Sunday, January 05th witnessed a brutal attack on the students and teachers of the Jawahar Lal Nehru University [JNU] by fifty to seventy masked goons within their campus. Right after the brutal attack, videos surfaced with men and even one woman masked with lathis, rods and acid bottles in their hands intimidating students of the university. Soon after protests emerged outside the main gate of the university, condemning the attacks and the inaction of the police and security forces who were allegedly present inside the university campus. As per a statement of the Registrar of the JNU, he termed it as a clash with the context of the ongoing JNU protest against the fee hike by the university administration. It was said that the left party people resisted the registration into the new winter session at the prescribed fee by the university administration. The statement saw no mention of the clash that followed, resulting in the brutal attack of the JNU Student Union [JNUSU] President- Aishe Ghosh and other faculty and student members.
However, a day after the attack it was reported that the Delhi Police has registered an FIR against JNUSU president Aishe Ghosh and 19 other students of the left party studying at JNU at the complaint of the university administration, for attacking security guards and vandalizing the server room a day before the Sunday violence on JNU campus. This has been alleged as a part of their ongoing resistance towards the fee-hike, demanding an unequivocal rollback for the last three months. It was on the morning of January 05th, 2019, that the said FIR was registered. Including this FIR, a total of three FIRs have been registered by the Delhi Police regarding the violence that took place on Sunday evening.
No arrests made yet by the Delhi Police
Two days after the said attack, Delhi Police has not made any arrests in the case. This has resulted in a nation-wide protest arising from different university campuses, questioning the inaction of the Delhi Police despite much evidence is on record which can help them identify the masked goons, clearly perpetrating violence in the hostels and the campus.
JNUSU demanding the resignation of the JNU VC.
JNUSU president Aishe Ghosh was attacked on the head and has received multiple injuries. Along with her 30 others, students and faculty members of the university were attacked. All the victims of the violence were immediately admitted to the AIIMS Trauma Centre. In a statement by the JNUSU led by their president Aishe Ghosh, she recalls the horrors of the attack on her. She said that she was beaten with multiple rods calling the attacks on the campus as ‘organized’. She has shown her commitment towards preserving the culture of the university and reiterated that iron rod used against students would be answered by debate and discussion. JNUSU in their statement has also demanded the resignation of Vice-Chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar, recalling that despite the brutal violence the Vice-Chancellor has not taken cognizance and not even bothered to meet or check upon the injured students and professors.
