NEW DELHI: Police on Friday used water-cannon guns and batons to stop a march to Parliament by Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students and teachers, demanding the arrest of a professor accused of sexual harassment and protesting the privatisation of education and compulsory attendance rules.
The rally of around 500 students and teachers from the JNU campus was halted near INA Market in south Delhi where barricades were created to stop the protestors from marching ahead. Police said the protestors didn’t have permission to take out the demonstration and were asked to return to the campus.
However, they didn’t relent and started storming the barricades, a police officer said, adding the police then used batons and water cannons to disperse the protestors.
“Several people were injured in police action,” the officer said. The JNU Students Union which had called for march alleged that some women students were manhandled by police and their clothes were even torn.
Congress MP Sushmita Dev and CPI-M leader Brinda Karat also joined the protesting teachers and students. “We are supporting the movement, be it sexual harassment case or educative reforms. The authorities don’t understand that attendance cannot be a parameter to judge a scholar or a researcher’s academic capabilities,” Dev said.