Mumbai, Jan 6, TEN Network | Shaken by the attacks in the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus in Delhi late on Sunday, hundreds of people staged protests across India on Monday condemning the manner in which students and teachers were targeted.
MAHARASHTRA
The impromptu protests started from midnight and continued till morning at the Gateway of India, near the IIT-Bombay campus in Powai in Mumbai. And in Pune, protests occurred in the FTII campus.
Many carried the Tricolour, candles, handwritten banners and posters expressing solidarity with the JNU students and raised slogans demanding action against those involved in the attack.
Maharashtra minister Jitendra Awhad of NCP joined the students at the protest and sat with them discussing their demands.
“When people begin to fear intellect, there is anarchy,” the minister told reporters.
“I am going to convey feelings of the students to the government. When students agitate, one should understand that this is a serious issue,” he said.
Several political leaders from the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi slammed the violence against the JNU students-teachers and demanded stringent action against the perpetrators, here on Monday.
Terming it as “a planned attack”, Nationalist Congress Party President Sharad Pawar said the students and professors were subjected to a cowardly attack.
“I strongly condemn this undemocratic act of vandalism and violence. Use of violent means to suppress democratic values and thought will never succeed,” Pawar said.
State Congress and Revenue Minister Balasaheb Thorat strongly flayed the “brutal violence unleashed by the goons of ABVP” inside the JNU.
“This is sheer hooliganism, they are ransacking property and harming people. I demand that the attackers should be brought to book immediately,” Thorat said.
Shiv Sena leader and Environment Minister Aditya Thackeray said that the violence and brutality faced by students while protesting is worrisome.
“Be it Jamia, JNU, students mustn’t face brutal force. Let them be! These goons must face action. They must be brought to time-bound and swift justice,” Aditya Thackeray demanded.
More protests are planned during the day on Monday, said an activist P.S. Prasad, at the University of Mumbai and at the Hutatma Chowk in south Mumbai, besides other colleges and universities, by student organizations and NGOs.
HYDERABAD
A group of students and citizens staged a protest here condemning the violence at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, police said.
Expressing solidarity with the JNU students, the protesters gathered near Ambedkar statute on Tank Bund after midnight on Sunday and raised slogans like “Students Fraternity Zindabaad” and held placards that read “We are with you JNU”.
They raised slogans andheld a candlelight protest and later dispersed, a senior police official told PTI.
The protesters also raised slogans against the Narendra Modi government over the CAA.
Similarly, a group of students under the banner of “HCU Students Union” also protested against the violence at JNU.
They took out a rally late Sunday night on the campus of University of Hyderabad (UoH) here condemning the “brutal attack on JNU students” and blamed the ABVP for the violence and demanded the arrest of the culprits.
PUNJAB
Some students on Monday shouted slogans during a seminar at the Panjab University here to protest the violence at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi.
The students shouted slogans when Haryana Assembly Speaker Gian Chand Gupta was speaking a seminar- ‘Women’s Participation in Decision Making’ at the PU campus here.
Protesters including girls students were taken out of the seminar hall by the security personnel.
Later talking to media, one of the protesters Kanupriya strongly condemned the attack on the Jawaharlal Nehru University Student Union (JNUSU) President Aishe Ghosh.
Talking to reporters, Gupta described the protest as “a premeditated act”.
Protests also took place at Pondicherry University, Bengaluru University, and Aligarh Muslim University.
Students staged peaceful marches to register their protest against the violence on the JNU campus.
“Today it is them, tomorrow it can be us. Violence in any form is condemnable. We stand by our friends in JNU,” Raiza, a Pondicherry University student said. (NIE)
