E-Paper
Unease at JNU as khaki tent crops up on campus, department doors removed
Students of JNU have been protesting against the revised hostel manual and the fee hike, for over a month. Guards had broken down the doors and put up camps to prevent students from protesting further.
Amid the ongoing lockdown at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), the police Tuesday put up a tent in front of the administration block, giving rise to panic among students.
The move came a couple of days after a clampdown by police on students of Jamia Millia Islamia on their campus after their protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) on Sunday turned violent .
JNU students also said that early Tuesday, guards had broken down the doors of a few department buildings — those of the School of Social Sciences, School of Environmental Sciences, School of Languages, and School of International Studies — reportedly to prevent students from locking the gates during protests.
“I had come here early around 8am and at that time, the tent was still being put up and when we asked one of the police personnel about it, he did not give us a clear response,” Apeksha Priyadarshini, an MPhil student of the department of Arts and Aesthetics, said.
The khaki coloured tent, with chairs inside, has been placed at the corner of the park facing the administration building. When HT visited it, a police officer was seated inside and he claimed to have no knowledge about why the tent was set up.
But, another police officer, on condition of anonymity, said, “We are abiding by the high court orders to look at the ingress and egress within 100 metres of the admin block. Police will protect the building round the clock. However, we have nothing to do with the tent and we have not set it up.”
JNU students said the appearance of the tent is “worrying” and that they fear a clampdown, similar to the one that took place at Jamia Millia Islamia on Sunday.
“For the past three or four days, even though the police are supposed to be within the 100-metre radius to enforce the court order, they have been roaming around the campus. We have spotted them in plainclothes as well, and also inside hostels,” Priyadarshini said.
Talking about how guards broke down the door of her department in the morning, Sana Chowdhury, an MPhil student at the School of Social Sciences, said, “When I saw the guards, I put up a desk in front of the door and sat on it. But they pushed me away and broke down the door. However, later, we blocked the door again with potted plants.”
Sharik Sengupta, a Masters student at School of Environmental Sciences, said, “Around 7.30 or 8am, about 40 guards came here and started removing the flower pots in front of the door. About 15 of us were here and we formed a human chain to stop them. They pushed us away and hit us. One of my friends was left bleeding from the nose.”
He added that while the guards were unable to remove the door, they managed to break the lock on it. Students of JNU have been protesting against the revised hostel manual and, in particular, the fee hike it entails, for over a month, and have boycotted classes and examinations.
Earlier, the JNU administration had removed gates of four schools and two special centres in an attempt to stop the boycott of end-semester examinations which were scheduled to begin from December 12.
