T he students and faculty of the prestigious Centre for Environment Planning and Technology located at Ahmedabad were brutally attacked by unknown miscreants on July 21. Attackers carried lethal instruments. Neither the Dean nor the women students were spared. Three students were kidnapped. While no direct connection between the assailants and any political party have been conclusively established, four persons arrested by the Navrangpura police, Manish Ram Trivedi, 30, Rakesh Ahir, 22, Utkal Thakore, 19 and Nirav Kapadia, are alleged to have close connections with the Bajrang Dal.

While brutally assaulting the women, the self–appointed moral police also had a sermon to deliver: "Tum log Jhansi ki Rani ho, Madonna mat bano" (You are the Ranis of Jhansi, don’t try and become Madonnas). In the same breath, "they were also calling us sluts and threatening us that the next time they spoke to us it would be from very close quarters," the victims said. The slogans being shouted by the assailants were "Bharat Mata ki Jay" and "Vande Mataram".

Several protest meetings which were attended by the literati of Ahmedabad demanded action against the offenders. The state government was strangely silent despite allegations being hurled in the state Assembly by Congress members.