JNU battleground. What started with a minor scuffle between two groups of JNU students over registration in the new semester, within days turned the varsity campus into a battlefield, leaving several students and teachers severely injured.
The violence that shook the entire nation as visuals of profusely bleeding girl students and injured teachers were shared saw its seeds planted on Friday when in an attempt to restrict students from getting registered for the new semester, some students allegedly barged into the room used to provide power to Wifi connection to the entire campus and shut down the connection.
Top administration officials said that the students were identified and the university is in process to get an FIR registered against them.
“At about 1 p.m., some 15-20 students barged into the Centre for Information System and locked the doors from inside. The electric connection to wifi devices were shut down by these students,” the official had said.
The protesting students claimed that stopping the registration process was essential as the registration was being done as per hiked fee structure.
However, from early Saturday, cases of minor scuffles started to rise, with the Left-controlled JNUSU alleging that protesters were beaten up by students aligned with the RSS-affiliated ABVP. The allegation were met by counter allegations by ABVP.
But the situation turned ugly on Sunday when about 20-25 students of the ABVP were thrashed and assaulted by unidentified students, who the ABVP alleged, were members of Left student organisations.
Soon after this incident, widespread violence broke out in the campus with students, including girls, assaulted in their hostel rooms by masked miscreants wielding wooden and iron rods and hostels vandalised. JNUSU President Aishe Ghosh was hit over her eye, with an iron road and taken to hospital.
Some teachers were also injured in the violence, in which outsiders were also allegedly involved.
A day after attacks, officials of the Ministry of Human Resource Development met the varsity authorities and held a detailed discussion about the situation.
In a tweet, the Ministry said MHRD Secretary Amit Khare met Pro-Vice Chancellor Chintamani Mahapatra, Registrar Promod Kumar and Proctor Dhananjay Singh among others.
“The secretary held a detailed discussion with them and was also briefed about the current situation in JNU,” the ministry said.
According to sources, more meetings will be held over the issue.
Violence swept the JNU campus on Sunday as several masked individuals, both male and female, thrashed students, including girls and teachers inside the campus with wooden and metal rods.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah also directed Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal to call representatives from JNU and hold talks.
Delhi Police has registered an FIR in connection with the violence. A case of arson and assault has been filed against unknown miscreants. The case will be transferred to the Crime Branch later in the day, police sources said.
A day after the violence broke out in the Jawaharlal Nehru University, its Vice-Chancellor M. Jagadesh Kumar appealed to the students to maintain peace and tried to assure them by saying that no person involved in the violence will be spared and appropriate action will be taken.
Kumar called the attack on students as an act of “hooliganism” and said it was against the ethos of the university.
He said the origin of the present situation lay in the activities of those agitating students who turned violent and obstructed the academic activities of a large number of non-protesting students.
“The protesting students damaged the University communication servers to disrupt the winter semester registration. They prevented thousands of students from doing their winter registration.
“Their intent is clearly aimed at disrupting the functioning of the University. This is simply hooliganism and against the ethos of JNU. No such person will be spared and appropriate action will be taken,” he said.
“The University stands by all the students to facilitate their pursuit of academic activities. We will ensure that their winter semester registration will take place without any hindrance. They need not fear about their process. The top priority of the University is to protect the academic interests of our students,” Kumar said.
He said the administration will use all possible means to protect the students.
“We all need to stand together to protect the interests of genuine students. The University should not be held to ransom by some agitators who have no respect for the fundamental rights of law-abiding students,” said Kumar. (IANS)