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The Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union (JNUSU) on Monday called for a human chain against alleged violence caused by Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).
This comes after an alleged clash that erupted at JNU between ABVP and Left-affiliated student groups resulted in several students being injured and has led to conflicting accounts from both sides. The JNUSU said that "ABVP had unleashed violence on the peacefully protesting students, with bricks and rods" during the Equality March. The Union alleged that the attackers were against the University Grants Commission (UGC) guidelines, adding that the "goons" were "given full freedom" to attack the students by the Vice Chancellor of the University, Santishree D Pandit. "The attackers were against the UGC regulations, which was one of the demands of the march and with the VC also being against it, it was natural that ABVP was given full freedom to attack the students," JNUSU said. On the other hand, ABVP State Joint Secretary Vikas Patel spoke to ANI about the alleged clash, claiming that the left-wing pre-planned the attack in the guise of a student march. "There was a JNU march that night. The march was against the vice chancellor, and they had planned to surround him, but they diverted the entire march towards the School of Languages, where their protest had been going on for the past seven days... From there, they planned to deal with the students who were not attending their protest. So, they closed their classes and library and locked the reading room so they could force them to attend their march," he alleged. "After the protest, these people, who are their cadres, assaulted some of the students there. On behalf of those students, we went there to talk to them... They became violent and started attacking us... It happened so suddenly that we did not even realise it... I called the police, and after the police arrived, with the help of the guards, we managed to rescue the workers", he added. Meanwhile, a student, Manish Chaudhary, who claimed to have been involved in the clash, alleged that the left made a call regarding a protest march from Sabarmati to the VC house, but things turned chaotic at the end. "People who came from outside or the comrades of JNU, goons come from the academic space or the school area and try to close or lock the schools," he claimed. He added that after complaints, the Student Union arrived at the scene, but they started beating the union workers. Regarding allegations that ABVP initiated the clash, he claimed that the Left faction not only mapped out the march route in a poster but also intentionally diverted into the school grounds, suggesting a premeditated plan. (ANI)
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