Members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-affiliated ABVP disrupted a programme commemorating India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru on his birth anniversary and attacked students belonging to All India Students Association (AISA) and Students’ Federation of India (SFI) in Jawaharlal Nehru University campus on Sunday, alleged the JNU Students’ Union and other student bodies.
According to a statement by the left student bodies, an organisation had booked the student union hall for November 14 for a programme and had put up posters in this connection. However, when the left student body’s activists reached the hall to begin their programme late in the evening, they found the place to be occupied by some 15 members of the ABVP.
Though organisers of the programme tried convincing the Hindutva student activists and asked them to leave, the ABVP members began hurling abuses, AISA alleged.
“At this point, our activists came out of the hall and started raising slogans against the ABVP,” read the statement.
“A large number of students started joining the sloganeering. Soon, common students outnumbered ABVP. In the face of this peaceful and democratic resistance, the desperate ABVP lumpens resorted to violence. Their goons started hitting common students. Comrade Dhananjay and Comrade Aman had to suffer injuries. Comrade Akhtarista and Comrade Dripta were subjected to verbal abuse and manhandling by the goons of ABVP. Vivek Pandey, a student from SIS got severely injured. Former JNUSU Councillor, Umesh, and various other left activists faced injuries due to this attack,” AISA, a unit of the JNUSU alleged.
The Cyclops guards, according to the left student body, like always, stood there as mute spectators of the attack by the ABVP activists.
Condemning the incident, the JNUSU has called for a march later on Monday.
The ABVP, on the other hand, claimed that the left parties assaulted students for holding a meeting at the student activities centre.
Police told PTI news agency they acted as soon as they received the information. “Police responded to the call swiftly. We did not find any quarrel taking place on the spot. On inquiry, it was learnt that heated arguments took place between two groups of students,” said Gaurav Sharma, deputy commissioner of police, Southwest.
Students’ Federation of India, JNU strongly condemns the attack by ABVP on the student community as well as on the democratic nature of JNU.
“SFI condemns the unabated goondaism of ABVP on campus and reiterates that SFI, along with the student community, will fight tooth and nail to ensure a fear free and democratic campus,” read the statement of SFI.
“When JNUSU’s President Aishe Ghosh came to intervene, goons of ABVP heckled her and resorted to tactics of criminal intimidation against students who had assembled to resist their criminal behavior,” SFI alleged.
“Time and again these criminals have unleashed violence on students and have disrupted campus democracy,” tweeted Aishe Ghosh.
ABVP is now “Akhil Bharatiya Violence Parishad,” says Fraternity Movement JNU unit.
“We remember Najeeb and the goons from the same ABVP had attacked him and enforced his disappearance to date,” Fraternity’s statement reads.