New Delhi, February 23 Following a late-night clash at Jawaharlal Nehru University that left several students injured, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) on Monday accused Left-backed student groups of instigating the violence.
Tensions escalated on the campus of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) after a protest turned violent around 1:30 am on Monday, with both the Left-led students' union and the ABVP accusing each other of violence and stone-pelting.
Addressing a press conference, ABVP state secretary Vikas Patel claimed that the protest turned violent after Left-backed groups attacked students studying in the reading rooms.
"Many students were locked up in bathrooms. Left-backed students demanded the closure of all the reading rooms," Patel alleged, claiming that masked people carrying sticks and stones spread violence on the campus.
He also alleged that a mob of about 250 people from Left-backed groups attacked the ABVP activists on campus.
The Right-backed student body claimed that many of its supporters had to be hospitalised after being attacked.
On allegations that it was the ABVP which instigated the violence, former Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union (JNUSU) general secretary Vaibhav Meena claimed that Left-backed students demanded the closure of the reading rooms during the late-night protest, and when the students did not agree to it, they resorted to violence.
"The protesters led by the JNUSU resorted to violence. Six to seven ABVP members had to be admitted to the Safdarjung Hospital. We have their medico-legal case (MLC) reports," Meena claimed.
The Left-backed JNUSU had called for a protest march, 'Samta Juloos', to the East Gate on the campus on Sunday night, demanding the resignation of Vice Chancellor Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit and the revocation of a rustication order.
The protesters alleged that the administration did not engage with them and instead allowed the ABVP members to confront them.
Pandit recently triggered a row after she said in an interview that communities "cannot progress by being permanently a victim or playing the victim card," with the JNUSU terming the remarks "casteist" and "insensitive" to marginalised communities.
