ABVP, Left-Backed Groups Clash at JNU; Vice-Chancellor Warns of Strict Action

A scuffle broke out at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) between the ABVP and left-backed student groups over the selection of election committee members, resulting in injuries to some students. Leaders of both groups accused each other of triggering the clashes by creating a ruckus on the campus over election committee.

New Delhi:Members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and the left wing clashed with each other over the selection of election committee members on Thursday night at the Jawaharlal Nehru University. In New Delhi with the varsity administration assuring of strict action against the accused.

Sources said that a general body meeting was going on in the School of Languages for the election of election committee members. It is said that during the meeting, the left wing did not allow the ABVP candidate to speak from the stage leading to an altercation between the group of students and a fierce clash between the students belonging to the left wing and the ABVP. Students belonging to ABVP and left wing are accusing each other of assault.

The students belonging to the left wing have called it hooliganism on the part of the students belonging to ABVP accusing them of assaulting them and beating them with sticks. The students associated with Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad are calling it a left wing attack. Many videos related to the incident have also surfaced on the Internet, in which students are seen beating each other.

The local police have said that they have received complaints from both the parties adding that the said complaints are being investigated. It is being said that many injured students have also been admitted to the nearby hospital. The process of student union elections is going on at JNU for which general body meetings are being organized in all the schools in stages.

In his reaction, JNU ABVP President Umesh Chandra Ajmira said that the process of selecting election committee members was going on which is why Left's IC Ghosh and Danish wanted to forcibly include their cadre as members of the committee. They brought students from outside and started creating ruckus, he said.

Madhurima Kundu of AISA said that AVBP workers were creating ruckus during the meeting and they had surrounded Danish and were not allowing him to leave. 'When we went to negotiate to get them released, these people started fighting," Madhurima said, adding that four to five of their students have been injured and FIR has been lodged from our side.