JNU students baton-charged, traffic comes to a grinding halt
Students were marching to Rashtrapati Bhawan to meet Prez over fee hike issue
NEW DELHI: Hundreds of Jawaharlal Nehru University students were lathi-charged by the police on Monday and several of them detained when they tried to march towards Rashtrapati Bhawan against the hostel fee hike, bringing traffic to a halt and leaving Metro commuters stranded for hours with three Central Delhi stations being closed for over three hours as a precautionary measure.
The “long march” call that was going on for over a week was scheduled to start at 11 in the morning but got delayed as students witnessed heavy police security outside the campus. Three-tier barricading was also in place.
Around 2:10 pm a crowd of about 1,500 students started marching from inside the campus with the police escorting them. A source from inside the campus said merely 300-400 students had planned to march but considering such heavy security, more students were asked to join in.
“Our demands are the
same. We want a complete rollback of the new hostel manual. We want the authorities to wake up,” said a student.
Meanwhile, the moment students reached Bhikaji Cama Place, Delhi Police started lathi-charging as they had deviated a bit from their scheduled route. “We were divided into groups and beaten up.” More than 20 students were injured in the process. On November 28, when students demonstrated, the Delhi Police used lathi-charge to disperse the crowd. Police brutality came under severe criticism after it left scores of students injured.
On Monday, a delegation of students had planned to give a letter to President Ram Nath Kovind. According to a source, the police had prepared to stop the students at Sarojini Nagar, after which a delegation from the students’ union was supposed to go and meet the officials.
Entry and exit points at Udyog Bhavan, Lok Kalyan Marg and Central Secretariat Metro stations were closed by authorities fearing protests there. “As advised by Delhi Police, entry and exit at Udyog Bhawan, Lok Kalyan Marg and Central Secretariat have been closed. Trains are not halting at Udyog Bhawan and Lok Kalyan Marg,” the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation said on Twitter.