AISA, NSUI jointly protest JNU incident at Lucknow University

LUCKNOW : Lucknow University students on Monday took out a protest march against the alleged hooliganism and violence inflicted upon students at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Delhi which, they said was perpetrated by RSS-affiliated student organisation Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) on Sunday.

According to reports, JNU students claimed that ABVP members manhandled the mess secretary of Kaveri hostel in the name of non-vegetarian food and later assaulted students who tried to resist this “divisive” agenda of ABVP and opposition to the food code. Due to the violence of ABVP, several students got injured, and female students were sexually harassed, JNU students had claimed.

In protest, a nationwide call against the continued violence of ABVP on the student community has been given by different student unions, following which students of Lucknow University (LU) also took out a march, led by All India Students’ Association (AISA) and National Students’ Union of India (NSUI).

The protest march at LU started from gate no. 5 and culminated at gate no. 1 on the campus, where students addressed the gathering and condemned the continuous violence on students on different campuses across the country allegedly by ABVP on communal and divisive agendas of RSS-BJP.Vishal Singh, NSUI coordinator of LU and Nikhil Kumar, Lucknow district vice-president of AISA jointly condemned the JNU incident.

They said the resistance shown by JNU students on Sunday was not only against the imposition of some food codes on people but to save the cultural diversity amidst rising incidents of communal hatred and fascistic onslaughts. The protesting students voiced how different states banned the sale of non-vegetarian food, which directly affects the economic stability of many people and their right to choose what to eat or not. The culprits, who inflicted violence on the mess workers and other protesting students, must be taken to task, they added. On the JNU incident, Satyam, the organisation secretary of ABVP said that people are spreading rumours to malign the image of ABVP. He further said, “Both AISA and NSUI are spoiling the peaceful academic atmosphere on the LU campus by staging the protest.”