NEW DELHI: A day after a scuffle broke out between members of the ABVP and the Left wing students of JNU during the screening of a documentary film on '
love jihad', both the groups took out protest marches against the "violence perpetuated in the campus" by each other.
Both groups blamed each other for "vitiating the atmosphere of the campus. While the Left students claimed that the
film screening was an attempt at "spreading communalism on the campus, the ABVP, criticising the Left for its "hypocrisy", alleged that they don't tolerate freedom of speech and expression of others.
There were simultaneous marches in the campus by both the Left and the ABVP. The Left groups started from Ganga Dhaba and went till Chandrabhaga hostel while the ABVP March started from Chandrabhaga hostel and ended at Sabarmati Lawns. Earlier both the groups were arriving at the same spot. But the plan was changed at the last minute by the JNU Student's Union (
JNUSU) "to avoid confrontation."
At the start of the march, Geeta Kumari, JNUSU president said "many want to destroy JNU but we will not let their dreams come true, we will not indulge in violence or be provoked."
The screening of the film, 'In the Name of Love- Melancholy of God' s Own Country' was organised by a cultural organization Vivekanand Vichar Manch at the Sabarmati Lawns on Friday. The screening was opposed by members of the Student's Union and the Left-wing activists in the campus who said that "the film was spreading communal venom and bigotry."
The JNUSU in its statement said that "JNU students standing up for gender justice and against this politics of hate in the name of 'love jihad' protested against such politics today."
They alleged that their peaceful demonstratiion on students were showered with eggs and stones to create a situation of chaos "reminiscent of the
Ramjas College incident."
However, Umesh Kumar Khute, Convener of the
Vivekanand Manch said that the Left students "displaying their intolerance broke the security cordon and stood in front of the film screen with placards and raised slogans. We had asked them to see the film and then raise their concerns. But they became violent and we had to remove them from in front of the screen."
The incident also saw former JNUSU president
Mohit Pandey complaining that he was assaulted and his car window pane broken by a group of ABVP members. "I felt I would die today," Pandey claimed in his police complaint alleged that stones were thrown at him and his car and some ABVP members tried to attack him with the broken glass shards.
This was denied by the ABVP who in their counter complaint claimed that it was Pandey who provoked them and attacked their members. They also claimed that he ran his car over a guard present at the incident.
In an exciting turn of event, Left students cross the Sabarmati Lawns road turn amidst tight security and the human chain formed by Left students and security guards while both sides continued to raise slogans against each other
During the march, an interesting incident occurred when Left students cross the Sabarmati Lawns road turn amidst tight security and the human chain formed by Left students and security guards while both sides continued to raise slogans against each other; thereby avoiding any violence.
