VHP, Bajrang Dal protest outside JNU campus

New Delhi: Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal activists on Tuesday staged a protest outside the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) against an event on the campus in support of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru. They shouted slogans and burnt effigies of JNU vice-chancellor demanding action against the alleged anti-nationals.

However, the protesters were not allowed to march inside the campus by university security and police force deployed outside the university. The Bajrang Dal protesters also demanded that the vice-chancellor take action against the teachers who are supporting the agitation of left-leaning students.

Meanwhile, protests inside the campus by students and teachers against the varsity administration continued with teachers joining them in boycotting the classes. JNU students union president Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested last week in connection with a case of sedition and criminal conspiracy registered over holding of the event at the varsity during which anti-India slogans were alleged to have been raised.

His arrest has triggered widespread outrage among students and teachers and drew severe criticism from non-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) political parties. Earlier in the day, JNU teachers joined the students in boycotting classes in protest against arrest of its student union leader in a sedition case and said they would take classes on “nationalism” in the varsity lawns.

The students had on Monday gone on an indefinite strike till JNU students union president Kanhaiya is released and the sedition case against him dropped. Teachers’ bodies of 40 central universities and Pune-based Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) had also come out in support of the agitating students, saying it is an issue of “indiscipline” and not “sedition”.