SOS at JNU : Students, teachers injured in late-evening attack

NEW DELHI: Over a dozen students and teachers have been injured in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), in a sudden attack on campus after 7 pm on Sunday evening. They were allegedly beaten up by men who came inside the campus. Delhi Police, which students have accused of allowing the violence, has now entered inside the campus to take control of the situation.

Students and teachers caught in the melee blame the RSS and BJP-linked Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, or ABVP, for bringing in reinforcements from outside, including a former office-bearer of the Delhi University Students Union. However, Durgesh Kumar of ABVP'S JNU unit has denied this but blamed the present Left-leaning students' union, or JNUSU, and its supporters instead.

Harjit Singh Bhatti, a resident doctor at AIIMS, tweeted that 15 students from JNU were admitted at the Trauma Centre "with severe head injuries inflicted through sharp weapons and rods" and that two were in "serious condition".

'We are running out of the campus'

The JNUSU's president Aishe Ghosh was injured in the attack and was videographed with blood streaming from an open gash on her head. She has alleged that she was attacked by "masked goons” . "I have been brutally attacked by goons wearing masks. I have been bleeding. I was brutally beaten up," she said on the video. Other videos showed men brandishing rods and sticks with their faces covered with stoles and scarves. One lot was filmed marching down a JNU road. Another lot was seen in one of the hostels. Later they gathered at JNU's North Gate where the teachers had asked the media and others to join. They heckled journalists and political figures such as Yogendra Yadav while the streetlights were switched off.

We are so panicked, we are just running out of campus," said Sunaina, a student at the School of Environment Sciences. "The ABVP people in our campus had started beating the students all of a sudden. They had started doing things things yesterday itself. A professor from School of Language, he is a faculty-member, he started beating students who were silently protesting in front of their respective school areas. Today they continued again."

A 'centralised act'

Four teachers Sawant Shukla, Saugata Bhaduri, Atul Sood and Garima Srinivastava are also reported to be injured in the attack. Sucharita Sen from the Centre for the Study of Regional Development was so badly hurt, she had to be rushed to the AIIMS Trauma Centre.

The students' union alerting the media and others on social media wrote: “ABVP in police presence is moving around with lathis, rods, hammers with their faces under masks. They are pelting bricks, climbing over walls and getting into hostels and beating up students. Several teachers and students have also been beaten up. JNUSU president Aishe Ghosh has been brutally attacked and her head is bleeding very badly. Students are trying to save themselves while being chased by ABVP goons while the police is complicit in their crimes, it is taking the orders from Sanghi Professors, forcing students to chant Bharat Mata ki Jai slogans!”

Rakesh Batabyal, a JNU professor said: "ABVP from outside and inside brought a large number of arms, iron rods. They attacked the students in the Periyar hostel first. The JNUTA [teachers’ association] had [organised] a peace march today, so they were standing near the T-junction of the Sabarmati hostel. They attacked the teachers, fractured a couple of heads, ex-JNUTA president, Atul Sood’s head was fractured, then they attacked the other teachers. They all ran for refuge. Then they went to every hostel to ransack, to attack. They were acting under a highly centralised advice to attack and create violence so that students call off their boycott of the registration process. To me it seems like a centralised act from very nigh authority, maybe who knows what, to create a panic among students and further panic among countrymen about this university."

Blaming the Left

While the ABVP has alleged that their members have been beaten by left backed student association and some are also unreachable.

The ABVP's Durgesh Kumar said that Sunday was the last date for registering for the next semester and that the union and its supporters - "Naxals", according to Kumar - were stopping even students who wanted to register from doing so. He claimed that a "1,000 Naxals" beat up and drove away 50 ABVP members. Naxals are members of the banned ultra-left outfit CPI-Maoist. The JNUSU members belong to various Left-leaning outfits, all legal and participants in elections. The ABVP does not acknowledge the difference between the two.

The boycott of the registration process has its roots in the protests against the hike of hostel fees in October. The students' boycotted the exams and then registration. "Out of 8,500, about 7,500 skipped their exams and they skipped their semester-registration also," said second-year engineering student, Sujeet. "The ABVP is supporting the fee hike,' he alleged. "JNU's database has been compromised too."

Even Sanjaya Baru, who is not a supporter of the Left by any stretch of imagination, tweeted that his wife, who lives on campus, was receiving panicked calls from students.

Law and order situation

At around 9 pm, the JNU registrar issued a statement saying: "This is an urgent message for the entire JNU Community that there is a law and order situation in the JNU Campus. Masked miscreants armed with sticks are roaming around, damaging property and attacking people. The JNU Administration has called the police to maintain order. This is the moment to remain calm and be on the alert. In view of the largeness of the campus, number 100 can also be dialed." However, students and teachers are convinced the the university administration was itself complicit.

With inputs from Abhay Anand, Pritha Roy Chaudhury and Rajaram Sukumar

Photo credit: Students

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