The students of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on Thursday allegedly mounted an assault against the vice-chancellor (VC), M Jagadesh Kumar, in the university campus. According to the vice-chancellor, 10-15 protesting students surrounded him but the on-duty security personnel rescued him from an imminent attack.
Speaking to the media, Kumar revealed that he was attacked by the JNu students. “I was attacked today. I had gone today to visit the School of Arts and Aesthetics, JNU. There were around 10-15 students who surrounded me. They were trying to pull me down and in a mood to attack me. Fortunately, I was rescued by the security and managed to escape,” he said.
Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) vice-chancellor M. Jagadesh Kumar’s car that was allegedly attacked by students inside university premises, earlier today. https://t.co/piOi56yt4b pic.twitter.com/nn85Il4hkY
— ANI (@ANI) December 14, 2019
Besides, M Jagadesh Kumar’s car was allegedly vandalised by the students inside the university premises.
The vice-chancellor came to his office for the first time since the protesting students took hold of the administrative block, had a meeting with the presidents of 18 hostels, but the meeting remained inconclusive.
The Delhi High Court on Wednesday directed the police to provide adequate security when the vice-chancellor, registrar and other officials come to the administrative block on Thursday. However, despite the security, JNU hoodlums managed to reach dangerously close to the vice-chancellor and were on the verge of attacking him.
It is noteworthy to mention that JNU students have been protesting for more than a month now on the issue of the new hostel manual which advocated a hike in hostel fees, dress code regulations, and curfew timings. The JNUSU also called for a protest-march from college to Parliament to demand the rollback of the increased fees, along with multiple other restrictions imposed which witnessed unprecedented violence and incidents of vandalism. The protesting students also vandalised a soon-to-be inaugurated Swami Vivekananda’s bust in opposition to the new fee hike and other restrictions.
Taking cognisance of the extended protests, the Ministry of Human Resource Development decided to constitute a panel to placate the angry students and take measures to end the protests.
The JNU administration explained its rationale behind the fee hike saying that the university is facing a deficit of Rs 45 crore and fee hike is necessary because of the huge electricity, water charges and the salary of contractual staff. However, the freeloaders of the JNU did not budge on their decision to continue protests.
