Delhi University fest turns fiasco: Brawl breaks out at Deshbandhu college campus in Kalkaji

Deshbandhu College’s annual cultural fest Sabrang turned into a battlefield after Haryanvi pop singer Masoom Sharma’s concert spiralled into mayhem at the Kalkaji campus on Tuesday.

Clips on social media show Masoom pleading with the audience to keep the peace after a clash between students broke out mid-performance. “Rola (chaos) mat karo, show hone do,” he said, before asking the police to intervene. Other videos from the fest also show police officers using lathis to control the crowd as things escalated.

“He barely managed to sing one or two songs before the violence in the crowd escalated beyond control,” said Aniket Rawat, a first-year MSc student at Jamia Millia Islamia University. Aniket, who had a clear view of the madness, added, “Some students even attempted to storm the stage. Given what happened at Panjab University, Masoom and his team were maybe on edge.”

Incidentally, this is the singer’s second concert to descend into chaos in two weeks; violence erupted during the 33-year-old’s performance at Chandigarh’s Panjab University last week, reportedly leaving one person dead and three others injured. Masoom himself has come under scrutiny for the nature of his songs. Last month, Haryana Police ordered some of his tracks to be removed from social media, on the grounds that they “promoted violence and gun culture.”

“The concert was a ticking time bomb,” remarked Digvijay Sulekh, a second year student at Moti Lal Nehru College. He explained, “Masoom was expected to perform controversial songs. So, when we saw him step on stage with police in the background, we thought they were going to stop him from singing the banned songs. But, they may have pre-empted what followed.”

A student of Deshbandhu College, shed more light on the incident: “The unruly students were mostly outsiders who were on the premises and not of our college. The police had to interfere and ensure things did not go out of hand.”

Inspector Surender Singh Yadav, SHO Kalkaji Police Station also clarified, “We had personnel on stage to prevent any potential mishap, as we usually do when a famous personality is performing. There was some chaos in the crowd, students thoda hungama kar rahe the. But, everything was brought under control by police on the ground.”

We reached out to the artiste but did not receive a reply till the time of going to press.

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