JNU violence: How campus politics is turning colleges into battlegrounds

New Delhi, Jan 06: The violent clashes at the Jawaharlal Nehru University is a dark reminder of campuses turning into political battlegrounds and losing their academic freedom.

While the ABVP has drawn brickbats for the JNU violence that left at least 34 injured, including teachers after three terrifying hours, confrontational politics has created unrest in the campuses across the country.

Students have been beaten brutally inside three top universities at least three times over two Sundays beginning December 15.

The JNUSU and Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad sparred over each other after masked men entered the university campus and attacked students brutally.

The JNU students union claimed that the ABVP members, with their faces masked, were moving in the campus with lathis, rods and hammers and beating up students. The Union has dubbed it as an emergency situation.

"Students are trying to save themselves while being chased by ABVP goons while the police is complicit in the crimes, forcing students to chant 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' slogans," the JNUSU said on Twitter.

However, the ABVP claimed that Left activists were behind the violence in JNU.

It blamed Leftist student organisations SFI, AISA and DSF for the attack where 25 students were injured in the attack.

Jamia Millia and AMU protests

The brutal attack at JNU comes a week after the same took place at Jamia Millia Islamia University in Delhi.

Delhi cops entered the university campus and thrashed students without discriminating between sone pelters and those studying in library.

The protest outside the university broke out after over 50 students were injured in a police crackdown following violence during a demonstration on Sunday. The protesters, including university students and teachers took out silent marches carrying posters, banners and tricolours.

The university's students have been at the forefront of the protest against the amended citizenship law.

On December 15, Uttar Pradesh police entered the campus of Aligarh Muslim University and beaten up students. More than 1,000 students were booked.

JNU violence 2016

On 9 February 2016, the premier university was embroiled in a row over "anti-national" activities in which then JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested for charges of sedition.

There was a question mark raised over the footage that showed students at the JNU raising anti India slogans while condemning the hanging of Parliament attack convict, Afzal Guru.

The event was organised even after the University administration withdrew permission for the event just before it was due to begin after a protest by members of the Hindu nationalist student union ABVP.

Campus violence in south

Campus politics is serious in southern states like Kerala where some students even resort to attacking the teachers and principals of the colleges.

In July 2018, an Islamist student leader stabbed and killed a communist student leader in Maharajas College, Kochi, Kerala. Two groups quarrelled over displaying posters inside the campus.

In March 2018, the principal of the MES Asmabi College was attacked by communist student activists. The attackers escaped as they immediately escaped to some foreign country.