Today, June 5, 2025, nine years later, Delhi’s Rouse Avenue Court is likely to decide whether it will accept the closure report –in fact put an end to the criminal investigation—or order further investigation.

The crime had sparked massive outrage and protests outside the JNU Vice-Chancellor’s office in 2016; various student wings blamed the V-C for allegedly not acting decisively in the matter. In the years since, Najeeb’s mother, Fatima Nafees, has made fervent appeals to find her son.

The Delhi Police had initially filed an FIR under Section 365 of the Indian Penal Code (kidnapping or abducting with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine person) and had also announced a reward of Rs 50,000 for any information on the student. Along with this, they had identified nine people as suspects. Reportedly, on December 19 and 20 2016, the police had also launched a massive search operation on campus of the Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Fatima Nafees, the dynamic and heartbroken mother of Najeeb had launched a campaign, nationwide to demand justice for her missing son and family. As reported in the media and on SabrangIndia, Najeeb Ahmed, had disappeared mysteriously from his university hostel in October 2016 and was never seen or heard from again. Najeeb was a pursuing a Master’s Degree in Biotechnology from New Delhi’s prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University. He was an enthusiastic student. Student accounts said that, one evening he ended up in a brawl with members of a student union affiliated with a prominent political party with an extreme right wing ideology. The very next day he went missing.

At the time, in November 2016, Najeeb’s mother had moved court, which later directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to take over the case. Najeeb’s friends suspected foul play and Fatima started demanding an explanation about what happened to her son. But nobody seemed to have any answers. The police couldn’t explain what happened. It was almost as if he vanished into thin air! Fatima Nafees first approached the Delhi High Court with a habeas corpus writ petition seeking his production. Claiming that the police’s efforts were “slow, misdirected and subjective”, she had prayed for a court-monitored SIT (Special Investigation Team) to take over the case from the Delhi Police.

As part of its probe, the police had sent wireless messages to the SSPs of all districts in the country on the day Najeeb went missing and sent teams along various routes, including Delhi-Agra, Delhi-Bulandshahr, Ghaziabad, Moradabad and Rampur in search of him. CCTV footage from Metro stations was also examined.

The case was then handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), presumably the country’s most trusted investigative authority… and yet today, years after the CBI took over, Najeeb’s whereabouts remain a mystery. Undeterred, Fatima kept asking pertinent questions, demanding justice for her son. In fact, Fatima together with a few of Najeeb’s friends and human rights activists organised a peaceful protest against the CBI’s ineffective investigation, on the first anniversary (October 13-14, 2017) of his disappearance. “Kahaan hai mera beta? Kaun batayega mujhe,” (Where is my son? Who can tell me?), she kept asking over and over.

The CBI’s investigation has tragically also not reached any conclusion. On October 16, 2017, the Delhi High Court had even pulled up the central agency, stating that it wasn’t showing the intent to find Najeeb. The High Court had also directed a forensic laboratory in Chandigarh to examine the mobile phones of the nine suspects. Finally, on May 11, 2018, the CBI had told the court that it found no evidence that there was any crime committed against Najeeb based on the findings of the lab. Three months later, the agency told the High Court that it had decided to file a closure report in the case since it had probed all angles and had still found nothing against the suspects. Of the nine phones sent to the lab in Chandigarh, two could not be analysed since they were not in a working condition.

On April 2019, a Delhi court directed the CBI to give copies of all statements and documents related to the closure report to Najeeb’s mother within two weeks. Nafees had filed a protest petition against the CBI’s closure report. Senior Advocate Colin Gonsalves, who initially represented Nafees in the High Court, had pushed for a custodial interrogation of the accused persons. Najeeb was getting threats a day before he disappeared. The fact that they failed to do this shows a complete mockery of the system,” he told the media

Recently, the CBI told Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Jyoti Maheshwari that they were not in a position to record the statement of the doctor at Safdarjung Hospital, where Najeeb was allegedly rushed after being injured in the scuffle, because no document pertaining to his visit existed! The CBI also alleged that he went back to the hostel without getting a medico-legal case report prepared.

The Wire had put out this video six years ago

In 2019, a 75-minute long documentary by Sunil Kumar, titled Ammi, follows the trajectory of Najeeb Ahmad case and is replete with footage from various protests held across the national capital to demand action. Interspersed with interviews of friends and family who talk fondly of Najeeb, the film chronicles the various developments in the case which made national news and caused students to protest in streets, outside police stations, courts and even outside the CBI headquarters.

Related:

नजीब की अम्मी फ़ातिमा ने कहा “मोदी मुझसे आँख मिला कर बात करें”

How India Unleashes Violence Against Mothers

The post Nine years, Najeeb from JNU is almost forgotten, India’s CBI investigation has found none guilty appeared first on SabrangIndia.

According to the results announced by the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) election commission early on Monday, April 28, Nitish Kumar of the All India Students’ Association (AISA) secured 1,702 votes to win the post of president. Next was Shikha Swaraj of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), his closest competitor who secured 1,430 votes while the Students’ Federation of India (SFI)-supported Tayabba Ahmed polled 918 votes.

Manisha of the Democratic Students’ Federation (DSF) won the post of vice-president by securing 1,150 votes, ahead of the ABVP’s Nittu Goutham who polled 1,116 votes. The DSF also bagged the general secretary’s post, with Munteha Fatima polling 1,520 votes, ahead of the ABVP’s Kunal Rai who secured 1,406 votes.

What has drawn much comment, analysis and criticism is the ABVP’s clinching the post of joint secretary, with Vaibhav Meena polling 1,518 votes, ahead of AISA’s Naresh Kumar (1,433 votes) and Progressive Students’ Association (PSA) candidate Nigam Kumari (1,256 votes).

This year’s election saw a contentious split in the Left alliance, with the AISA and the DSF contesting as one bloc while the SFI and the All India Students’ Federation (AISF) formed a coalition with the Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students’ Association (BAPSA) and the PSA.

In the midst of this the majoritarian saffron outfit to whom much violence has been attributed on campus ABVP struck gold. Meena’s win marked the first time the ABVP has bagged a central panel post since Saurav Sharma’s victory on the same post in 2015-16. Before that it was in 2000-01 that ABVP’s Sandeep Mahapatra had emerged victorious as president. The ABVP contested the election independently in 2025.

In the March 2024 polls, held after a four-year gap following the outbreak of Covid, the United Left won three of the four central panel posts while BAPSA — which had contested independently — secured one. In that sense, losing a critical post to the ABVP is a matter of concern.

While welcoming and celebrating the victory of its alliance on three central panel posts, AISA also raised concerns over the ABVP’s narrow win for the post of joint secretary and called it a challenge to the Left’s dominance on campus.

Given the low margin of just 85 votes that took the ABVP to victory winning the post of joint secretary, clearly this absence of unity made an impact. Over the past decade and more there has been a serious structural assault on the institution and allegations of corruption in the admission process to ensure BJP loyalists make it to faculty positions and this then, acts as a foothold for the ruling regime on campus. Given that, the fact that the Left has returned to its leadership position in the JNUSU is significant said the AISA said in a statement.

AISA also termed this as the alliance’s victory a mandate against the government’s New Education Policy which, it said, undermined public-funded education and discriminated against marginalised groups.

On the contrary, the ABVP called its victory “a historic shift in JNU’s political landscape” and said it broke the Left’s “so-called red fortress”.

“This victory in JNU is not only proof of the ABVP’s proactive hard work and students’ faith and commitment to nationalist thinking but it is also a victory for all students who consider education as the foundation for nation-rebuilding. This is a democratic revolution against the so-called ideological tyranny established by the Left for years in JNU,” the ABVP said in a statement.

