Delhi violence: Students and teachers of coaching centres recall the Monday mayhem

NEW DELHI: Panic gripped Vijayalakshmi Joshi and her 56 students when smoke rolled in from under the bolted door of their classroom. It was February 24, the day after supporters of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) clashed with protesters in an eastern Delhi neighbourhood, setting off communal violence and arson that would ravage the otherwise peaceful area over the next few days. Joshi’s coaching institute in Delhi’s Yamuna Vihar area was one of many buildings that had been attacked with stones and molotov cocktails by a rioting mob.
“My students have always known me to be in control of every situation, but what would you do when there is danger not just outside, but inside too? There was a mob charging at us locked in a coaching centre. They had set the whole building on fire, we were choking inside, but we could not get out as they were waiting to get us,” Joshi, who runs the JTC Technical Education Centre, told ET. Joshi has been a teacher of vocational courses for 24 years in the city.

Clashes started around 11:30 am on Monday when a mob armed with sticks and petrol bombs charged towards the Yamuna Vihar-Bhajanpura road, where at least 12 coaching centres are located. As the students cowered in fright, some from the mob set ablaze the vehicles parked outside the institutes; some rushed in to break open the doors. There were at least 56 students in Joshi’s the class that day, 15 of whom were Muslims.

Trapped in their classrooms for hours amid the violence that gripped the areas of Bhajanpura, Chand Bagh and Yamuna Vihar for two days, many of the students, aged 15 to 18 and from both Hindu and Muslim homes, stayed back, even as the proprietors of these coaching institutions, which impart vocational courses and prepare students for competitive exams, had to face the anger of their neighbours.

Joshi said at least five of her students were Muslim girls who had started to faint. “They had set a petrol pump on fire and there were wild rumours that the whole area will explode..My husband had already fainted because of the smoke. The girls feared that they would be attacked too,” Joshi said.

That night Joshi cooked dinner for 17 of her students, and insisted that they continue with their books to keep their minds off the violence that had unleashed outside. She also sought hers neighbours’ help in protecting the students. “We had to get the back gates opened. Some parents insisted on coming and picking up their children around night. Even my own neighbours were angry with me, because they felt they were risking their lives to save my students. I told them they are my responsibility,” Joshi said.

Joshi had another concern. “A lot of students depend on us for their admission procedures. They give us the money and we approach institutes for admissions, helping with online formalities. I had the money of over 20 students and I was worried that it could be looted,” she said. Yash Dhingra, a businessman in the area, said all neighbours came together to ensure the safety of the students.

Another teacher and proprietor, Navneet Gupta of Horizon Coaching Institute, where students were trapped for almost five hours, said it won’t be easy for the students to go back to normal life. “Here, Hindu and Muslim students sit together and study for hours, handle pressure such as taking medical examinations together, eat together… We don’t know if the situation is going to be the same in the days to come. We are beginning the classes again on March 2, but we don’t know if the Muslim students will come,” said Gupta.

Another teacher, Maroof Ali of Mudassar Coaching in Chand Bagh, said while he had asked the students to leave as soon as possible, he insisted that the two Hindu teachers stay in his house. Sushil Kumar of ABC Coaching Institute in Chand Bagh said, “These are sensitive times and I don’t know when I can start the classes again.”

Communally charged conversations are unavoidable in these areas. "There are times when Hindu families look at my list of achievers and notice the increasing number of Muslim names, and get a little curious... I reassure them that there are Hindus too," Gupta said.

Gupta said the situation started worsening over two months ago after CAA was announced. "We also have students of class VII and VIII who are taught by female teachers… Some days ago, I have to tell them not to talk about CAA, as some of the discussions had started becoming heated and the students were getting disturbed," he said.

Both Joshi and Gupta recalled that 20 years ago, when there was violence at a nearby Sompura market, they had dismissed it as a "law and order" issue. "The Muslim students, particularly, have to be taken care of as they don't often say what is disturbing them... Best is to keep telling students to focus only on education and don't let political discussions happen here," Joshi said.

The violence on Monday ended only after the councilor of the area, Pramod Gupta came to the rescue of the people, Joshi said.

"He started firing in the area to scare the mob that had gone berserk by then..only then they started leaving," she said.