The JNU administration has ordered a "disciplinary" enquiry into holding of an event on campus against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru despite cancellation of permission saying any talk about country's disintegration cannot be "national".
Several anti-India slogans were shouted by some of the students, which included “India, go back!”, “We will fight the war till we destroy India” and “Afzal we will take your aspirations to the destination”. Afzal Guru was a convict in the 2001 Parliament terror attack case.
The university's move to order an enquiry came in wake of protests by members of ABVP outside the VC office demanding expulsion of students who "misled" the university about nature of the event.
Maintaining that the act by students amounted to "indiscipline", the university authorities said the committee headed by the Chief Proctor of JNU will investigate the matter and come up with its report.
"The permission for the programme was sought by giving incomplete information, so it is an act of indiscipline. A committee headed by the Chief Proctor will examine the footage of the event and speak to the witnesses. It is on basis of the report, the varsity will take appropriate action," JNU Vice Chancellor Jagdeesh Kumar said.
Briefing about the "incomplete information", the varsity Registrar Bhupinder Zutshi said, "there was nowhere mentioned in the permission request that the event will be on Afzal Guru, they just said that they wanted to organise a cultural event. How can any talk about disintegration of nation be national?"
The student organisers of the event had pasted posters across the campus inviting them to gather for a protest march against "judicial killing of Afzal Guru and Maqbool Bhatt" and in solidarity with "struggle of Kashmiri people for their democratic right to self determination" at varsity's Sabarmati dhaba yesterday.
Members of the ABVP objected to the event and wrote to the Vice Chancellor that such kind of marches should not be held on campus of an educational institution, prompting the university administration to order cancellation of the march as they "feared" that it might "disrupt" peace on campus.
But the organisers went ahead with the programme despite the cancellation of the permission and held a cultural programme, art and photo exhibition on the issue rather than a protest.
Agitated over the issue, ABVP members gathered outside VC office and shouted slogans demanding expulsion of the students who contributed to the "anti-national" activity.
ShutDownJNU Trends On Twitter
Meanwhile, people poured their scorn out online, demanding that JNU be shut down for it had become a den of anti-India activities. Here are some of the tweets
After spending millions from tax payers pocket what JNU has produces is budding terrorist. #JNUAfzalTribute #ShutdownJNU
— Shubham (@TheShubhamJ) February 11, 2016
If being terrorist sympathisers is freedom of speech, asking #ShutDownJNU is also free speech.
— Dhairya Gupta (@DhairyaGupta9) February 11, 2016
Mail Today broke story of JNU group honouring Afzal Guru ignoring VC, clashing https://t.co/gJxyCeSZnP Don't #ShutDownJNU, book separatists
— Abhijit Majumder (@abhijitmajumder) February 10, 2016
You want to #ShutDownJNU cos a bunch of dumbass students are saying idiotic things? That way most Indian schools would be out of business!
— Rupa Subramanya (@rupasubramanya) February 10, 2016
Arnab gives protesters an earful
On The Newshour on Times Now last night, Arnab Goswami took on the student leaders and young politicians on the show who were defending the slogans of the protesters. Supporting and glorifying a terrorist is not freedom of speech, he said. You can witness the entire showdown here.