Meena, the newly-elected joint secretary, said, “I am not at all considering this victory as my personal achievement or gain but it’s a massive and fascinating victory of tribal consciousness and the nationalist ideology, which has been suppressed by the Left for years.” “This success is an embodiment of students who want to advance in education by wholeheartedly upholding cultural identity and the spirit of nation re-building,” he added.

The polls, held on April 25, witnessed about 5,500 of the 7,906 eligible students casting their votes. While the turnout was slightly lower than the 73 per cent recorded in 2023, it was among the highest since 2012.

Twenty-nine candidates were in the fray for the four central panel posts and 200 for the 44 councillor seats.

A former student activist from JNU, Banojyotsana Lahiri put it aptly: “JNU elections unlike popular perception are never easy. The administration has systematically closed down every democratic space, they have altered the character of JNU, introduced courses like Management and Engineering, changed the process of selection. Since 2016, after the movement, JNU students had forged a broader unity to fight the ABVP-Admin-RSS nexus. While that was the need of hour at that point, it gave ABVP the whole opposition space to occupy. After 2016, for the first time, the broader left alliance broke this time. AISA-DSF fought separately, SFI-BAPSA-PSA fought separately. Other Left organisations put up candidates too. There was quite a bit of confusion among students. Votes obviously split. And after bitter and resolute struggle finally, AISA and DSF alliance WON three major Central Panel posts and most councillors. ABVP only managed to make dent in Joint Secretary, because of sharp vote splitting between the left forces.” In her opinion now SFI will occupy the opposition space.

There has however been speculation of whether the SFI’s decision not to unite with the wider left has anything to do with a tempered and confused central party line that is not prepared to unite against the RSS-BJP centrally and unequivocally. 

Satarupra, a CPI-M member and former SFI elected leader of JNUSU opined, “Whatever ABVP gained in this election must be analysed thoroughly. Those of us who worked in a JNUSU with similar composition in the central panel posts, and the students, teachers of JNU who survived one of the most notorious attacks of the Sangh Parivaar, exactly 10 years back, knows it well what they are capable of. From the lessons of that time, it is a must to keep a close watch on them as well as to not allow any room to them to attack the university and its students, teachers and staff. In 2015, the Left contested separately and had a fragmented mandate in the union. Despite that, after the election results were declared, instead of a ‘Victory March’, we had a ‘Unity March’. The exemplary unity with #StandwithJNU movement followed later. However, the sheer fact of ABVP won one post in the central panel was enough for the progressive forces to forge a unity from the very beginning. I hope that tradition will continue in the days ahead in spirit and actions. Lastly, what happened in this election needs a deep analysis and the entire Left needs to introspect and be accountable for what unfolded, rather than putting the burden on one organization and singling it out.”

Kavitra Krishnan formerly with the CPIML has singled out the SFI for its failure to forge unity against fascist forces. As have other academics previously from JNU. 

Either way one looks at it, the JNUSU polls are closely watched and do signal a weathercock for how the left works and strategies, nationally. With both the West Bengal and Kerala elections due in 2026, this could mean a different reality from what has been expected under the rather fragile, almost non-existent INDIA alliance.

Related   

“We have come to save public education, shoot us if you will,” feisty JNUSU president Dhananjay challenges Delhi police

When and why JNUSU President Sai Balaji wrote an open letter to PM Modi

Standing Up For JNU

What Exactly Happened in JNU ?

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Students were protesting the callous and indifferent attitude of the JNU administration and the Ministry of Education towards the 14-day hunger strike by the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU) on serious issues of the students. The health of those students protesting is deteriorating but there has been no response from the government. Students have been demanding that the JNU administration and the Ministry of Education take immediate meaningful decisions and respond to the demands of the students.

The major demands of the students include increasing the MCM scholarship from ₹2000 to ₹5000, increasing the Non-NET Fellowship to ₹20,000 to reduce the high cost of living in Delhi, opening a hostel to provide necessary accommodation for students, reinstatement of the JNUEE exam which has been marred by repeated failures and paper leaks under the NTA system, the recent failure of the re-examination on August 20, 2024 which is now going to be held, the failure of the NTA to deal with important examinations alone, preventing discrimination against students from disadvantaged sections, conducting caste census, implementing caste sensitization, restoring GSCASH in place of the ineffective ICC. Women students especially flagged the issue of the presence of a member of the teaching faculty accused of inappropriate behaviour on an adjudicating body for students.

Besides students under the JNUSU have also been demanding a revision of the National Education Policy (NEP) which is inherently discriminatory against marginalised communities and students. Increased and sustained funding is necessary to adequately support educational institutions and ensure that they can provide the necessary resources and facilities for students.

A video of the protest may be viewed here

Meanwhile the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) has expressed its full support to this movement of students on behalf of the farmers of the country. In a statement issued by the umbrella organisation of over 300 farmer organisations on August 24, SKM states, “The farmers of the country can never forget the active support given by the JNU students to the farmers in the 13-month-long Delhi Morcha of farmers led by SKM. SKM has said that with every passing hour, the health of the hunger strikers is deteriorating. We appeal to all farmers-labourers-citizens of the country to support this just movement of students.”

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Numerous videos circulating on social media portrayed a man holding a stick, assaulting students, while another person can be seen throwing a bicycle as scenes of chaos unfold. The security personnel of the university can be seen present as well trying to intervene. In one video a man can be seen hitting a student in the head with a small metallic object. As per reports, the Delhi Police has stated that they have received complaints from both sides regarding the incident, and have confirmed that investigations are currently going on.

#WATCH | Delhi | A clash broke out between ABVP and Left-backed student groups at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), last night. The ruckus was reportedly over the selection of election committee members at the School of Languages.

(Video Source: JNU students)
(Note: Abusive… pic.twitter.com/BfpFlhUM2T

— ANI (@ANI) March 1, 2024

According to the Times of India, the vice-chancellor Santishree Dhulipadi has stated that strict action will be taken against the culprits no matter what political affiliation they may belong to. She has also stated that once the student’s medical concerns are addressed the university will investigate and even prepare a report on the incident.

Meanwhile, the JNU Student Union’s Joint Secretary Mohammed Danish, who was chairing the meeting, has stated that he received threats due to his religious identity and also claimed that he was held hostage during the incident. The JNU Student Union has claimed that the ABVP organised the entire attack deliberately so that it could, they say, affect the electoral process.

The vice-president of the All India Students’ Association in JNU has stated that this was a “one sided attacked and not a clash.” She describes the events stating, “The election body of School Language was supposed to be elected yesterday. Four names were elected but the ABVP hijacked the entire process. When it resumed and the process concluded. We came to know that they had surrounded Danish and were not letting him leave. We tried to speak with them but they didn’t listen to us and started to launch an attack with sticks. They also hit me on my head. They do this under the protection of VC and the police.”

Meanwhile, ABVP members claims that more than 200 Left workers attacked them.

Similarly, attacks that claim the ABVP as aggressors have taken place earlier as well. In 2023, a student named Nazar Mohammad Mohaideen from Thoothukudi, Tamil Nadu a research scholar at the Centre for Molecular Medicine was reportedly attacked by ABVP members during a movie screening on February 19 in 2023, following which he was reportedly harassed by his supervisor at the university who refused to guide him and labelled him a “security threat.” His department also attempted to cancel his PhD, however, it was reversed after the Delhi High Court recently. In 2015, Najeeb Ahmed, a first year MSc Biotechnology student at the university, reportedly “disappeared” after he was beaten and assaulted by the ABVP students in the university.

Related:

Media outlets forced to remove false and defamatory news about Najeeb Ahmed

Hyderabad: University students’ belongings attacked in transphobic hate crime

Rajasthan: Muslim teachers suspended for ‘love-jihad’, as students allege they were made to falsely testify

The post JNU Students conducting election meeting attacked appeared first on SabrangIndia.

