Members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) who were on an indefinite hunger strike in JNU against the administration, on Wednesday ended their strike, claiming that the authorities have agreed to listen to their demands.
The other group of Left-leaning students, however continued with their strike, even as their health conditions deteriorated with the strike entering its seventh day.
Two groups of students in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU)-- ABVP and Left-parties had started an indefinite hunger strike from April 28 to protest against the punishments meted out to students in connection with the February 9 incident. However after some of them including student's union president Kanhaiya Kumar started falling sick, the administration on Wednesday issued an appeal to the students to end their strike calling it an “unlawful activity”.
The Vice Chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar also called the students for a meeting to discuss their issues.
“Hunger strike is an unlawful activity and a harmful method of protest that adversely affects the health and career of the students. The administration urges the students to use constitutional methods to put forth their demands, if any,” the VC said in an appeal to the students.
“The administration believes in dialogue and discussion to resolve any issue affecting functioning of the varsity and urges students to immediately call off the strike and come for discussion,” Mr. Kumar said.
After meeting with the VC, ABVP students claimed that the VC has agreed to listen to their demands which is why they are calling off their indefinite hunger strike.
“We demanded that Saurabh Sharma from ABVP should not be punished for 'obstructing the procession' on the night of February 9, since the procession itself was unlawful and people who shouted anti-national slogans were a part of the procession. We are ready to pay the fine in case the charge is 'obstructing the traffic', because we believe in the system and are ready to admit if we have committed a mistake,” said JNU ABVP President Alok Singh.
