Campus violence: Sentiments must be respected, says Ramdas Athawale; NCP hits out at BJP

Athawale, an ally of the BJP, also said there should not be any conflict over consumption of vegetarian and non-vegetarian food and people should respect each other’s sentiments.

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While students from the Left outfits alleged that ABVP had first indulged in violence as they did not want non-vegetarian food to be cooked and served in the hostel mess on Ram Navami, ABVP and the University registrar said that violence had begun when some students objected to a ‘havan’ inside Kaveri hostel on the festival. Left outfits have said that this was untrue.

Delhi Home Minister, Satyendar Jain, meanwhile, called the clash “unfortunate”. When asked about the incident, he said, “I am the home minister of Delhi. You should ask this question to the home minister under whom the Delhi Police is.”

Maharashtra minister and Shiv Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray said he was pained by the incident: “There is a need to think about which direction we want to take the country in. It pains to see that such a clash can erupt over a row like this. Focus should be on education and students in schools and colleges.”

Hitting out at BJP and ABVP Maharashtra NCP chief spokesperson Mahesh Tapase said that ABVP was trying to enforce their ideologies. “The NCP strongly condemns the incident of violence at the JNU. BJP is communalising our secular educational institutions through ABVP. It has been observed time and again that ABVP volunteers have been trying to enforce their right-wing ideologies on students of various institutions,” Tapase said.

Several detained during protest

Meanwhile, on Monday afternoon, around 15 AISA activists were detained within minutes of them beginning a protest over Sunday’s violence near the police HQ and were taken to Tughlak Road police station.

Other members of Left organisations began gathering at Tughlak Road police station by around 4 pm, demanding the release of those detained. As other activists also made their way to the PHQ later in the afternoon, they were all detained and taken to different police stations, with most at the Tughlak Road station and Chanakyapuri station.

DCP (New Delhi) Amrutha Guguloth said: “AISA members had gathered around Jai Singh Road… against the mandate of Section 144 CrPC which is in force in the area. They were asked to leave but they violated the lawful direction. 48 men and 22 women are detained. No woman protester was handled by a male police official and no one was manhandled…”

On allegations that women students were not being released, she said they were released at 6 pm but refused to leave until everyone was allowed to go.

Around 9 pm, the DCP said all students have been released. “A case under IPC sections 188 and 323 has been registered against students for protesting outside the Police HQ.”