A 200-strong cadre in dark-brown trousers and white shirts — the RSS uniform — held the march from the main gate to the university’s administrative block, where they held the meeting. The JNU, once the pride of academia especially in the social sciences, today boasts a Vice Chancellor with clear Sangh connections. Shantishree Pandit took over as VC in February 2022. Last month, Pandit said she was proud of her association with the RSS. Reports say that, except for a few JNU students who are also members of RSS student arm ABVP, most of the participants were outsiders.

The JNU administration had in 2018 banned any form of protest or meeting within 100 metres of the administrative block. The restriction is still in force. Yet the RSS cadres held the meeting and sang “Jago toh ekbar Hindu jago toh (Wake up Hindus)”. Clearly this organization enjoys protection and immunity.

A video on Social media platform X (Twitter) shared by Saib Bilaval, a Researcher at JNU, the RSS volunteers gathered at the JNU admin block, where protests and demonstrations are not allowed within 100 meters of the building according to a court order. The song the saffron group was singing demonises Muslims and falsely refers to Bhagat Singh and Guru Gobind Singh as “Hindus,”

Meanwhile, students associated with the Left-leaning All India Students Association (AISA) and the Students Federation of India (SFI) protested against the RSS events on the campus.

In a statement issued the Students Federation of India (SFI) said the incident showed that JNU was turning into an arena for the saffron outfit’s hate politics and religious fanaticism.

“The divisive agenda and communal politics of the Sangh Parivar is gradually making the campus unsafe and uncomfortable for the students coming from minority communities. The JNU administration in a nexus with RSS, is wilfully partaking in the efforts to saffronise JNU,” it said.

The JNU students’ union and teachers’ association, until now, has been dominated by Left-leaning groups. In 2016, when M. Jagadesh Kumar was vice-chancellor, the university witnessed turmoil over certain “anti-national” slogans raised at an event.

Kumar was accused of promoting faculty members aligned with the RSS ideology. He brought in rules that banned any protest around the administrative block, the idea apparently being to prevent any agitation against his way of functioning.

“Such blatant admission of affiliation coming from the VC goes to show the kind of impunity enjoyed by the Sangh Parivar in JNU,” the SFI said.

“While on one hand the JNU administration is imposing heavy fines on the students protesting for their basic necessities, the silence maintained by it on the RSS shakha (assembly) taking place right in front of the administrative block is deafening.”

The SFI reminded the administration that JNU student Najeeb remained untraced since disappearing from the campus in 2016. It said the incident should be a warning to all about the consequences of the communal hatred injected into the campus by Right-wing forces.

Madhurima, an AISA activist, told the newspaper that many students had been fined and issued with show-cause notices in the last five years for gathering in front of the administrative block. “The university has violated its own rules to allow RSS cadres to hold a meeting in front of the administrative block,” she said.

An email has, it has been learnt, been sent to the VC seeking the university’s reasons for allowing the RSS event in an area where meetings are prohibited. A response is awaited.

Related:

An open letter to the JNU VC: Your association with RSS defies humanism, anti-colonial struggle for Indian democracy!

JNU Teachers Allege Academic Erosion; Highlight ‘Arbitrary’ Policies for Recruitment and Promotions

Protests on attack on JNU students: Mumbai police withdraws case against 36 protesters

The post JNU: RSS cadres march with saffron flags and sticks, hold meeting inside campus appeared first on SabrangIndia.

D K Lobiyal, President of the JNU Teachers’ Association, said that selective promotions have been handed to the teachers who paid complete obeisance to the administration. “We are seeing that promotions have been denied to our colleagues, whereas some teachers have been given extensions as chairpersons and deans beyond the tenure of a vice-chancellor,” he said.

“Fourteen appointments of deans of different Schools of JNU have taken place since February 2022. Three of them involved the previous occupant of that office being reappointed to the same position, even for serving a third term. In another 10 cases, senior colleagues in their respective schools were bypassed, with the solitary exception being when the dean had to be appointed from outside the School concerned. In other words, rotation by order of seniority has not been followed in a single case,” he added.

Surajit Mazumdar, a professor of economics at the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, said that the situation is so bad that the chairpersons of different schools and centres do not know about the experts coming to interview the teachers for recruitment. He said, “The usual precedent remains that departments would prepare the list of experts and send it to the vice-chancellor, and she would choose certain names. However, we are seeing that experts are added to the list, and there is a complete disregard for the statutes of the university as well as the norms laid out by the University Grants Commission.”

Atul Sood, the former president of JNUTA, added that it appears that the administration has already approved the decisions, and the meetings of bodies like the Academic Council and the Executive Council are called to just report the items. “I was a member of the Executive Council, and it was strange that 27 items, which included the introduction of new courses, finished in half an hour. Former VC Jagadesh Mamidala used to call online meetings and would mute the mic if members wanted to express something. The tradition is going on with the current VC allowing select members to speak in the meetings. All universities have returned to pre-COVID norms for conducting physical meetings; whereas JNU remains the only university where such a practice is going on.

Moushumi Basu, who teaches at the Centre for International Politics, Organisation & Disarmament, said that the teachers have noticed a pattern where the National Testing Agency (NTA) is determining the academic calendar of the university. “We have seen that admissions to masters and PhD would be conducted through NTA. However, there is no compulsion to engage with NTA for entrance exams. We are seeing that semesters would end in a matter of three months. I think it’s cheating our students and nations that we are compelling [students] to take exams without proper studies.”

Another fallout of it remains the reduction in the number of girl students in the university. The teachers emphasised that the percentage of girl students has plunged from 51.4% in 2017-18 to 44.4% in 2021-22. Similarly, the share of research students has decreased from 62.2% in 2016-17 to 46% in 2021-22.

The JNUTA, in a press statement, said that the process of destruction of the University unleashed in 2016 has continued unabated, even after the change of the Vice Chancellor in February 2022. This destruction involves the erosion of the institutional and academic ethos of the University and the undermining of its role as a promoter of social equity – the hallmarks of the University which were integral to establishing it as a premier higher education institution.

Courtesy: Newsclick

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A Case filed by the Mumbai police against 36 people, including activists and lawyers, for protesting at the Gateway of India against the attack on students at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi who were protesting against the discriminatory Citizenship (Amendment) Act in January 2020 has been withdrawn.

Earlier this month, January 2023, the additional chief metropolitan magistrate allowed an application filed on behalf of the state government seeking to withdraw the plea and disposed of the case. The application filed on January 12 through the prosecutor said that the accused persons had committed the alleged act “as a protest without any personal interest or benefits”.

“Further, it is contended that there is no loss of life as well as loss to public property. Therefore, considering the allegations and facts of the case and the alleged act being social and political in nature, the prosecution does not want to proceed with the matter….,” the court said in its order passed on January 12.

The prosecutor, who moved the application, cited the GR dated September 20, 2022 by the state Home department. The GR, issued soon after the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government had been overturned, said that political parties and social organisations conducted protests in social interest and to raise awareness on various issues.

The GR stated that the government had decided to withdraw cases involving such protests, where chargesheets have been filed on or before March 31, 2022 and which meet certain criteria including the nature of the protest. The application was moved by the prosecutor under Section 321 of the Criminal Procedure Code which gives power to the prosecutor to withdraw a case with consent from the court. The prosecutor said in the plea that he had applied his mind to the facts of the case and came to the conclusion that this was a fit case for withdrawal.

