Clashes erupted at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi between students affiliated to the Left and the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad in the early hours of Monday after a protest was held seeking the resignation of Vice Chancellor Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit, PTI reported.
The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad is the student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, which is the parent organisation of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union had called for a march towards the East Gate of the campus, demanding that Pandit should resign for making allegedly casteist remarks during an interview to The Sunday Guardian on February 16. The vice chancellor had said that progress for Dalits was not possible “by being permanently a victim of playing the victim card”.
The clashes took place at around 1.30 am on Monday after a scuffle broke out among the students.
The protesters alleged that the JNU administration did not engage with the march, and instead allowed members of the ABVP to confront them, PTI reported.
The All India Students Association, the student wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), also alleged that members of the ABVP threw stones at “unarmed students” and left many of them injured, PTI reported.
The ABVP alleged that a biotechnology student named Prateek Bharadwaj was critically injured after he was attacked by the Left-affiliated students.
The student group alleged that Bharadwaj “was first blinded with fire extinguisher powder and then mercilessly beaten”. It urged the Delhi Police to arrest those allegedly involved immediately.
Videos on social media showed students being chased and beaten inside the JNU campus.
In a statement on Monday, the university administration claimed that several academic buildings inside the campus were “reportedly locked by a group” of protesting students.
“The protesting students entered the central library and reportedly threatened the unwilling students, intimidated them to join the protest,” it said. “It is learnt that this led to a scuffle between two student groups on campus...”
The administration said that it had taken cognisance of the “disturbing” incidents.
“JNU administration condemns such unruly behaviour on campus aimed at repeated destruction of public property and its inclusive ethos,” the statement said.
It added that action under the university’s rules and under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita was being taken to “ensure proper academic environment in the campus”.
JNU VC’s remarks
During her interview to The Sunday Guardian, Pandit had described criticism of the University Grants Commission’s new equity regulations as being irrational and reflective of “wokeism”.
“You cannot progress by being permanently a victim or playing the victim card,” she was quoted as having said. “This was done for the Blacks; the same thing was brought for Dalits here.”
Pandit later denied that her remarks were casteist, and that they had been taken out of context. “I am a Bahujan myself, I come from an OBC [Other Backward Class] background,” she was quoted as saying by PTI.
The regulations, notified on January 13 by the University Grants Commission, led to protests by some upper-caste students in several parts of the country, who argued that the framework could result in discrimination against them. They contended that the rules did not include safeguards against “false complaints”.
On January 29, the Supreme Court stayed the operation of the regulations, observing that their provisions were “prima facie vague and capable of misuse”. It asked the Union government to redraft the regulations. Until then, their operation will remain in abeyance.
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