New Delhi, September 23, 2019 (PPI-OT): A retired UT Delhi Professor Vipin Kumar Tripathi takes a long walk from his home in south Delhi’s Sarvodaya Enclave with a bagful of Hindi and English pamphlets titled “Disquiet of Kashmiri Masses and Jubilation in India”, to distributes them among passersby.
The 71-year-old walked for around 5 kilo meter, frequently stopping to distribute the pamphlets. Near Moolchand Flyover, a car pulled up beside him and the driver asked for a pamphlet. Before Tripathi could respond, the man snatched a bunch of 150 pamphlets from his hand.
“He shouted at me, ‘Are you a Pakistani? You are committing treason! If you were not an old man I would have hit you hard’. I replied, ‘You can do that right now if you want, but tell me what’s wrong with my pamphlet’.” Tripathi said. When a few policemen arrived, “the man asked them to arrest me”, he said. “I said I want to bring understanding between the people of Kashmir and ….India.”
He distributed some more pamphlets. Tripathi has been writing pamphlets for 27 years and has travelled as far as Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Haryana to distribute them, often meeting with abuse. But this was the first time he had pamphlets snatched from him and was threatened with violence.
The former physics professor began his love affair with pamphlets “the day after the Babri Masjid was demolished”. He distributed 20,000 pamphlets, titled “Fire of Violence in the Country”, with help from likeminded IIT professors and students and Maids from JNU and Jamia Millia Islamia.
His latest pamphlet asks New Delhi to freeze the August 5 decisions on Jammu and Kashmir till a reconstituted Assembly approves the move, end the clampdown and release the detainees. Tripathi, who has taught briefly in the US, held special lectures outside classrooms at UT Delhi to talk about how imperialism is still alive and sectarianism is its instrument. He retired in 2013 but continued teaching at the UT as an honorary professor till last year.
For more information, contact:
Kashmir Media Service
Phone: +92-51-4435548, +92-51-4435549
Fax: +92-51-4861736
Email: info@kmsnews.org
Website: www.kmsnews.org