ABVP-Left wing students clash at JNU over defiling of Shivaji Maharaja’s portrait

A clash erupted at JNU between members of the ABVP and Left wing students after a portrait of Shivaji Maharaj was defiled

Clashes erupted between two student groups at the Jawaharlal Nehru University on Sunday after it was alleged that the Left wing students vandalised a portrait of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaja.

The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) alleged that the Left student organisations vandalised the portrait in the office of the student union on the occasion of Shivaji Maharaja's birth anniversary. Reportedly half a dozen ABVP students were injured in the clashes.

ABVP also took to Twitter to share the images of the vandalised portrait.

ABVP paid tributes to Veer Shivaji but Maoists vandalized the picture which was installed by the students. ABVP condemned the act of vandalism of Veer Shivaji's photos by Anti-national elements and also the constant vandalism by the left, ABVP said in a tweet.

Quoting students of the ABVP, Navbharat Times said that the Leftist students while vandalising the portrait said angrily, ' Shivaji will not work in JNU." The ABVP also accused the Students's Federation of India (SFI) of defiling images of Savitribhai Phule and Maharana Pratap along with that of Shivaji Maharaj.

"Today is the birth anniversary of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. We had put up a portrait of Shivaji Maharaj on the walls outside the student activity center as a tribute. But the 'communists' of JNU couldn't digest this. People from '100 Flowers Group' and SFI came and vandalized the portrait of Shivaji Maharaj," ABVP JNU Secretary Umesh Chandra Ajmera said on Twitter.

Ajmera also said that those who were involved in the vandalising were illegal labourers who had illegally entered the JNU premises.

Kumar Ashutosh, the social media convenor of the ABVP, JNU said that the ABVP members kept Shivaji's portrait at the JNUSU offie. The Leftists came there and removed all the portraits. They also threw the garland in the dustbin, following which a fight broke out.

We demand that the JNU administration and Delhi police take strict action against them and also demanded to name the JNSU office to be named after Shivaji Maharaj, Ashutosh said.

"ABVP members kept Shivaji's portrait at JNUSU office for which permission from JNUSU delegation was needed. Despite that, they did it illegally. Other students came there & removed all portraits for screening program due to which fight broke out between two groups," general secretary of the Congress student wing, National Students Union of India (NSUI) said.