ABVP, Left members clash hours after JNUSU poll results
September 17, 2018 19:23
Members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and the Left-backed All India Students Association clashed on Monday, with both groups accusing each other of attacking their supporters, hours after the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union poll results were announced.
Violence erupted on the JNU campus after a united front of Left student groups on Sunday won all four central panel posts in the union defeating the ABVP by considerable margins.
While the AISA alleged that ABVP members randomly attacked students, with a former student being almost 'lynched' and the new JNUSU president being beaten up, the RSS-affiliate claimed its activists were attacked by Left supporters and three were injured.
This is the second incident of the two groups clashing on campus, the last being on Saturday ahead of the counting, which was suspended after election authorities cited 'forcible entry' and 'attempts to snatch away ballot boxes'.
Newly-elected JNUSU president N Sai Balaji alleged that he was beaten up in the early hours of Monday by ABVP activists.
"Today, ABVP students randomly attacked students. I was called to the scene at Sutlej (hostel). As the elected JNUSU president, I went to ensure the safety of a student who was attacked by ABVP students with sticks.
"On reaching, what I saw was mayhem. The mob, led by ABVP members, was baying for blood of any student they thought was a friend of the student who they were attacking," Balaji said.
He claimed that ABVP members 'openly threatened him, along with former JNUSU president Geeta Kumari and other students present there, with dire consequences if they intervened to stop the violence'.
"The group turned into a mob and started attacking a former JNU student in the Jhelum hostel and chased him, and almost lynched him in the lawns. I ran with other students to save him, who had fallen unconscious after the beating, and took him to an ambulance," Balaji said.
He said some students asked him to sit inside a Police Control Room (PCR) van after the situation got out of control.
The mob stopped the van and an ABVP student sat in it. Two ABVP members were repeatedly stopping it, Balaji claimed.
The PCR van's doors were opened and 'I was threatened and physically assaulted' by ABVP students, the JNUSU president claimed.
However, the ABVP claimed that their members were roughed up by AISA activists. They claimed the Left activists even roughed up one of their members, who is differently-abled.
"Three JNU students affiliated to the ABVP were attacked by the criminals hiding as champions of Communist ideology. 15-20 Left workers, including non-students, led by the outgoing JNUSU president Geeta Kumari and one of her close friends (attacked the students)," the ABVP said.
It alleged that the Left workers entered the room of a student and hit him with sticks and punched him. Two others were also injured, the ABVP claimed.
"The targeted violent attacks by the Left on ABVP students is a clear sign of an evil design unfolding on the campus. AISA-SFI and their allies have decided to turn things ugly on the JNU campus. The Left wants turmoil on the campus," they said.
The ABVP and the AISA have both filed complaints against each other at the Vasant Kunj police station.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southwest) Devender Arya said the situation is under control. -- PTI
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