The Left aligned student bodies seem to be divided on the issue of surrendering before the police as out of five students who surfaced in the campus, three are still within it.
After Khalid and Anirban’s surrender, who belong to the Democratic Students’ Front, the liberal Left wing (All Indian Students Association or AISA) has adopted a ‘wait and watch’ policy on the fate of these three students — Ashutosh Kumar, Rama Naga and Anant Prakash.
According to sources in the campus, the teachers extending support to the Left wing students are also vertically divided on their strategy.
“The national and state wing of AISA are closely watching the developments in JNU and in its several rounds of meeting no strategy has been resolved yet. However, the AISA has taken a stand of ‘wait and watch’ strategy,” a national unit member of AISA said.
Earlier, it was decided that all students would surrender but later only the students aligned with the DSF surrendered before the police.
Five JNU students, who have been charged with sedition and resurfaced back on Sunday after being on the run for over 10 days, said they have nothing to hide and are open to any questioning by the police.
However, the Vice Chancellor’s (V-C) office has maintained its stand that police has not yet contacted with them.
Earlier, increasing the numbers of the probe committee members up to five, the JNU V-C allowed adding up of two more members. The widening of the probe committee by adding more members into it was raised by the JNU teachers’ association.
Besides, a candlelight vigil march from the V-C’s office to Ganga Dhaba organised by the JNUSU and teachers’ association and a counter event ‘Ek sham fauj ke nam’, staged by ex-Army men in the university, the campus witnessed a baffling silence.
Meanwhile, around 5 pm on Wednesday, JNU students along with teachers and activist gathered at the India Gate to take out a candlelight vigil.