JNU Violence: CM M K Stalin “calls for strict action from the University admin.”
JNU Violence: A day after the brawl between two groups of students at the JNU students’ union office, the University administration on February 19 issued an official notice stating, “Any activity in the premises of the Inter-Hall-Administration, including all hostels, student activity centers (Teflas), and sports grounds would require formal permission of the Dean of Students.”
On the same day, M K Stalin, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, tweeted the following: “The cowardly attack on Tamil students by ABVP & vandalising portraits of leaders like Periyar, Karl Marx at JNU is highly condemnable and calls for strict action from the University admin.”
When contacted about the incident, the JNU administration remained silent, and the Delhi Police officers responded that it had ended before they arrived.
Nasser Mohammed Moideen, a research scholar from Tamil Nadu in the department of molecular medicine, was physically attacked by the ABVP on Sunday, February 19th. Naseer was immediately taken to hospital after suffering bleeding wounds on his head and neck.
The students claim that when they attempted to organize a meeting in honour of Darshan Solanki, an 18-year-old Dalit student who recently committed suicide at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT-B), they were attacked by the ABVP. The IIT student is alleged to have committed suicide due to caste discrimination.
“The ABVP members had gathered for the Sivaji event and wrote on walls that communists be hanged, Sharjeel Imam and Umar Khalid should be hanged. The students blacked out the writings. But when the screening of Jaane Bhi Yaaro was about to begin, the ABVP members reportedly returned and heckled the students accusing them of removing the portrait of Sivaji,” said Ilaiya Kumar, a research scholar from Tamil Nadu at Jamia Milia University.
The incident victim, Nasser, stated, “When I went there, I saw portraits of Periyar, Marx, and Lenin had been vandalised.” The ABVP members said they were responsible when he questioned them, and they then began to attack him.
The students reportedly said that ABVP members attempted to attack other students and blocked the ambulance sent to take Nasser to the hospital.
“The attack happened in front of Delhi Police. When we asked them to intervene, they refused,” alleged Adarsh, JNUSU- convenor (SLL&CS). “They said they had no orders to that effect. Now, the ABVP is coming up with a new narrative that we have damaged the portrait of Sivaji. Why would we do that? The ABVP is saying this to save their own itself.”
Leaders of Tamil Nadu responded to the tragedy. In several tweets, Chief Minister Stalin condemned the attack on Tamil students at JNU.
Universities are not just spaces for learning but also for discussion, debate & dissent.
The cowardly attack on Tamil students by ABVP & vandalising the portraits of leaders like Periyar, Karl Marx at #JNU, is highly condemnable and calls for a strict action from the Univ Admin.
— M.K.Stalin (@mkstalin) February 20, 2023
The screening was organised by the Hundred Flowers Group(HFG) and was intended for all students. It was to take place at the students’ union headquarters at 9 p.m. Students asserted that the ABVP celebrated Chhatrapati Shivaji’s birthday at the union office around 6 o clock.
“We went into the union office around 8.30 p.m. to set up and saw that it had been vandalised.” Slogans like “Communists and pigs are not allowed” were scribbled on the walls, according to Lata, a member of the HFG and final-year PhD student at the Centre for Spanish, Portuguese, and Latin American Studies.
She claimed that they have arranged dozens of screenings post-Covid, this was the first time such an incident occurred.
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In a statement, the ABVP denied this and claimed that following their event, “the garland from Shivaji’s portrait was taken and thrown away by the students of the Left.”
https://twitter.com/iPriyankDev/status/1627358691703009280?s=20
According to HFG members, a new fight between the two groups and students from another group broke out at about 11 p.m. during an attempt to finally screen the movie.
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