Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) witnessed a scuffle Thursday night when Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) attacked a leftist group, including the All India Students’ Association (AISA0), during the last day of the General Body Meeting (GBM) at the School of Language, Literature, and Cultural Studies.
Three students were injured and were immediately admitted to the Safdarjung Hospital. The videos from the incident show students being beaten by a mob even as JNU security personnel tried to rescue them. In the video shared on social media, a man is seen thrashing the students with a rod, while another video shows a man throwing a bicycle at students.
Hitting out at the ABVP, AISA said in its statement, “The last day of the GBM at the School of Languages witnessed another round of violence by ABVP goons. Initially attempting to disrupt the selection process for the election committee, the ABVP resorted to physical violence against students when thwarted by JNU students… were seen wielding rods and targeting and beating common students indiscriminately.”
AISA also accused the ABVP of singling out Muslim students. “They opposed whenever any Muslim student proposed their names for the upcoming election committee. They also vitiated the atmosphere of school GBM premises by threatening students with sexist and casteist slurs,” AISA added.
Statements by the Student Groups
The ABVP, in its statement on “a disturbing incident,” named several individuals, including Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) president Aishe Ghosh, and blamed them for “unleashing a wave of violence.”.
“The group launched a vicious attack on students affiliated with the Bachelors and Masters programs at the School of Language, Literature, and Cultural Studies. The assailants, reportedly associated with Ghosh and her cohorts, unleashed a wave of violence against the students, demonstrating an appalling disregard for human safety and dignity. Shockingly, even physically handicapped students were not spared from the brutality inflicted upon them,” the ABVP statement said.
The JNUSU elections, which have not been held for the last four years, are scheduled to take place in March—tthe first students’ union polls after 2019.
In a notification in January 2024, the university said, “This is to bring to the kind notice of all concerned that the JNU students’ union elections 2023–24 will be held between six and eight weeks after the commencement of the academic session for PhD students, i.e., February 2, 2024.”
Past Incidents
Last month, a similar confrontation unfolded during a general body meeting at the English and Foreign Languages University in Hyderabad. Allegedly, members of the Fraternity Movement were assaulted by individuals associated with the ABVP, the student wing of the RSS, on campus.
According to a statement issued by several student groups, The incident occurred during a Human Chain event organized by the student community in protest against ABVP’s misconduct during the university’s GBM on February 9, 2024. Furthermore, one of the survivors reportedly received threats from the attackers in a public WhatsApp group, highlighting the ongoing threat posed by ABVP to the student community.
The statement also mentions that shortly after the assault, some ABVP members entered the health center in an attempt to portray themselves as victims, a tactic the student groups claim is typical of ABVP. The ABVP members were swiftly provided with university ambulance services and left campus, purportedly heading to another hospital. It was only after several requests that the assaulted students received referrals from the health center for external medical care.
Phd Scholoar Stopped from the Research
In a separate incident last year, Nazar Mohammad Mohaideen, a research scholar at Jawaharlal Nehru University’s Centre for Molecular Medicine (SCMM), disclosed prolonged harassment from his supervisor, ultimately leading him to withdraw from the university. Nazar was among the students who suffered serious injuries during an attack by ABVP members at Teflas (the Union office) on February 19 of that year, which occurred during a movie screening.
Recently, the Delhi High Court ruled that JNU cannot terminate a PhD candidate’s enrollment citing a lack of available supervisors or require the candidate to find a supervisor independently.
The case pertains to Nazar Mohammad Mohaideen S, a PhD scholar at JNU’s SCMM. His supervisor, Professor Shailja Singh, declined to continue supervising him, alleging his lack of commitment to assignments and late-night visits to the lab with unknown individuals posed a security risk. Subsequently, the university informed Mohaideen that, due to the unavailability of another supervisor, he could not continue his research scholar tenure at the institute.
