At JNU, ruckus over Shivaji Maharaj portrait’s ‘vandalism’, attack on students
The RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad accused the Left-backed student outfits of vandalising the portrait of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj on his birth anniversary at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on Sunday, while JNU Students’ Union alleged that ABVP activists attacked some students after a march seeking justice for an IIT Bombay student Darshan Solanki who allegedly died by suicide recently. The ABVP, however, has denied the charge.
The JNUSU organised seeking justice for Solanki, 18, who belonged to a Scheduled Caste community and allegedly took his own life by jumping off the seventh floor of a hostel building on the Powai campus of the IIT on February 12, but his family suspects foul play in his death and said he faced discrimination.
The JNUSU, in a statement, alleged, “ABVP has once again resorted to attacking students…. This was done soon after a candlelight march in solidarity with the call by Darshan Solanki’s father…. ABVP does this once again to derail the movement against caste discrimination.”
Denying the charge, the ABVP accused the “Left group” of removing a garland from a picture of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and throwing it away.
“Immediately after the programme, the students on the Left came there and removed the garland from the picture and threw it away,” the ABVP said in a statement.
News agency ANI reported that Shivaji Maharaj’s portrait was placed on the walls of the students activity centre.
“Today is the birth anniversary of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. We had put up a portrait of Shivaji Maharaj on the walls outside the student activity centre as tribute. But the ‘communists’ of JNU couldn’t digest this. Members from ‘100 Flowers Group’ and the SFI came and vandalised the portrait of Shivaji Maharaj,” ANI quoted ABVP JNU secretary Umesh Chandra Ajmera as saying.
He added that those involved in the incident were “illegal workers” (outsiders) and had entered the college premises without permission.