JNU blame game day after fight over mess menu

NEW DELHI: A war of words erupted on Monday between members of Left-affiliated student outfits and the right-wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) a day after students from the two sides clashed on Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus, with each side blaming the other for provocation and assault.

Akhtarista Ansari, an MA sociology student at JNU, had a brick hurled at her on Sunday evening when she reached the Kaveri hostel on campus amid emerging reports of violence from the hostel over protests against meat in the mess, students said. Ansari started bleeding profusely and had to be rushed to AIIIMS for medical assistance. She was among 20 students who were injured during the violence on Sunday.

According to the 21-year-old, Jai Shri Ram slogans were being raised by a group of students from ABVP when she and other students reached the hostel around 7.30pm. “When I reached Kaveri hostel, I saw that slogans were being raised. Students were being badly abused. I was attacked with a very big stone due to which my head started bleeding,” said Ansari, who sustained four stitches.

While Left-wing students said that the ABVP members started the fight over non-vegetarian food on the Kaveri Hostel’s mess menu, ABVP alleged that the Left students disrupted a havan that was organised on the occasion of Ram Navmi on Sunday.

Sridevi, a member of the ABVP and a PhD student, who was hit by a stone late Sunday evening, said that Left members had resorted to violence due to their frustration at the successful conclusion of the Ram Navami prayer. She said that the prayer was successfully conducted despite delays caused due to disruption by Left-affiliated students who were raising slogans. “Around 5-5.30pm, we started our prayer. It was completed by 6.30pm-7pm. While we were exiting, members of Left groups were standing outside the hostel gate in large numbers. They started abusing us since they could not digest the fact that a Ram Navmi prayer was taking place on JNU for the first time. They started hitting us with bricks and whatever they could get their hands on,” said Sridevi. Calling the violence a planned attack, she said that Left groups were frustrated since students were embracing their civilisation and culture. “This is a threat for Left-groups and hence they are resorting to attacks on us,” she said.

In a statement on Monday, the JNU administration backed the version given by the ABVP members, and said that the mess menu is decided by the students committee and the university has nothing to do with it.

According to several students HT spoke to, while violence spiraled in the evening, tension between members of the two groups was simmering since Sunday afternoon. Earlier in the day around 2pm, an altercation between members of the two factions had erupted after efforts were made to stop preparation of non-veg food on campus.

JNUSU president Aishe Ghosh and members of the mess committee at Kaveri Hostel claimed that ABVP members created a ruckus, and assaulted members of the mess committee over cooking of chicken on Sunday.

Naveen Kumar, president, Kaveri Hostel, said the altercation started around 2pm, when the vendor supplying chicken was made to leave the campus by ABVP members. Kumar said that on Saturday night, the mess secretary had been asked by the warden to ensure that non-vegetarian food is not cooked on Ram Navami, but Kumar spoke to the Dean Students who said that the mess committee would decide the menu. “As per the weekly routine, dinner preparations were to take place, However, ABVP members threatened the vendors who supply meat and told them that they will not be allowed to distribute meat anywhere on campus,” said Kumar, who president of NSUI’s JNU unit. Rejecting ABVP’s claim of disruption of Ram Navmi prayers, he said that the prayer was concluded peacefully.

Kaveri Hostel mess secretary Raghib (who goes by single name) said the issue was being politicised by ABVP, whose members had threatened the meat vendor. Due to the altercation, many students went without food since the full menu was not prepared, said Raghib. “ABVP students closed the gate when the vendor was coming to the hostel. He was threatened by them and told that he we will be barred from supplying food to all other hostels of JNU.