At least three students were injured on Thursday night after clashes broke out between the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and Left groups at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, The Indian Express reported.
The clash reportedly took place in connection with the selection of election committee members during a general body meeting at the School of Language, Literature and Cultural Studies. Elections for the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union are scheduled to take place in March. These will be the first student union elections since 2019.
The police said that they received multiple complaints from both sides, and that investigations were on, PTI reported.
Those injured during the clash were taken to the Safdarjung Hospital, university officials said.
Videos of the incident showed a student attacking other students with a stick. Other videos showed students being beaten up as security personnel at the university tried to protect them.
The All India Students’ Association, one of the Left groups, alleged that the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad resorted to violence and tried to disrupt the process of selecting election committee members. While the All India Students’ Association is affiliated with the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad is the student wing of Hindutva group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
The All India Students’ Association said that members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad “were seen wielding rods and targeting and beating common students indiscriminately”. It also accused the RSS-affiliated student group of opposing the names of Muslim students as candidates for the election committee.
The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, on its part, alleged that several supporters of Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union president Aishe Ghosh “unleashed a wave of violence” on Thursday. “Shockingly, even physically handicapped students were not spared from the brutality inflicted upon them,” it added.
Jawaharlal Nehru University Vice-Chancellor Santishree D Pandit, in response to the violence, said that the administration will take strict action after looking into the matter, PTI reported. She said that it is the responsibility of students to ensure that student union elections remain peaceful and democratic.
“The Inter-Hostel Administration oversees the conduct of the polls,” she said. “Any complaints by the students’ body will be looked into by the IHA,” the vice-chancellor added.
Pandit said that strict action would be taken against those found guilty, irrespective of their political affiliations. She added that acts of violence could lead to the elections being deferred.
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