OpIndia has spoken to some students who were targeted by leftist goons on the day of the violence inside the campus on January 5. Manish Jangir, an ABVP member, is one of those students who have been injured in the attack by leftist goons. Manish has a broken arm as a result of the violence. However, unlike JNUSU president Aishe Ghosh’s elaborate bandaging on the head that seemed to have healed overnight and is now limited to just a tiny little band-aid, Manish’ hand is still far from healing. Manish told us that the agitation in JNU against the increased fee structure had started on November 28, 2019.
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Manish told OpIndia that many common students had also supported the agitations against the fee hike. Soon, when the common students became aware of the leftists’ intentions, they started withdrawing their support from the agitations. The leftists, as a retaliation, had allegedly then attacked hostels and the families of the hostel staff. Manish informs that even a pregnant woman, who was the warden at one of the hostels, was not spared. Almost 500 leftist students, had attacked the hostel staff and their families with glass bottles and stones.
Similarly, dean Vandana Mishra was gheraoed by leftists and was taken hostage for over 30 hours. Manish told that Mishra was manhandled, misbehaved and her clothes were torn as the leftists demanded that she resigns and leaves JNU. This incident had taken place on 8-9 November.
In the interview, Manish has expressed his displeasure over the biased, one-sided coverage of the JNU issue by a large section of mainstream media. Manish objected to violent, hateful sloganeering like “Bhagwa will burn” and “Hindutva ki Kabr Khudegi”(Hindutva will be buried) etc that are being used by leftists in the name of the protests. He also reminded about the vandalism of the yet to be inaugurated Vivekananda statue inside the JNU campus. He also added that the protests against fee hike were also morphed into protests against the CAA and were used later to boycott examinations.
Discussing the openly-leftist stand of some professors, Manish stated that even some professors at JNU have openly supported the leftists and had stopped taking classes for students who wanted to study. They were also issuing threats and warning to students who do not support the leftist cause. These professors had also stopped taking assignments and conducting exams. When the university conducted online exams, the departments where leftist professors were in the majority, never managed to conduct exams properly. Manish informed that to stop the registration process for the new semester, leftist student leaders Geeta Kumari, Apeksha Priyadarshini and their supporters had damaged the server rooms.
Why did the leftists shut down the internet room and caused damage to the servers? Replying to these questions, Manish stated that the server room held all the CCTV footage of the JNU violence. The leftists’ acts of violence and destruction would have been exposed had the footage been recovered. He added that the people agitating against the restrictions on connectivity in Jammu and Kashmir were against connectivity inside the JNU campus. JNUSU president Aishe Ghosh was also a part of the mob that had vandalised and damaged the server room. Later, in the name of a ‘peace march’, the leftists gathered another mob of 500 students and damaged the server room again.
Manish also stated that the students who wanted to register for the new semester were attacked with sticks, rods and stones. The initial attack was stopped after the security guards intervened. Manish further informs that later, the leftists had launched an attack on the Periyar, Sabarmati, Mahi-Mandavi hostels because ABVP supporting students were more in numbers in those hostels. Reminiscing about that day, Manish says that the masked goons had reminded him of the terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir. He added that he had hidden in a room with some of his friends on the day of the attack.
Manish has named JNUSU general secretary Satish Chandra Yadav as the leader of the violent mob. He also added that the violent mob included JNUSU president Aishe Ghosh and Sucheta. He stated that he was beaten so much that he had lost consciousness for some time. He added further that, later he was taken to AIIMS where he saw that leftist leader Vrinda Karat was already there and was creating hurdles for the hospital staff in availing treatment to students. He also stated that his friends Shivam Chaurasia and Ujjwal had received head injuries. Their friend Seshmani Sahu was also badly injured.
Manish further informed that many Congress leaders, including Priyanka Gandhi and Kamal Nath, had reached AIIMS. Even many lawyers had barged into the AIIMS trauma centre calling themselves ex-students. When Priyanka Gandhi was told about the violence done by leftists, she had simply ignored and walked away. He also added that many leftists students had faked injuries and were occupying beds there. A person named Suri was there too. He went to Kerala, attended events and was seen with garlands and all his ‘injuries’ had vanished.
Watch: As ABVP member shares his ordeal on JNU violence, Priyanka Gandhi ignores and walks away
Manish stated that many political leaders, like Yogendra Yadav, D Raja and Sitaram Yechury had reached AIIMS too. He asked that how did so many leftists leaders managed to gather at JNU within such a short span of time. Mentioning the AAP connection of the journalist who was behind India Today’s so-called ‘sting’ against ABVP, Manish has expressed concerns that he thinks all this politicisation may be aimed towards the upcoming Delhi elections. Expressing concerns over India Today’s Rahul Kanwal’s behaviour over Ashwath Awasthi, Manish stated that Kanwal’s intentions behind blaming the world’s largest student organisation may have been to tarnish Delhi Police. He also alleged that though India Today had spoken to him, his statements were edited out from all their and social media shares.
Manish stated that Rahul Kanwal and his channel (India Today) pre-decides what statements are to be shown in their broadcast. Citing the 1983 incident where leftists had entered the JNU VC’s residence and had vandalised the place, causing the university to be closed for over a year. Manish stated that at that time, leftist had dominated the campus and there was no dissenting voice.
Manish stated that the same violent tactics that the leftists adopted in China, is being repeated inside JNU. He added that leftists are now distributing pamphlets inside the campus, asking students to boycott ABVP and its leaders. He added that as long as ABVP workers are present they will fight to preserve the glory of the institution.
