JNU vice chancellor calls mob attack ‘unfortunate’, asks students to return to campus

Jawaharlal Nehru University Vice Chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar on Tuesday called Sunday’s violence at the university “unfortunate”, ANI reported. Kumar’s remarks came a day after the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union accused him of being behind the mob attack.

“Our campus is known for debates and discussions to resolve any issues,” Kumar said. “Violence is not a solution. We will find every opportunity to make sure that normalcy returns to the university.”

“If there is a law and order situation we do not rush to police immediately,” he said on Sunday’s incident. “We see if our security can handle. On Sunday, when we saw that there is a possibility of aggressive behaviour among students, we informed the police.”

The varsity’s vice chancellor said that he had urged students to return to the campus and said that it was a “secure place”, PTI reported. “Let us put all the past behind,” he said at a brief press conference. “Our heart goes out to all injured students.”

Kumar said that he hoped the injured students recovered quickly, adding that the registration process for the winter semester had started again.

Kumar had on Monday said that the origin of the prevailing situation in JNU “lies in some agitating students turning violent and obstructing the academic activities of a large number of non-protesting students”. He said the demonstrators had damaged the communication servers to disrupt the winter semester registration.

“Their [those opposing registration] intent is clearly aimed at disrupting the functioning of the University,” he had said. “This is simply hooliganism and against the ethos of JNU. No such person will be spared and appropriate action will be taken.”

Read live updates on the situation at JNU here.

Meanwhile, Union minister Prakash Javadekar said the masked assailants, who wreaked havoc in the university, will be exposed soon. “Also, misunderstandings are deliberately being spread in JNU and in others parts of the country to incite violence, which will also be exposed,” he said, according to The Indian Express.

Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai claimed that as BJP workers and leaders believe in law and order, they could not have been behind the January 5 violence at JNU, reported ANI. “This is [the] work of Communists and Congress and Kejriwal,” he alleged,

On Sunday, a masked mob, allegedly comprised of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad members armed with sticks and hammers, attacked students at hostels in JNU. At least 34 people from JNU were injured in the violence. Later on the same night, group of right-wing activists sloganeering outside the university’s main gate heckled, abused and threatened several journalists who were reporting on the violence.

ABVP members have blamed “Naxals” and leftist students for the violence. However, several students alleged that the violence had been perpetrated by members of the ABVP, which is the students’ wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s ideological parent.

Scroll.in has traced WhatsApp messages planning the attack on JNU students – as well as celebrating it – to ABVP activists.

Earlier in the day, the Delhi Police’s Crime Branch and forensic analysts began their investigations into the mob violence in which scores of students, and teachers were injured. The police also filed an FIR against JNU Students’ Union President Aishe Ghosh and 19 others for allegedly vandalising a server room on January 4, the day before violence erupted on campus. The case was filed while the violence was underway. Ghosh sustained lacerations to the head and was taken to the trauma centre at All India Institute of Medical Sciences on Sunday night.

Also read:

‘Systematic attack’: Students, faculty of IIT Bombay and IIM Calcutta condemn JNU violence

Inside JNU hostel, a masked mob selectively attacked rooms – based on posters