As Delhi Police held a press conference on Friday regarding its probe into the violence that broke out on Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on January 5, women students of the university as well as members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad held separate demonstrations on campus condemning the attacks.
Policemen were deployed in large numbers in the university area as ABVP members held a silent ‘peace march’ — holding up posters condemning ‘Red Terror’, referring to Left groups — from Sabarmati T point to the JNU main gate.
During the peace march, a human chain of women students stood on the sidelines holding up posters condemning the ABVP. Several of them had tied black bands across their heads and held up posters such as “Here to watch the march of shame” and “ABVP go back”.
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Among those participating in the peace march was Pranav Kumar, a teacher in the School of Social Studies, who said that the rally was an appeal to start classes with a cool head, and that it was not to “blame any side”.
Calling the claims made by the police on Friday “a litany of distortions, half truths and outright lies”, the JNU Students’ Union accused the force of carrying out a “political investigation”.
Meanwhile, the ABVP said that the “truth of Left-perpetrated violence in JNU stands exposed”.
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In a statement, the JNUSU stated: “The police named all Left outfits but the name of the ABVP was curiously missing... the ploy to implicate the Left in the violence is an indication that this probe is a political investigation with a clear agenda to placate [Home Minister] Amit Shah and the ABVP, which can employ violence with impunity on the basis of its State backing.”
‘Sinister motives’
It added that the “sinister motives” of the police is revealed in the fact that it has implicated JNUSU president Aishe Ghosh, “upon whom a murder attempt took place” in the January 5 violence.
The JNUSU also condemned the police for not taking action on various incidences of violence, allegedly perpetrated by ABVP members on January 4, a day before violent mobs went on a rampage on campus.
It alleged that “ABVP members thrashed the JNUSU general secretary, broke the leg of women students, and injured several others... complaints were filed but there has been no FIR registered”. The union added that the police press conference on Friday was carried out to “save the ABVP and deflect attention from the spine-chilling horrors perpetrated by right-wing hooligans”.
“It is regrettable but not surprising given their past record that the police has flushed integrity and honesty down the drain and is undertaking this exercise to defend the V-C and the ABVP.”
The union also pointed out that various media reports had made it clear that the violence was perpetrated by the ABVP, with the joint secretary of the students’ body admitting that its members were carrying lathis.
“The police has done a shoddy job as evidenced by the alleged incorrect identification of one of the accused, all of which it said were based on videos from ABVP-leaning pages,” it added.
‘Impartial probe’
Meanwhile, the ABVP termed the police probe “impartial” and said that “in several universities Left organisations are continuously and violently targeting students who dare to disagree with them”. It added that those who disagreed with “the communist ideology are discriminated against by Left-wing professors”. The group said it was hopeful that strict action would be taken against those fiound guilty.
In an appeal to the public, the JNUSU said it hoped that all would “see through this malicious propaganda being spread against JNU”.