In December 2020, the Colaba police had filed a chargesheet against the 36 persons on charges including unlawful assembly, claiming that they had gathered at the Gateway of India without requisite permission around midnight on January 25 and eventually the protestors’ number rose to 400. The 36 referred to as participants in the protest were charged with Section 143 (member of an unlawful assembly), Section 149 (every member of an unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object) of the Indian Penal Code, Section 37 (3) of the Bombay Police Act, 1951. Those named in the chargesheet are lawyers Mihir Desai, Lara Jesani, Lokshahir Sambhaji Bhagat, students and activists, including Suvarna Salve, Bilal Khan and CPI leader Prakash Reddy, among others.

According to officials, as per the GR, a committee comprising the zonal DCP (Zone 1), ACP and the assistant director and public prosecutor, met in November to decide on the cases falling within the GR’s conditions for withdrawal. A total of 44 cases from seven police stations in South Mumbai were then shortlisted and recommended for withdrawal.

Background behind the FIRs

Initially, even while the city was grappling with the Covid-19 pandemic, these cases were proceeded by the Mumbai police and continue to be prosecuted against peaceful protestors who were part of vibrant, peaceful and democratic protests way back in January and February 2020. The criminalization of protestors who were part of these widely reported peaceful protests has been a nationwide phenomenon with Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat being the worst. 

The passing of the unconstitutional Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 (CAA) introduced at the behest of the BJP government in December 2019 had led to nationwide protests. In Mumbai, civilians from all sections came forward to protest against the communal and divisive, CAA and the arbitrary process of the All India NRC and NPR sought to be initiated by the Central government which could potentially render scores of citizens of India from the marginalized sections, vulnerable groups and minorities, especially Muslims, Dalits, Adivasis, women, children and the undocumented poor, without citizenship rights. Even the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government and the parties in alliance have expressed their concerns about CAA, NPR or NRC on several occasionsand also questioned the Central Government on the information being sought in NPR/NRC, cabinets in several states have passed resolutions against CAA and raised similar objections against NPR/NRC. The Maharashtra governmenthas even instituted a 6-member committee of sitting ministers to review the legislations regarding CAA NPR NRC and submit a report before the Hon’ble Chief Minister. 

Since mid-December 2019 to mid-March 2020 i.e. before the Covid-19 pandemic crisis, several peaceful and democratic protests were conducted by citizens in Mumbai in exercise of the fundamental rights to free speech and assembly as recognized by the Indian Constitution against the draconian CAA NPR NRC and violent attacks on civilian protests in different parts of the country during the time. The Mumbai protests have been exemplary and a stellar display of the democratic spirit by the active citizenry of the country. Lakhs of Mumbaikars from different communities joined the protests, which were attended by ex-civil servants, political leaders and sitting ministers, government workers, musicians, film personalities, students, professionals, citizen groups, civil society organisations and civilians from different sectors. No incidence of violence, incitement or disruption was reported at any of these peaceful protests, and instead the satyagrahi protestors displayed their commitment to the nation and the Indian Constitution, holding the Constitution in one hand and the Indian national flag in the other.  

However inspite of this, the Mumbai Police selectively filed FIRs against only a few known activists, lawyers, journalists and students in respect of several of these peaceful and democratic protests (inspite of thousands of people being participating the same protests). In none of these cases any allegation of violence or incitement of violence has been made and admittedly the protests were all peaceful. The police subsequently filed chargesheets in these cases, which are now going on before the respective Metropolitan Magistrate courts. Police summons in these cases were served upon those named in these cases, in the heat of the pandemic and the civilian have had to face immense harassment due to these proceedings. Details of some of the cases are provided below. 

(i) Case No. PS/950/2020 pending before the 3^rdMetropolitan Magistrate Court, Esplanade, Mumbai in the matter of State of Maharashtra vs. Feroz Hamaja Mithiborwala & Ors. (FIR No. 7/2020 dated 7^th January 2020, Colaba Police Station) – Gateway Protest

In a spontaneous candlelight vigil held at midnight on 5^th January 2020 at Gateway of India, thousands of students and civilians alerted by social media and the media attended the public gathering to protest the violent attacks by masked mobs holding rods and sticks in the JNU campus which left at least 23 people from the university injured and admitted to AIIMS and Safdarjung Hospital. The protest was not organized by any group but was a spontaneous response to calls on social media to protest the violence taking place in JNU campus, which took place in the midst of when the CAA NPR NRC protests were going on nationwide. 

The violence on students in JNU campus was also publicly condemned by Aditya Thackeray who had demanded that action be taken against the attackers. The Gateway protest was by then state cabinet minister Aditya Thackeray and by eminent personalities in the city including political leaders and sitting ministers from the ruling Maharashtra government, film actors, musicians and students from across the city. No incident of violence or disorder took place and the protest went on peacefully. The Mumbai police co-operated with the satyagrahi protestors and did not close down the protest demonstration. The protest was allowed to continue until the morning of 7^th January 2020, whenfew student protestors who were at the site were detained and shifted to Azad Maidan, and the protest was subsequently called off. 

Shortly after this, in a shocking move, it was reported that the FIR bearing no. 7/2020 dated January 7, 2020 under Sections 143 and 149 of the IPC and 37(3) and 135 of the Maharashtra Police Act had been filed by Colaba Police Station selectively against 52activists, lawyers, students, academicians selectively and about 300 to 400 unnamed protestors and political leaders, even as tens of thousands of people had reportedly attended the highly covered and publicly telecast protests over a course of 1.5 days. Infact those named in the FIR were not even present on the site when the protest were closed down by the police.Pursuant to the filing of the FIR, several persons were called to Colaba Police Station for recording statement and asked to furnish bail. Subsequently the Colaba Police Station filed its chargesheet in the case against 36 persons on 28^th December 2020 and those named in the Final Report have had to obtain bail and appear regularly on dates before the Ld. Metropolitan Magistrate, Esplanade Court. The case is currently pending. 

In 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic, chapter proceedings were also initiated against some of the people who were named, by the Executive Magistrate / ACP, Colaba Police Station in respect of the same FIR, which were subsequently abandoned in 2021.

(ii) Case No. PS/12/2021 pending before the 38^thMetropolitan Magistrate Court, Ballad Pier, Mumbai in the matter of State of Maharashtra vs. Salim Hamja Sabuwala & Ors. (FIR no. 4/2020 dated January 7, 2020 MRA Marg Police Station) – Hutatma Chowk protest rally

On January 6, 2020, a protest rally was held from Hutatma Chowk to Gateway (where the civilianprotest was already going on), also in response to the JNU violence. Several students, activists were part of this rally, which went on peacefully and the police also did not stop the same. No incident of violence or disorder took place in this peaceful rally that was joined by eminent personalities. The police at no point of time tried to disperse the protestors and were in fact guiding them. However, following the rally FIRsbearing no. 4/2020 dated 7^th January 2020 under Sections 141, 143, 149, 341 and 34 of IPC was filed by MRA Marg Police Station against 31 activists, lawyers, students, academicians selectively and about 200-250 unnamed protestors. The arbitrary nature of the FIRs is also evident from the fact that several persons named in the FIR initially were not even present at the rally. Pursuant to the filing of the FIR, several persons were called to MRA Marg Police Station for recording statements and asked to furnish bail. Subsequently the MRA Marg Police Station filed its chargesheet in the case against 16 persons on January 5, 2021 and those named in the Final Report have had to obtain bail and appear regularly on dates before the Ld. Metropolitan Magistrate, Ballard Pier Court. 

In 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic, chapter proceedings were also initiated against some of the people who were named, by the Executive Magistrate / ACP, MRA Marg Police Station, with surety noticeranging from 1-10 lakhs and in one case to the tune of 50 lakhs. The ACP, MRA Marg Police Station had subsequently closed the chapter proceedings.

