New Delhi: Shouting slogans and raising banners, thousands of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students clashed with police Monday as their protest over steep fee hike escalated, leaving HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ stranded for over six hours at the venue of the varsity’s convocation.
The students of the varsity, which has seen several such agitations in the recent years, were protesting outside the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) premises, the venue for the varsity’s third convocation, which was addressed by Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu.
The protests started in the morning and escalated as the day progressed with crowds of angry students, with banners saying ‘Roll back fee hike’, trying to push through a wall of anti-riot police personnel to reach the venue.
Several barricades put up by the police were broken by the students, who started their march from JNU towards the AICTE premises, about 3three kilometres away from the campus in south Delhi, around 10.30am.
Water cannons were used to disperse the protestors and police said some of the students were detained. Top brass of the Delhi Police were at the site to handle the situation.
The students shouted slogans like “Police ko aage karta hai, JNU VC darta hai” (JNU VC keeps police in front as he is afraid) as they demanded that vice-chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar meet them and listen to their demands.
During the scuffle with police personnel, the students raised slogans like ‘Police-walo ki ek bimari, Tis Hazari, Tis Hazari’, referring to their clash with lawyers at the city’s Tis Hazari court a few days back. Slogans supporting lawyers, who are on a strike following the clash, were also heard.
The students are demanding withdrawal of the draft hostel manual, in which service charges of Rs 1,700 were introduced and the one-time mess security fee, which is refundable, has been hiked from Rs 5,500 to Rs 12,000.
The rent for a single-seater room has been increased from Rs 20 per month to Rs 600 per month, while rent for a double-seater room has been increased to Rs 300 per month from Rs 10 per month.
The draft hostel manual also has provisions for dress code and curfew timings, the students’ union alleged, even as the administration denied these two claims.
M Venkaiah Naidu left the venue, just before the protestors arrived, after attending the convocation. However, Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal was stuck for an extended period. The minister was able to leave the premises around 4.15pm.
JNUSU president Aishe Ghosh and vice-president Saket Moon met the minister at 2.00pm who assured them that their demands would be looked into. They, however, were not able to meet the VC and raised slogans ‘we want V-‘”.
“This is not the end of our movement. We urged the HRD minister to ask the VC to have a dialogue with the students and he assured us that he will direct the VC to talk to the students. It is due to him (the VC) that things have come to be like this,” Ghosh said. She claimed that the HRD minister has promised that the students’ union would be called for a meeting to the ministry.
A protesting student said, “The hostel fee has been increased by 300 per cent. Where will the students stay and study if this happens with us.”
The JNU Teachers’ Association said many students were injured during the protest as they received blows. According to a police officer, many policemen and women also sustained injuries as they tried to quell the protest.
PTI
