JNU Rampage Sparks Protests Across Universities While We Still Await Arrest Of 'Masked Goons'

Following the gruesome series of events at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi on Sunday evening which, in utter disregard for law and order, left several students and faculty members of the varsity heavily injured, students and concerned citizens from across the country have joined protests in several cities.

On Sunday evening, masked people brandishing hockey sticks and iron rods stormed the JNU campus in Delhi and systematically targeted students in three hostels, unleashing mayhem with sticks, stones and iron rods, hitting inmates and breaking windows, furniture and personal belongings. They also attacked a women's hostel. In the violence, 34 people were injured.

They are calling for the safety of students, condemning the barbaric assault on them, and urging the government to obey the Constitution of India, while also stressing that students, as well as citizens of a free country, enjoyed the right to register and express their dissent.

Quite clearly, they stress that this liberty is at stake today and have accused the ruling BJP dispensation with PM Narendra Modi at the helm of thwarting dissent in the most undemocratic manner.

With tambourines and guitars in their hands and songs of revolution on their lips, people protested against the attack on JNU students throughout the night in front of the Gateway of India and the Taj Mahal Palace hotel in Mumbai.

People, including students and women, in large numbers had gathered in front of the Gateway of India in South Mumbai's Colaba on Sunday midnight. They were joined by Bollywood celebrities like Anurag Kashyap, Swara Bhaskar and Vishal Dadlani.

Songs like ¡®Hum dekhenge', ¡®Hum honge kamyab', ¡®Sarfaroshi ki Tamanna' rent the air as students of IIT Bombay, TISS, and members of students' organisations, including the ASFI, raised slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

Protesters, waving the tricolour, raised slogans like ¡®Kagaz nahi dikhayenge' and ¡®Tum kaun ho be'. They demanded the resignation of Modi and Shah.

Goons of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) attacked students by entering the women's hostel at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), the protesters alleged and demanded that the students' organisation be banned.

Slogans against Modi-Shah and their "tanashahi (dictatorship)" were raised by the protesters as they opposed the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, the National Register of Citizens and the National Population Register. They also brought up the issue of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019, during their protest.

On Tuesday morning, students of the Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University staged a protest against the attack JNU students and teachers.

The protesters, under the aegis of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Vidyarthi Sanghatna, a local body of students, gathered outside the university's front gate here in Maharashtra and shouted slogans condemning the JNU violence.

Scores of students of Hyderabad's Osmania University burnt an effigy of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) to mark their protest against the attack on students of the Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Showing solidarity with the students of JNU, the protesters were holding placards and sloganeering against the ABVP.

At the same time, Indian Institute of Ahmedabad Director Errol D'Souza has also condemned the violence in JNU, dubbing it as a "very low point" in the country's post Independence history. He said a university stands for tolerance, dialogue and an "agreement to disagree", and violence violates the foundations of civilization.

The students and teachers of the prestigious St Stephen's College too expressed concern over the recent incidents of violence in JNU, Jamia Millia Islamia and Aligarh Muslim University. They gathered at the college to plan a "long-term" resistance to the amended citizenship law.

The gathering condemned the incidents of violence reported from various universities in the country and called for a students' movement against the current BJP-led government.

Students at Oxford University, Columbia University and University of Sussex also staged silent marches holding posters demanding safety of students on campus.

In Nepal, JNU alumni gathered at Maitighar Mandala in Kathmandu to protest against the violence on campus.

The dispensation¡¯s response, however, is one of utter disdain and is in line with the stance it has maintained on JNU ever since it rose to power in 2014 -- that JNU is the hub of anti-India groups and that the protesters and dissenters are anti-nationals.

(With Inputs From Agencies/Pictures From Agencies)