(iii) FIR no. 34/2020 dated February 7, 2020, Nagpada Police Station – Mumbai Bagh Protest against CAA-NPR-NRC

FIR bearing no. 34/2020 dated February 7, 2020 had been filed by the Nagpada Police Station in the protests held at Mumbai Bagh against 200 to 300 unidentified women protestors. The protest was organized by the local community and was entirely peaceful and without any untoward incident. 

Chapter proceedings were also initiated against few activists selectively in connection with the said FIR and the Mumbai Bagh protests although they are not even named in the FIR, which were subsequently abandoned. 

(iv) Following proceedings in connection to CAA-NPR-NRC protests were also initiated by police or are pending –

1. Case No. 324/PS/2020 under sections 37(1), 135 of the Maharashtra Police Act pending before the 5^th Metropolitan Magistrate Court at Dadar, Bhoiwada Mumbai – candle light vigil at Veera Kotwal Gardens

A FIR was also filed at Mahim Police Station in connection with a peaceful candle light vigil at Veer Kotwal Gardens, where student protestors who were part of the protest were prevented from leaving and were subsequently detained and taken to the Mahim police station by the police. Following this several persons were summoned before the Bhoiwada Magistrate court to furnish bail. Subsequently a chargesheet has been filed in the case and the matter is pending before the 5^th Metropolitan Magistrate Court at Dadar.

2. FIR No. 3/2020 under Sections 37(1), 135 of the Maharashtra Police Act filed by the Marine Drive Police Station – candlelight vigil at Marine Drive

A FIR was also filed at Marine Drive Police Station in connection with a peaceful candle light vigil at Marine Drive in which students and young activists participated and few of them were subsequently detailed and taken to Marine Drive Police Station and also made to furnish bail.

3. Several other police stations have also filed FIRs, including FIR No. 53/2020 (Deonar Police Station), FIR No. 5/2020 (Shivaji Park Police Station) and possibly others in connection with the CAA NPR NRC protests.

The police had claimed in the aforesaid Gateway and Hutatma chowk protest FIRs that the protests took place without police permission and in breach of prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973, which are in place in South Mumbai. Apart from this, there is no other allegation against the satyagrahi protestors of illegality and it is not the case of the police that there was any violence, incitement or disorder or any other “crime” at the protests. Infact, the police did not attempt to disperse the satyagrahi protestors but were co-operating with them and guiding them, resulting in peaceful and orderly protests. However, in spite of all the above protests being peaceful and democratic and attended by a large diversity and number of Mumbaikars, the police has initiated the aforesaid criminal cases. 

It is pertinent to note here that while tens of thousands of civilians attended these protests, only a few handful activists, students, lawyers and academicians are being selectively prosecuted by the police.Those arraigned in these cases are facing unnecessary harassment, restrictions and criminalization at each stage in their education, career and daily lives, while not having committed a single crime except for believing in democracy and in the values enshrined in the Indian Constitution.

Mumbai city has a tradition of democratic and peaceful protests in exercise of fundamental rights and constitutional freedoms guaranteed to the people under the Indian Constitution. Many protests have taken place in Mumbai to protest violence against women, caste violence, oppressive policies, bills and anti-worker and anti-farmer legislations by the central government and to uphold the constitution and save democracy. 

Even in protests that have taken place without police permission, generally protestors are allowed to continue peacefully, and otherwise warned or at the maximum detained by the police briefly without any criminal action. However such action of filing and pursuing criminal cases is not only shocking but completely arbitrary and excessive.

It is ironic that when there are real crimes taking place against civilians daily, the police in Maharashtra and elsewhere were investing its energies on prosecuting and criminalizing students and activists who have infact upheld the values of the Constitution and democratic spirit of the city and the country. This kind of action by the police also goes against the spirit of secularism and commitment to constitutional values that forms part of the minimum programme of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi alliance, which is what these protests had sought to protect. 

Such criminalization of protests by the police sets a wrong and dangerous precedent of targeting dissenting voices and opposing views, thereby threatening our democracy, which cannot be allowed. 

There are hundreds of instances of protests in the period which similarly took place, but were not met with criminal action by the police as is seen in these cases. State Governments in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and others have already, last year, announced withdrawal of the CAA NPR NRC protest FIRs, while High Courts such as Madras High Court have quashed CAA NPR NRC protest FIRs where the protests were similarly peaceful.

The Maharashtra Government had previously honoured its commitment towards the people of the city and closed FIRs against protestors in the Save Aarey protest, Nanar protest, Covid related offences and even all the protest FIRs upto December 31, 2019 (few days before the dates of the above FIRs), in various of its orders passed to the effect.

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The post Protests on attack on JNU students: Mumbai police withdraws case against 36 protesters appeared first on SabrangIndia.

A Sabrangindia Special

India’s campuses have become the favoured site for the brute implementation of a militaristic agenda. With the institutional murder of Rohith Vemula (January 17, 2016), the sustained and violent attack on the JNU Campus and criminalization of protests including incarceration of Umar Khalid and Kanhaiya Kumar (2016), this regime in its first term had made its intentions clear. Then came the disappearance of post graduate student, Najeeb in which ABVP’s clearly alleged role has been left uninvestigated. There were also sustained attacks on the FTII, Pune, Pondicherry university and Hyderabad Central University (HCU) that was completely fortified off by the authorities.

That was then, the first term. Now, as we are nearing the end of 2022, we see how over the past year especially, as before, the immunity enjoyed by the ABVP continues.

From the campus of the iconic Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) to Ahmedabad, Gujarat, and Madhya Pradesh, the ABVP’s hand in fomenting targeted incidents is visible

The past eight years, coinciding with the brute majority earned by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the Centre has seen the aggressive, often violent, activities of the RSS-affiliate, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) especially on the nation’s university campuses. Law enforcement agencies and governments have displayed a visible soft touch in curtailing these, ensuring that they function with complete impunity.

December 4, 2022, between two rounds of elections in the state, ABVP members forced the Ahmedabad-based HA College Principal chant “Jai Sri Ram” and made him apologize to students who were rebuked earlier for raising slogans during an ongoing class. Sources told the Times of India that a couple of days ago, a few students had started shouting ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogan while the class was in progress at the HA College which is affiliated to the GLS University and is on the GLS campus near the Law Garden in the city. The teacher had earlier rebuked these students for disrupting the class and took them to the college principal, Sanjay Vakil. Vakil had scolded these students and made them write an apology letter. “The teacher later brought them to me and I also scolded them. Today, some students affiliated with ABVP came to the principal’s office and created a ruckus. They started chanting ‘Ram Dhun’ and demanded an apology from the principal for hurting religious sentiments,” said Bhalchandra Joshi, the provost of GLS University. Joshi said that the principal apologized to them explaining that he had no intention of hurting anyone’s religious sentiments. Sources said that the ABVP members forced the principal to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ with them and made him apologize to the students whom he had rebuked earlier.

December 1/2, 2022, a law college principal in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, was forced to resign. The decision, was precipitated by pressure exerted by members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the students’ wing affiliated with the RSS. Hours after putting in his papers, the academic was booked for promoting enmity amongst religious groups along with three of his colleagues. His travails began on December 1, when ABVP members submitted a memorandum, alleging “religious fundamentalist thoughts being promoted by four Muslim teachers of the college”. A day later, the activists took offence to the presence of a book, Collective Violence and Criminal Justice System, in the institution’s library. Portions of the book, according to them, showed the RSS in poor light.

December 1, 2002, students of the Delhi University (DU) protesting demanding the release of GN Saibaba were gheraoed and attacked reportedly by ABVP persons who also injured some students and gheraoed the hospital where they were being treated. Around five students of Delhi University were seriously injured after they were allegedly attacked by over 50 Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) members during a protest demanding the release of former DU professor GN Saibaba. The attack on students involved with the Campaign Against State Repression (CASR) were, according to Quint first attacked with stones and then lathis.

