Student Union Polls: Late-Night Conflict Between JNU Student Groups

A brawl between members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and left-wing groups on Thursday night resulted in three injuries at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), according to police. At a general body meeting for the impending student union elections, footage released by student organizations depicts mayhem on the campus of the university as students fight and throw objects at one another. The students started fighting with each other last night after an altercation between the factions over who would be on the election committee at the School of Languages.

In one of the films, a man is seen throwing a cycle at a gathering of students, while in another, a student is shown bleeding from his head as he is brought away from the group. After being hurt, a number of them were admitted to Safdarjung Hospital. The student organizations have laid blame for the altercation on one another, even though the university administration has not yet released a comment regarding the event. The police, however, stated that they had not been contacted about any concerns. The Democratic Students’ Federation (DSF), which is linked with the Left, and the All India Students Association (AISA) said that members of the ABVP interrupted the meeting and used sexist and casteist remarks to intimidate security personnel and threaten students. “This violent and vandalized act by the ABVP goons, whose faces are clearly visible in the videos going viral online, must be acknowledged by the VC office.” For committing such unprecedented acts of violence, these offenders ought to be prosecuted under the appropriate laws, according to a statement released by the AISA. The president of the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) and JNU pupils’ union, Aishe Ghosh, was accused by a right-wing student organization of conducting a “vicious attack on students” that also singled out disabled pupils. “The assault on students of the School of Language, Literature, and Cultural Studies represents a grave violation of the principles of education, tolerance, and human decency,” declared the ABVP.