official statement on the incident. Outlook contacted the principal for comment but had not received a response at the time of publication. This article will be updated if one is received.

In a statement, ABVP said that during the Students’ Union election at Gargi College on April 17, a candidate approached Aryan Maan and ABVP workers with allegations of “biased practices” by the college administration. It said the DUSU president, along with ABVP members, then went to the campus and staged a “peaceful and democratic protest” outside the gates of the College.

The organisation alleged that certain non-teaching staff members allegedly resorted to abusive and caste-based remarks against ABVP workers, adding that “it is highly unfortunate that certain left-leaning teachers and so-called leftist elements have attempted to distort the facts and provoke students out of political bias”.

Shivi said students no longer feel unsafe, but the concern at the time was real. “They did not enter peacefully. They breached their way in — literally breaking the gates,” she said.

For many observers, the symbolism matters as much as the incident itself.

Devjani Ray, a professor at Miranda House, said such forceful entries send a message that the celebration, solidarity and sisterhood women students experience on campus are conditional. “Over time, I have come to think these intrusions reflect the way men respond — attempts to discipline women who claim some kind of visibility,” she said.

Yet AISA Delhi State President Saiyed argued that excluding several women’s colleges from DUSU—despite what he described as a “toxic masculine culture in DU’s politics”, has its own drawbacks.

“It is not inclusion, but a terrible form of intrusion,” he said. “These colleges are denied the right to properly engage with politics, but politics will surely come to their doorstep.”

He said that the breaking of gates was yet another case of the free hand that ABVP gets. “If anyone else had done such a thing, they would not enjoy this kind of immunity,” he said.

Om Singh Srinet, General Secretary of the Aam Aadmi Party’s student wing, the Association of Students for Alternative Politics, said even the DUSU president should have sought permission from the principal before entering. “He entered forcibly, as visible in the video. It sends the wrong message if the president engages in such activities,” he said.

Ray said such incidents often create lingering anxiety that affects attendance and campus life. Some students avoid staying late on campus because they feel anything could happen at any time.

A troubling trend

This is not new. In 2023, students at Miranda House alleged that around 30 male students linked to ABVP entered the campus while campaigning for DUSU elections, according to The Hindu. In 2022, videos from a Miranda House event appeared to show men scaling campus walls and engaging in "catcalling, groping and sexist sloganeering”, as reported by the BBC.

In 2020, students from Indraprastha College for Women claimed that men climbed onto the college walls and harassed students during a two-day fest Shruti. AISA DU Secretary Anjali had then posted on X then that during IPCW’s fest “drunk men climbed the walls, forcefully entered the campus and harassed gendered minorities”. The same year, Gargi College students alleged that dozens of men entered the campus during the annual festival Reverie.

The event that unfolded at Gargi College was not an isolated incident, but part of a familiar and troubling pattern.