New Delhi - New Delhi   

JNU incident leaves students angry, hurt

Staff Reporter

Protest held despite JNUSU call against any disruption

NEW DELHI: With black flag protests and slogan shouting by some students' groups marring the Prime Minister's visit to Jawaharlal Nehru University on Monday morning, the student community here was left angry and upset over yet another incident of a delegate's visit to the campus being disrupted.

Although most student groups have at some point or the other made use of a vocal protest to express their displeasure over issues or policies pursued by the government, what has irked the students' community here is that despite the JNU Students' Union deciding at a meeting that no disruptions would be made, a section of students decided go ahead with their protest.

The All India Students' Association (AISA) which staged the protests along with the Progressive Students' Union (PSU) and the Democratic Students' Union (DSU) however defended its decision.

While arguing that they had never agreed not to protest, the members noted that they had only put their point forward through the slogans. "Our protest was not violent from any angle, it was a peaceful one. We have nothing personal against the Prime Minister, but we are opposed to the policies being followed by his Government and we wanted to express our disapproval of it," said Awadesh, general secretary of AISA.

But the students' community here was clearly not convinced. The first time that a Prime Minister has actually addressed the students community in JNU -- the last time a Prime Minister visited the campus being in the 1980s when Indira Gandhi came but was forced to leave after protests -- students felt the conduct was disrespectful. "It was so disappointing. Why should the entire students' community get maligned because of the act of a few. There were hundreds of students wanting to hear the Prime Minister, and a handful decided to act as spoilsport," was how a student put it.

What made matters worse was the absence of JNUSU president and AISA member Mona Das's from the campus.

While the reasons for her being absent was explained as her being out of town, the SFI-AISF combine which holds three of the students' union panel posts was not convinced.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

`Centre's stand must echo NAM position on Iran'
Trend of globalisation irreversible: Manmohan
JNU incident leaves students angry, hurt

Copyright © 2005, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu