Resigned due to guilt, say ABVP ex-members

Three JNU ABVP office-bearers, who resigned from the right-wing union in protest against the Centre’s handling of the JNU issue, said they took the step because of “guilt.” “JNU is the most nationalist institution in the country. I do not support the government’s stand over the issue. Let the Supreme Court find Kanhaiya (Kumar) guilty and award him life imprisonment. But let the law take its course. There should be no ‘Taliban culture’ in India,” said Pradeep Narwal, former joint secretary of the ABVP’s JNU unit. “People were mocking us for supporting such a stand... We were feeling guilty of doing so. I was feeling terrible when the entire university was being called anti-national, but I could not stand as a JNUite. It was then we decided to resign from the party,” Mr Narwal told PTI later.

Mr Narwal along with Rahul Yadav, president of ABVP unit of JNU’s School of Social Sciences (SSS), and its secretary Ankit Hans, had resigned from the right-wing group, saying they “cannot be mouthpiece of such a government which has unleashed oppression on student community.” “We are going to fight for JNU. If law finds Kanhaiya guilty, let him be punished. If Umar Khalid is guilty, he should be jailed. But do not attack the entire university, students and teachers. Let there be space for voices of dissent,” he added.

“We had ideological differences with the party over the issue so we decided to disassociate ourselves. We want to stand for the university as students and not political leaders of an outfit, whose stand is not acceptable to us,” Mr Hans said.

Senior ABVP leaders are claiming that the three JNU students had been “influenced” to protest, but Mr Hans said, “This is our individual decision. We have not done this under anybody’s influence.

In a hard-hitting resignation letter, the trio had said, “We think there is a difference between interrogation and crushing ideology and branding entire left as anti-national. We cannot be mouthpiece of such a government which has unleashed oppression on student community. Every day we see people assemble at front gate with Indian flag to beat JNU students, well this is hooliganism not nationalism, you can’t do anything in the name of nation, there is a difference between nationalism and hooliganism.”