December 2, 2022, six professors were pulled off duty in the same college in MP on the strongarm tactics of the ABVP. The Indore-based Shasakiya Navin Vidhi Mahavidyalay (Government New Law College) pulled off six teachers, including four Muslims, off duty temporarily on complaints by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) who accused them of promoting fundamentalism and ‘negative thoughts’ about the government and Army These teachers will now not be allowed to teach classes for five days while a judicial inquiry is conducted into the allegations of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-affiliated student union, the college principal said on Thursday, December 1. It was Dipendra Thakur, head of the ABVP unit at the college, who alleged in a complaint to principal Dr Inamur Rahman that some teachers promoted ‘religious fundamentalism and negative thoughts about the government and the Army’ among first-year students. Further he also said that on Fridays, the principal, Muslim teachers, and students offer namaaz and during this time classes are not held. 

August 30,2022, a week after ABVP blamed him for security guards’ ‘attack’ on students, JNU rector was compelled to resign. Reportedly, along with student organisations, the students affiliated to the ABVP, were demanding disbursal of ‘pending’ fellowship grants clashed with JNU security guards last week, with both sides going on to get FIRs registered against each other.  While the university administration claimed that two guards were beaten up “mercilessly” by the students, the ABVP JNU unit, in a press statement issued after the incident, laid the blame on the rector.

The ABVP statement had read, “It should be known that this attack on the students was done at the behest of Dr Ajay Dubey of JNU, who is also the varsity’s rector. The JNU rector has been already exposed for running two ‘illegal’ NGOs from his JNU address. “The two NGOs in question are the Organisation for Diaspora Initiatives (ODI) and the African Studies Association of India (ASAI). Dubey has denied the accusations, which were reportedly made by a group of teachers.

July 30 2022, ABVP Activists Storm Karnataka Home Minister’s Residence (Jnanendra’s bungalow at Jayamahal in Bengaluru) In Protest Over BJP Leader’s Murder. These activists affiliated to the ABVP were protesting the killing of BJYM leader Praveen Nettar, who was killed in Dakshin Kannada district on Tuesday. They were baton-charged on Saturday when they barged into the residence of Karnataka Home Minister Araga Jnanendra in a protest over the murder of a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) youth wing leader in Dakshina Kannada district. 

June 10, 2022, clash between the ABVP and Campus Front of India (CFI) affiliated to the mow banned Popular Front of India (PFI) at the University College, a constituent college of Mangalore University, at Hampankatta with three students were admitted to a hospital stating that they suffered minor injuries in the clash. Reportedly the clash took place over a matter relating to some students mounting portraits of Veer Savarkar and Bharat Mata above the black board in a classroom without the permission of the college on June 6. The college removed the portraits the next day. Some students had complained to the principal about the portraits. And, a video clipping of the students mounting the portraits had gone viral on social media.

May 23, 2022, reported clashes at Gorakhpur Varsity as ABVP Calls DJ at College Fest ‘Porn Star’. ABVP members arrived at Madan Mohan Malaviya University of Technology to submit a memorandum against the college fest hosting DJ Zabylla, whose show they claimed was ‘obscene’.

 Half a dozen people were injured in a clash at a Gorakhpur university after activists of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad allegedly stormed the campus claiming that an Indonesian DJ who performed at the college fest was “obscene” and a “porn star.”

ABVP has filed a police complaint against three, including two teachers of the university, accusing them of attempt to murder, assault and rioting. The university has also filed a complaint against ABVP activists.Gorakhpur’s Madan Mohan Malaviya University of Technology (MMMUT) had invited Indonesian DJ, Zabylla, to perform at the annual cultural event of the varsity, ‘Tech Srijan 2022’. Various academic and cultural programmes were also part of the annual fest.  Terming the ABVP’s allegations as baseless and an attempt to defame the varsity, Vice-Chancellor J.P. Pandey told various media houses that ABVP activists stormed the campus without any prior notice to submit the memorandum and started raising slogans in an aggressive manner. “College authorities tried to pacify the protesters, invited them to discuss the matter and told them that their allegations were not true,” he added. Pandey also directly alleged that the ABVP activists misbehaved with the teachers, which angered the varsity students.  “Shubham Chaurasia, a final year student of the university, suffered grave injuries in the clash,” Pandey said.

After this violent clash, the Council has been asked to submit a report, Pandey said. In addition, a committee of four teachers have been directed to submit a report after investigating the complaints of the ABVP about the event. This committee was supposed to submit a report on the incident of May 19.  Pandey has also written a letter to the District Magistrate requesting him to nominate an administrative officer and a police officer to the committee so that a fair investigation can be conducted. The V-C also said that the university, too, has lodged a complaint at the Cantonment police station.

May 18, 2022, professor of Lucknow University Ravi Kant Chandan, a Dalit thinker, was physically assaulted –for the second time–by a student leader associated with Samajwadi Party’s student wing on Wednesday, May 18. This was the second such attack on Chandan in about a week since he made comments deemed “derogatory” by Hindutva outfits in connection with the ongoing row into Gyanvapi mosque and Kashi Vishwanath Mandir. On May 10, eight days before, he faced a physical attack from the members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The latest attack, on May 18, was carried out by one Karthik Pandey of the Samajwadi Chatra Sabha, the student wing of the Samajwadi Party. Chandan was attacked near the proctor’s office on the campus moments after leaving the Hindi department after delivering a lecture there.

The attack stunned everyone on the campus as Samajwadi Chatra Sabha, along with several other student bodies and faculty members, protested on Tuesday, May 17, at the Lucknow University gate against the ABVP attack on Professor Chandan and lent its support.

Apeil 10, 2022, a clash between students affiliated to left student organisations and others with the RSS-affiliate, the ABVP broke out after then Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) president Aishe Ghosh o accused Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) members of stopping students from eating non-vegetarian food on campus and thereafter indulging in violence. Left members also accused ABVP members of resorting to stone-pelting in the evening in which some students were injured. The mess secretary was also allegedly attacked by ABVP students. Deputy commissioner of police (Southwest) Manoj C said six persons from both sides have sustained minor injuries. 

February 15, 2022:  ABVP members on Tuesday protested outside the Tamil Nadu Bhavan in the national capital demanding the probe in the Thanjavur student suicide case be transferred to the CBI. ABVP Delhi State Secretary Siddharth while talking to ANI alleged that the accused in the case were welcomed by the ministers in the state government when they were released from jail. “To ensure an independent investigation, the state government should distance itself from the probe,” he said. He also demanded that the members of ABVP who are arrested for protesting outside CM house over the same issue should be released immediately.

February 4, 2020, following attacks, ABVP, SFS students hold protests at Panjab University. Protests and counter protests were held amidst slogans of ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ and ‘SFS hooliganism will not be tolerated’, members of the ABVP gathered to condemn the attack outside Boys Hostel No 3, which had left one of its members severely injured on Saturday evening. Several SFS members at the protest claimed that the attack took place in response to the lewd and “misogynistic” comments that Divyansh, the ABVP student who was attacked, had posted on a Facebook group (reported by The Indian Express). “We cannot tolerate those who treat women like this, and post such derogatory comments,” said some SFS members during the protest.

After the attack which took place on Saturday night, Divyansh registered an FIR naming four members of SFS, including the PU SFS president Varinder Singh. The FIR was registered under the Sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 341 (wrongful restraint), 147 (for rioting), 141 (show of criminal force) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC. Following the incident, an SFS student, Antarpreet Singh, who was also named in the FIR, was allegedly attacked outside Boys Hostel No 1 by a few ABVP members on that night. “I was outside the Boys Hostel No 1 when they attacked me. They tore off my turban and said you survived 1984 but you will not survive anymore,” said Antarpreet. A DDR was registered regarding the incident and the police said, it needs to conduct an inquiry before registering an FIR.

