ABVP, JNUSU hold protest marches

NEW DELHI : The Left-leaning students’ union and the Rss-backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad took out separate protest marches at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus on Saturday night. The protests came a day after a scuffle broke out between the two groups over the screening of a film on the contentious issue of ‘love jihad’.

The ABVP started its march “Save JNU from Left Lumpens” from Chandrabhaga hostel and planned to go till Sabarmati Hostel. Around the same time, the JNUSU started its march from Ganga Dhaba and visited different hostels. The union was originally supposed to go till Sabarmati Hostel but changed its plan as ABVP was scheduled to reach the same spot. “We don’t want confrontation and we will take out our march peacefully,” union president Geeta Kumari said.

The screening of “In the Name of Love - Melancholy of God’s Own Country” — a documentary on love jihad and religious conversions — was organised by the Global Indian Foundation and the Vivekanand Vichar Manch of JNU on Friday.

“When the movie was being screened, students belonging to Left-wing groups came and threw eggs and footwear on students who were watching the movie. They also broke the projector and when students opposed, they attacked them,” the ABVP said in a statement. .

The JNUSU alleged that “a dummy body called the Vivekananda Vichar Manch, a frontal organisation of the ABVP,” had arranged the screening of a film that allegedly spreads “communal venom and bigotry”.

“ABVP activists attacked students who were peacefully protesting. ABVP pelted stones and eggs, abused, man handled students who were present there,” the union said in a statement.

Police has said they have received complaints from both sides.