NSUI students burn effigies of Modi, Shah, Godse in JNU

NEW DELHI: A group of students of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on Tuesday burnt the effigy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP chief chief Amit Shah, Mahatma

NEW DELHI: A group of students of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on Tuesday burnt the effigy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP chief chief Amit Shah, Mahatma Gandhi’s killer Nathuram Godse and others to mark the “victory of truth over falsehood” on Dussehra.

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Members of Congress-backed National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) on Tuesday night celebrated Dussehra by burning the effigy of Modi and others to protest against the growing interference of the Centre in universities and attacks on Dalits.

“We celebrated the victory of truth over falsehood in a modern and democratic country by burning effigies,” said Sunny Diman, an NSUI member.

On Wednesday, vice-chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar tweeted: “The effigy burning incident at JNU was brought to our notice. We are probing the matter and examining all information”.

The students maintained that the effigies did not symbolise Ravana – known as the demon king. “There are communities who worship Ram and there are Adivasi communities who worship Ravana . We wanted to depict the victory of truth over falsehood,” said Diman.

“Another student was sent a notice for writing Jai Bhim on the JNU administration block’s wall. Students routinely burnt effigies of leaders earlier also to protest but now the administration sends notices at the drop of hat,” he said.

“The effigy-burning was to symbolise our dissatisfaction with the government. The idea is to root out evil from governance and bring about a system that is pro-people,” said Diman, who was NSUI’s presidential candidate in the 2016 students’ polls.