January 31, 2022, police used violence to control two protests reportedly against both the ABVP which was protesting the delay in issuance of marks cards, another organisation comprising Bangalore University Post Graduate and Research Scholars was protesting condemning the recent incident of a district judge asking officials to remove the photo of Dr BR Ambedkar during the 73 Republic Day programme in Raichur. Jurisdictional police officials denied any such incident took place

Violence had broken out on the Jnanabharati Campus of Bangalore University after the city police resorted to hitting protesting student activists of Akhila Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishat (ABVP) with lathis (sticks). Jurisdictional police officials however have denied any such incident ever took place!

December 15, 2021, an incident at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), members of the right-wing student outfit Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) allegedly attacked a study circle organized by students to discuss an essay by Friedrich Engels, a 19^th century German philosopher of repute. This an eye-witness account of the incident.

November 14, 2021 members of ABVP, most of them upper-caste men, disrupted a study circle that was going to be held in Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) office, Teflas at 9 p.m. by Hundred Flowers Group on Friedrich Engels’ essay, Socialism, Utopian and Scientific. ABVP was quick to jump in to disrupt the academic exercise, with its divisive and violent politics. After forcibly occupying the office, restraining the members of the study circle, and disrupting the discussion, the members of ABVP attacked the students who wanted to attend the session and study. The office-bearers of ABVP along with the newly inducted members allegedly harassed women and assaulted many students present at the office. When some students attempted to take the injured ones to the hospital, the ABVP members forcibly intercepted the movement and assaulted the student who had fainted. The saga of atrocity didn’t stop here. From shouting caste and gender insensitive cuss words to disrupting democratic dialogue and arbitrarily inciting one-sided violence, these ABVP members damaged property, tore books and broke tambourines. Their sloganeering, which has been recorded, was filled with offensive statements, caste remarks and ridicule.

[[ On the next evening of November 15, the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) took out a rally on Monday evening in protest the attack on students by alleged members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) on Sunday. Hundreds of students took part in the protest rally.  JNUSU had alleged that students belonging to ABVP heckled and attacked students who had booked the JNU union room for a reading session on Sunday, November 14. Several students sustained injuries during the attack.

In a statement posted on social media right before the attack started, Students’ Federation of India (SFI), JNU, said: “In a continuation of ABVP’s hooliganism on campus — the union room booked by an organisation to conduct a reading session has been occupied by them. The organisation has been campaigning for the conduct of this session for the past few days.”  The statement also added that ABVP goons were refusing to leave the room and were resorting to tactics of criminal intimidation. “SFI-JNU calls on all democratic students to reach the union office and protect campus democracy from ABVP’s lumpenism,” it said.]]

October 29, 2021, an obvious pattern emerges from the ABVP’s intimidation tactics when a similar major incident propagating hate against minorities, and which resulted in the violence against students from the minority communities took place (October 29, 2021). Then, the Centre for Women’s Studies, JNU, had announced a webinar on ‘Gendered Resistance & Fresh Challenges in Post 2019 Kashmir’. Without understanding the academic context in which the webinar was being organized, ABVP complained against the same and began its usual extremist narrativization. The webinar was cancelled followed by a Victory March organized by ABVP, which was filled with threats and warnings to the students. Abuse and hate were taken to the next level when ABVP members reportedly also verbally abused minority students.

January 16, 2020, Anti-CAA protest: ABVP members attacked us at Visva Bharati University, alleged SFI activists; The two students who were attacked had taken part in a protest BJP MP Swapan Dasgupta on January 8. The ABVP has, however, denied its involvement and said the activists are not a part of the organisation. Two students of Visva Bharati University were allegedly attacked by Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) activists for supporting anti-CAA protest inside the campus. The two students belonging to the Students Federation of India (SFI) had taken part in a protest BJP MP Swapan Dasgupta on January 8. The ABVP has, however, denied its involvement and said the activists are not a member of the organisation.

The students from the Economics department – identified as Swapnaneel Mukhopadhyay and Phalguni Pan– have reportedly been admitted to Pearson Memorial Hospital. According to them, ABVP members Achintya Bagdi and Sabbir Ali beat them up with sticks when they were returning to their hostel and tried to attack them inside the hospital. They also alleged that the guards had to lock the hospital gates to prevent another assault.  On January 8, SFI members confined BJP MP Dasgupta, Visva-Bharati Vice-Chancellor Bidyut Chakraborty, and several others to a room for over seven hours to protest the university’s decision to invite Dasgupta to deliver a lecture on the new citizenship law.

January 5, 2020:   ABVP members barged into JNU hostels, attacked students with sticks, claims JNUSU. Students at Sabarmati Hostel, Mahi Mandvi Hostel, Periyar Hostel of the JNU were attacked on Sunday evening. The JNUSU has alleged that the attack was orchestrated by RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). “The ABVP attackers, with covered faces, are trying to enter Periyar Hostel by climbing the pipes,” the JNUSU said on Twitter, adding, “ABVP members wearing masks were moving around on the campus with lathis, rods, and hammers”.

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and a few faculty members reportedly helped the masked mob enter the campus to unleash a brutal attack on students and teachers of the iconic Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on January 5. While the Delhi Police has portrayed the JNU violence case as a result of a clash between “Right” and “Left”, it was in fact an ABVP-led attack, assisted by some newly-recruited faculty members who sympathise with the saffron students’ group and the university administration helmed by vice-chancellor M. Jagadesh Kumar had then stated the JNUSU (Jawaharlal Nehru Students Union). At around 6 am, on January 5, 2020 a few masked guards were seen moving aggressively towards a group of protesting students who sat in front of the School of Biotechnology (SBT). Alarmed, students made many SOS calls to JNUSU office-bearers. When JNUSU president, Aishe Ghosh reached there at around 7 am, the masked guards allegedly slapped and assaulted her. He said a few ABVP students also joined the guards to beat up protesting students. It is after this incident, according to various students, that the protesting group switched off the main switch of the CIS server system which is near the SBT in protest.

The situation soon escalated after ABVP jumped in. ABVP leaders on campus mobilised their activists in front of the School of International Studies between 10 am to noon. Moon claimed that faculty members like Tapan Kumar Bihari, Ashwini Mohapatra, Jaikhlong Basumatary and Nagendra Srinivas came in support of the ABVP and led the group which assaulted many students, including many women, through the day. He also alleged that the said teachers repeatedly provoked the ABVP activists to beat up protesting students. JNUSU general secretary Satish Chandra Yadav was also attacked by this mob. On the same day, the ABVP mob gathered at various places of the university and assaulted many students without any provocation. It has been alleged that all this happened in the presence of the police personnel who were stationed in JNU since 23 December.

The JNUSU even named many ABVP members and a few faculty members who were seen participating in attacks on students. It also released videos which show them as part of the mob, demanding an inquiry against them. It also showed emails sent from JNU administration from the time when the registrar had claimed the servers were down. The JNUSU said that servers were functioning throughout and there was no grave damage to them because of the protesting students. To date, despite video and electronic footage revealing the aggressive activities of the ABVP-led mob, not only has no fair investigation taken place, but no one has been detained or arrested.

January 17, 2017:  Brutally carrying on its ‘campaign’ to free Delhi University’s campus of ‘anti-national’ elements, the supremacist Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad attacked other students protesting the violent way the RSS-linked organisation had disrupted a programme at Ramjas college the previois day. The Students’ Federation of India (SFI) All India Students’ Association (AISA) had organized a march from Ramjas college to Maurice Nagar police station to protest the cancellation of a seminar in which JNU’s Umar Khalid was supposed to speak. The Hindustan Times had then that at least 100 police personnel in riot gear were brought in while the Hindu also reported   that the police resorted to lathi-charging to control the situation.

