Jawaharlal Nehru University. The name brings bright smiles to lakhs of students associated with the university, either now or in the past. A national platform for academic excellence intertwined with the multicultural fabric of the campus is a dream come true for many students. JNU ranks second in the NIRF ranking and is the dream destination for aspiring young minds nationwide. Has this world-class university been in the news frequently for the wrong reasons recently?
The answer is simply, No. JNU is forcibly dragged into bad light by some elements which want to stir the democratic vibrancy of the campus. And those elements are the right-wing fundamentalists, which puppeteer its agenda of demolishing the democratic ethos of the campus through its student wing – The Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).
ABVP is trying hard to do everything in its capacity to change a place cherished for debates and discussions, dissent, and critics to a place of physical violence and assault on students. The recent violent attacks on JNU students on 19.02.2023 stand testimony to one such arrogant act by ABVP.
Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad – the student wing of the fascist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh – has destroyed the peaceful political life of JNU, its primary goal. JNU was always known as a place where students could freely exchange ideas, debate, and dissent on the most sensitive issues. But in the last few years, the campus has witnessed an increasing spate of violence by ABVP aimed at tearing apart the democratic fabric of the campus. In this mission, ABVP enjoys complete support and impunity from the JNU administration and the Delhi Police. The violence, vandalism, and hooliganism perpetrated by ABVP goons on Sunday night at Teflas is another example of the increasingly violent fascist onslaught on our campus.
On 19.02.2023, Sunday, Hundred Flowers Group was scheduled to screen ‘Jane Bhi Do Yaaro’ at 9 pm at JNUSU Office, Teflas. Around 8:45 pm, 60-70 ABVP goons entered the Union Office and alleged the organizers of desecrating the portraits of Shivaji and Maharana Pratap, but nothing was done of that kind to the portraits. Usually, portraits are taken down before the screening to hang the screen, the portraits are kept on a chair, and after the screening they are put back in their respective places on the wall. This is a practice followed before every screening. But the ABVP goons were hell-bent on making this an issue this time to unleash their violence. They started threatening and abusing the organizers and the students present there to watch the movie. They took Shivaji’s photo from the chair, placed it on the floor outside the Union Office and made videos and took photos to claim that it was the organizers who desecrated the portrait.
Besides, ABVP goons also vandalized the portraits of Phule, Periyar, Marx and Lenin. They completely destroyed it. Then the goons started physically assaulting the organizers and the students present on the spot. All this while JNU security guards and personnel from Delhi Police quietly watched and didn’t do anything to stop the violence. ABVP goons also abused the female students and activists with sickening misogynist slang and comments like “Didi ka Dalal Kaun Hai” and much more. During their celebration of Shivaji Jayanti, ABVP vandalized the JNUSU Office with slogans like “Pigs and Communists are not Allowed”, “Hang Comrades,” etc.
After the first round of violence, the goons left Teflas and went to the JNU main gate to give bites to the media, which were mysteriously present there already. ABVP’s statement was released by this time. This only shows that the whole incident was preplanned. Meanwhile, organizers of the movie screening, activists from progressive organizations, and common students decided to screen the movie at Teflas as a mark of protest. While students started watching the film in Teflas, the ABVP goons returned in more significant numbers. They barged into the Union Office and started beating the students again.
Students who tried to capture the violence on their phones were violently attacked, and their phones were snatched and broken. Security Guards and Delhi Police officers failed to provide any security to the students. A Ph.D. student from Tamil Nadu was brutally injured on his head and was hospitalised. At the same time, he questioned the damage done to Thanthai Periyar’s portrait; ABVP goon Ayush Mishra, a 3rd-year student of B.A. (Pashto), claimed that he damaged the picture and would do it again and hit him in the head which caused severe bleeding. The mob thrashing continued after that too.
The Tamil Nadu student also faced racist slurs from one ABVP goon, Nishant Vidyarthy (German center), who openly said that people from Tamil Nadu, Kerala are a minority here and he belonged to the majority, and only things will be decided by him (ABVP)
While the bleeding student was being taken to the hospital, ABVP goons tried stopping the ambulance and attacked the injured student and his friends assisting him. The goons also attacked a female student from the School of Arts and Aesthetics and snatched her friend’s phone. When he complained about the incident to one of the nearby policemen, he grabbed his neck and threatened him.
Though complaints have been filed in Vasant Kunj police station, FIRs are yet to be filed. The Vice-Chancellor assured in the presence of Mr.Senthil Kumar, M.P., that action would be taken if students filed a complaint against ABVP to her. The quick response from the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister in condemning ABVP violence on Students, including Tamil students, is a big solidarity to the affected students. The whole of Tamil Nadu was uproared against the violence across the political spheres, with Members of Parliament Mr.Tiruchy Siva and Mr. Senthil Kumar directly meeting the affected students. Ms. Kanimozhi, M.P. condemned the incident and demanded immediate action from Mr.Dharmendra Pradhan to take action against the violent perpetrators on the campus. Mr.Thirumavalavan, M.P. too, condemned the brutal attacks of ABVP in JNU.
It is not very difficult to understand why ABVP goons are increasingly unleashing violence on campus. ABVP is the student organization of the fascist regime in power which cannot provide education, jobs, and healthcare to the people of this country. Unemployment and inflation are at an all-time high in our country right now. The working and living conditions of the working class and toiling masses are worsening daily. Caste-based atrocities and institutional murders of Dalit and marginalized students are rapidly increasing. The institutional murder of Darshan Solanki at IIT Bombay brought the issue of caste discrimination in elite universities to the forefront again. Basic infrastructure in universities is dilapidated due to massive fund cuts in the education sector, which worsened with NEP 2020. Fellowships and scholarships are being arbitrarily scrapped. In short, there is growing discontent among society’s various exploited and oppressed sections. Therefore, it becomes a necessity for the fascists to divert the attention of the people from their real issues. Creating violence in JNU and portraying the university as an anti-Hindu hub serves the divisive politics of the fascists in power.
These acts of violence also instill fear and insecurity in the students’ minds, contributing to the depoliticization of the students on campus. There is a long history of fascists’ antipathy towards universities as spaces where anything under the sun can be discussed, debated, and criticized. Thus ABVP and its puppet administration have always tried to curtail the democratic spaces on campus. The best example of this tendency was demonstrated by the administration, which instead of taking strict disciplinary actions against the ABVP goons, brought out a circular prohibiting the use of the JNUSU Office in Teflas without the permission of the Dean of Students. While the communal forces are given a free hand to spread their poison openly through their events, the progressive sections are made to run from pillar to post to organize their affairs.
The student community both inside JNU and in all other campuses in the country, should come in solidarity against the violence and hooliganism of ABVP goons on-campus spaces to counter them effectively. We must expose their intention of destroying campus democracy. We cannot let ABVP and Right-wing goons tear apart the democratic fabric Of universities and snatch our democratic spaces from us. It is not a fight against two groups but rather an attack on the JNU community by ABVP goons, and it should be dealt rightly with student solidarity
