Clash between ABVP, JNUSU students over using event hall
New Delhi: Clashes broke out inside the Jawaharlal Nehru University here on Sunday night between students from the right-wing ABVP and the JNU Students' Union, police said on Monday, adding that they are probing the matter to see if an FIR needs to be registered.
Allegedly, members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-affiliated ABVP and the JNUSU allegedly got into an argument over organising a programme at the student union hall on November 14. Both the ABVP and the JNUSU have accused each other of attacking their members and injuring other students.
According to a statement by the left student bodies, an organisation had booked the student union hall for November 14, the birth anniversary of the country's first Prime Minister. However, when they reached the hall, they found it was occupied by some 15 members of the ABVP. Despite asking them to leave, the ABVP members began hurling abuses and got violent with students, AISA alleged.
Sharing pictures of injured students, JNUSU president Aishe Ghosh accused the members of ABVP of unleashing violence on students, and time and again disrupting campus democracy. Condemning the incident, the JNUSU called for a march on Monday.
Whereas, the ABVP claimed that the left parties assaulted students for holding a meeting at the student activities centre, also called Teflas. "Finger of an MA student was broken in this assault, a Divyang student was manhandled, and various ABVP activists were hit," the party said.
According to police, cross-FIRs have been registered in the matter under sections 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt) and 341 (punishment for wrongful restrain) of the Indian Penal Code. No one has been detained or arrested in connection with the incident and a probe is underway, police said.
The varsity has condemned the violence over the Students Activity Centre, saying, "JNU administration would strongly disapprove of any kind of violence and disorderly conduct in the campus".
"The students are aware that this venue in the JNU campus is a common activity or facility centre for all the students of the university without discrimination, and every student is entitled and free to use the place adhering to the rules of the university... The students are advised to use the common facilities available for them in JNU with a sense of cordiality and responsibility, and in harmony with each other. Nobody should be allowed to disturb the peaceful existence and functioning of others," it said.