As dozens of thugs wielding lathis laid siege inside the college, students and teachers who were participating in the march to uphold the freedom of expression on campus were caught in the fray. According to a detailed NDTV report at the time, at least 20 people were injured, and some journalists were also caught in the clashes. While the ABVP denied attacking the students and teachers, Shehla Rashid, then Vice President, JNUSU, who was also invited to Ramjas for the seminar, has been quoted by NDTV as saying, “We were attacked, the cops did nothing. Our students were bleeding. They hurled bricks at us…They pulled the hair of women.”

October 15, 2016, Sinister disappearance of PHD student, Najeeb who had been pursuing a Master’s Degree in Biotechnology from New Delhi’s prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). One evening -in October 2016 –after a minor altercation with the aggressive members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the very next day he went missing. Najeeb’s friends have suspected foul play and Fatima started demanding an explanation about what happened to her son. No action has been taken against the ABVP or its members.

March-April 2016: Criminalisation of Protests and Incarceration of Umar Khalid and Kanhaiya Kumar (this was repeated in 2018 and today, Khalid remains a serious target, being in jail for several months over the protests to the Citizenship Act 2019-NPR-NRC under the dreaded UAPA law.

January 17, 2016, the Institutional murder (suicide) of Student Icon, Rohith Vemula at the Hyderabad Central University led to sustained protests over the suspension of Appa Rao Podile, the vice chancellor. Every attempt was made to curtail and prevent the protests.

Immunity comes with State Power

All these listed incidents, and they are simply illustrative of the ABVP’s growing clout on India’s campuses, reveal how immunity from swift and fair action from law enforcement comes from the proximity of the outfit with state power. Be it Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, or the capital city of Delhi – policed by a force under the direct control of India’s Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) this immunity flows from the ideology of the outfits in power.

Questioning, thinking probing young minds with the ability for independent and analytical thought are a threat to a regime that believes in policing free expression and stratifying and controlling state and society.

In all the instances here, and more which may not be listed here, the strategy is simple. After creating an atmosphere of intimidation and terror, ABVP members use violence accompanied by verbal abuse. They are rarely pulled up, no police action, never do they face prosecution. Opponents to their ideology are “warned” by ABVP men and women on the prowl to “leave the campus.” Bullying is common, the hooliganism includes use of ridicule, obscene gestures, sexist parlance and even threats of gendered violence, rape. Provocative and stigma-driven slogans against student voices from India’s minority communities has cornered and isolated them further. Yet, despite these organized attacks, student organisations have resisted.

India’s campuses, once safe, diverse, defiant, and vibrant are today sought to be converted into controlled military camp like outfits, policed and fearful. Despite crude and consistent political attacks however, vibrancy still prevails, and the battle is still, very much on.

Related:

Hate watch: ABVP alleged WhatsApp chats leaked; calls for targeted crimes exposed?

M.P. police: author of book on Collective Violence & Criminal Justice’ arrested from Pune

Madhya Pradesh: Home minister Narottam Mishra orders arrest of author, threatens to revoke PHD

Six Govt Law college teachers taken off duty after ABVP complaint: MP

The post ABVP’s strong arm tactics have received a soft touch from law enforcement & the Indian state: 2014-2022 appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Days after walls on the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus were defaced with anti-Brahmin slogans, the university has asked all its centres to install CCTV cameras and instructed students and staff members to remain vigilant to prevent such incidents in future.

According to a PTI report, the walls of the building in the School of International Studies-II were spray-painted with slogans asking members of Brahmin and Baniya communities to leave the campus and the country.

The slogans on the walls read “Brahmins leave the campus”, “There will be blood”, “Brahmin Bharat chhodo” and “Brahmo-Baniyas (sic), we are coming for you! We will avenge”.

This incident took place last week, on Thursday, December 1. Scroll reported that some of the slogans on the doors of the rooms assigned to faculty members asked them to go back to “shakha”, a reference to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

While the ABVP, (Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad) –affiliated to the RSS – held Leftist student groups responsible for the incident, the JNU Students’ Union (JNUSU) hinted that “right-wing forces” were to blame.

“Such statements are clearly meant to disturb the normalcy of the campus by vitiating the campus environment. This is not the first time that such vandalism has occurred within the university. Several instances have happened during previous years,” the JNUSU said in a statement.

The JNUSU also alleged that right-wing forces have “tried historically to caricature claims to social justice in such a deplorable manner”.

JNU vice-chancellor, Santishree D. Pandit, had on Friday, December 2, called an emergency meeting on this matter.

She had instructed the dean of the School of International Studies and the grievances committee to inquire into the incident and submit a report at the earliest. Teacher and student bodies have also urged the JNU administration to conduct a free and fair inquiry to ensure peace on the campus.

The university also issued a six-point advisory, including that all schools and centres will have only a single entry and exit point. The university also asked the authorities to ensure adequate lighting in corridors.

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New Delhi: Some students at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has claimed that the administration has imposed thousands of rupees fines on them for participating in protests and “banned” them from registering for the next semester.

The amount of fine varies from Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000, the students claimed and accused the administration of “harassment”.

However, JNU chief proctor Rajnish Kumar Mishra has denied the allegations, saying the actions are taken after following due procedure.

Among the students, who have got notices, are student activists — former JNU Sudents Union (JNUSU) vice president and PhD scholar Simone Zoya Khan and Kaushik Raj.

Kaushik has been served notice for the 2018 protest in which, he claims, he did not even present.

As per the notice dated August 29, Kaushik has been directed to submit Rs 10,000 by September 5 “in any case”.

“…He is therefore directed to deposit the amount of Rs 10,000. Otherwise, he may not be allowed to register during the coming semester until he gets clearance from the office,” the notice signed by the chief proctor read.

Speaking to PTI, Kaushik, who is in his final year of PhD, alleged that the fine imposed on him is erroneous as he was not present during the protest in 2018 where several students gathered in a seminar room against compulsory attendance.

Kaushik fears that he will not be allowed registration for the new semester and all his hard work will go waste. 

“I was not present during the protest. Even during the proctorial enquiry, I made the oral and written deposition that I was not present. Still I am being fined. I know five-six more students who have received a similar notice,” Kaushik said.

Simone Zoya Khan, who is also in the last year of her PhD, said that the university is targeting student activists for organising demonstrations.

Simone has also been served notice for the same 2018 protest. She was then JNUSU vice president.

Simone said she could not take the risk and arranged the fine money as she has to submit her thesis this year.

“It is not fair. The university is targeting the students. Dozens of false and unfounded complaints are brought against students. The yearly fee at the varsity is Rs 200-300 and they are levying a fine of Rs 15,000. How is this fair?” Simone asked.

In a statement, All India Students’ Association said that the action by the JNU proctor office is politically motivated. The student organisation has accused the administration of targeting students from marginalised backgrounds with heavy fines.

Chief proctor Mishra said that the imposition of fine is not a new thing and all the actions are taken after following due procedure.

“We are not stopping students from taking admission. This is a regular procedure based on several proctorial enquiries. It is not a new thing,” Mishra told PTI over phone.

Democratic Students’ Federation (DSF) also said that proctorial enquiry has been levied against several students over the protest for offline classes at School of International Studies on June 20.

“It is to bring to the notice of all of you that two of our fellow classmates, Poshal Gyamba and Sakshi Sinha have had a proctorial enquiry levied against them with respect to the ‘protest demonstration for offline classes’ at SIS-1 on 20th of June. The report also mentions fellow students Harshit Raj Chaudhary and Raghav Gill, although they haven’t been summoned yet,” the DSF said.

Courtesy: Newsclick

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