A tense stand-off at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi over a missing student came to an end on Thursday with the students releasing top officials, including the vice chancellor, after a 24-hour lock-in protest.
But the campus remained on edge as the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union president Mohit Pandey insisted, “We have not ended the protest. We have just ended the gherao to take the protest to a higher level.”
Adding to tensions, other student bodies criticised Pandey’s decision to let the officials go and threatened to take over the protests. Many even suggested that the protests could be conducted without the participation of the All India Students Association and the Student Federation of India, which control the student union through an alliance.
The university has witnessed controversies all year, starting with the Afzal Guru commemorative protest in February that led to arrest of Kanhaiya Kumar, who was then and others on sedition charges.
The latest trouble comes in the wake of the disappearance of 27-year-old Najeeb Ahmad, a post-doctoral student of biotechnology, who was last seen in a brawl with activists of the right-wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad at his hostel room on Saturday morning. His disappearance – his family claims he has been abducted – has became a bigger issue after political outfits on campus attached communal overtones to the incident.
Vice chancellor released
The decision on a lock-in protest was taken by the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union along with various other organisations, alleging inaction in finding Ahmad, whom the administration initially referred to as an “accused" in the brawl.
Over the course of the 24 hours, Vice Chancellor Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar appealed to the students to end the lock-in and invited them to a discussion. He also told the media that if the protestors tried to stop him from attending an academic council meeting on Thursday afternoon, he would call the police.
Administration officials alleged that outsiders were creating trouble on campus. "We are concerned that certain outside elements and miscreants are trying to politicise and communalise the issue and create law and order problems,” they said in an appeal put online on Thursday morning. “We again appeal to you to stop this illegal and unlawful agitation and go back to your respective classes and hostels."
Pandey, however, insisted the student action was entirely legal. “We have not illegally confined anybody," he said, before the protest ended. "The officers are free to come out of the building but they must answer our questions.”
The stand-off ended after Pandey was summoned to the vice chancellor’s office, shortly after which the official was seen walking out of the administration building.
Students divided
Outside, agitated students yelled “shame on JNUSU”. Later, the other groups – excluding the All India Students Association-Student Federation of India combine – met to discuss ways to take the protest forward.
“We want Najeeb back... and it seems our student union is not interested in that,” said Dawa Sherpa of the extreme Left Democratic Students Union. “Without consulting any other group involved in the protest, they negotiated with the vice chancellor. We will now form a committee and exclude the AISA-SFI.”
Lata Sarang of the Hundred Flowers Group, which conducts classes on Marxism inside and outside the JNU campus, said, “This is a movement of the common student, not JNUSU. So the common students will now have to take it further.”
Her views were echoed by Alam Hussain, a third-year undergraduate student in the School of Languages, who was sitting in the crowd. He said, “You [the student’s union] do your own politics and let the common students fight their own battle.”
He added, “Justice for Najeeb is a battle of the common student. This movement has no such leader. We shall have to mobilise and decide a course of action.”
A post-graduate student, who did not want to be identified, said time was running out. “We still do not know if Najeeb is safe,” he said. “Under such circumstances, the campus should not function normally but the JNU students union has just ended the fight here.”
Defending the union’s stand, its former general secretary and All India Students Association office bearer, Rama Naga, said what it had done was not end the protest but change its form to make it more effective.
“The gherao was ended because the administration was not paying attention to the students’ demands,” he said. “But the movement is being taken to a bigger level with a change of form. We waited for six days, held several meeting with top university officials and even the police, but have they taken any action against the perpetrators? So tomorrow, the students union shall march to the Home Ministry.”
Police action
The Delhi Police, on their part, set up a special team on Thursday to investigate Ahmad’s disappearance. “An eyewitness has reported having seen Najeeb Ahmad leaving the hostel in an autorickshaw on Saturday morning,” said Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (South District) Nupur Prasad.
The police have so far registered a case of abduction on a complaint by Ahmad’s mother and a non-cognisable report on the basis of a complaint by Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad member Vikrant Kumar, who claims Ahmad slapped him when he went to his hostel room to campaign for the mess election. No first information report has been filed in connection with the assault on Ahmad.