India Tomorrow
NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 18—Hundreds of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students, who were on Monday marching to Parliament to protest 1000 per cent hike in their hostel fee, were brutally lathicharged by Delhi police and CRPF personnel, resulting in injuries to many of them.
It was the first day of the Winter Session of the Parliament and students had planned the march to bring the issue of hike in hostel fee to the attention of Parliament and the nation. They took out the march after they failed to secure rollback of the hike through sit-in and other forms of peaceful democratic agitations.
Police said they resorted to lathicharge as students had taken the law in their own hands and indulged in violence. But students said their march was completely peaceful and police action was unwarranted. But the video footage as shown by media proved students march was completely peaceful.
Among the injured included several journalists, for example, V Arun Kumar of newsclick.in and Naushad of MediaOne TV channel, besides several students. One of the students among 70 taken to Badarpur Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) office alleged that the clothes of many women students were torn, they were bleeding and in some cases, they suffered injuries to their bones due to beating by lathis. Many other detained students were taken to Kalkaji police station.
Photo @jnu_voice
Photo @jnu_voice
Photo @jnu_voice
Students alleged that police lathicharged them when they crossed the Jorbagh Metro Station to proceed towards Parliament.
Former JNU Students Union (JNUSU) president N. Sai Balaji, in videos circulated on his twitter handle, alleged that he was beaten by police on his head while many were beaten on their chests, back and everywhere. He alleged that besides Delhi police personnel, there were armed CRPF personnel and also policemen in plainclothes who brutally attacked the students. He also posted a picture of a BA student bleeding from his head. “Does Delhi police want to jail students who want to meet their parliamentarians? Is Education for sale? Are they thugs?”, he asked.
Balaji tweeted, “One student bleeding from ear, a disabled student injured, he told me. War on students going to Parliament because they want to study.”
Civil rights activist Kavita Krishnan said that JNU students alleged that cops were saying “Mullah ji ko pakdo” as they beat up the bearded students they thought are Muslim.
Injured students in police detention alleged they were not provided even drinking water and first aid, including medicines to treat their injuries.
Commenting on the heavy deployment of police forces ahead of the students’ march, JNUSU Vice President Saket Moon tweeted: “Reports coming in of 2000+ CRPF personnel deployed to impose an #EmergencyInJNU.
What is it about unarmed and defenceless students marching across the streets of Delhi that @mamidala90 and @AmitShah so afraid of?”
Opposition Condemns Police Lathicharge on JNU Students
Several opposition parties have strongly condemned the police lathicharge on the JNU students who were protesting against the hostel fee hike here on Monday.
Ruchi Gupta, Congress Jt Secretary and National in-charge of party’s students wing NSUI said: “NSUI strongly condemns the police brutality in JNU today, directed against students who are exercising their democratic right to affordable education. We support the students demand for a complete rollback of the hostel manual which has increased hostel fees to the highest in all Central universities and education unaffordable for about 40% of the students. The issue in JNU is symptomatic of the larger attack on public education where repeated fee hikes, self-financing are paving the way for privatised & commercialised education thus completely subverting role of education as a tool for socioeconomic mobility #EmergencyinJNU.”
Senior politician Sharad Yadav tweeted: “The behaviour of the government with JNU students is unfortunate. Poor students come from far-off areas of the country to study at this prestigious institution but the government wants to deprive them of their right. The fee hike must be immediately withdrawn in order to ensure peace at the campus.”
Bahujan Samaj Party’s Lok Sabha MP Danish Ali on Monday criticised the JNU decision to hike hostel fees and said that poor students aspiring for higher education will suffer due to it.
Speaking in the Lok Sabha on the first day of the winter session, Ali said that it will be a roadblock to poor meritorious students, who are aspiring to pursue their higher education from recognised institution like JNU. “The decision of hiking hostel fees of JNU is condemnable,” Ali said.
Commenting on the heavy deployment of police force at the JNU campus, CPI-M General Secretary Sitaram Yechury tweeted: “JNU under seige; such a massive deployment of forces was not seen even during the Emergency. A peaceful protest march to Parliament against the unprecedented fee hikes is being forcibly stopped by the police.”
