Over half-a-dozen Left and other students organisati-ons to launch a campaign to inform people that the distorted image created of the Jawaharlal Nehru University is not a correct one.
The students organisations are also planning to file a defamation suit of Rs 100 crore against the television channels that broa-dcast doctored videos of the controversial Februa-ry 9 event in the JNU. These students groups plan to meet President Pranab Mukherjee, Union home minister Rajnath Singh and other parliamentrians on the issue.
Student Federation of India (SFI) central secretariat member Sunand said the witch-hunt launched by the Union government against the JNU has made it seem like a den of anti-nationals. “From Monday, students from different organisations will interact with other students, professionals and common people and try to explain the ongoing campaign to malign JNU. We also explain people about rich academic history of JNU,” he added. As per the plan, the group of students will visit different campuses, markets and places frequented by people.
All-India Student Association (Aisa) national vice-president Neeraj Kumar said the all-India campaign in defence of democracy will start from February 29 and a delegation of all the students’ organisations will also meet the President of India, Union home minister and the MPs and seek their support in the stopping government attack on the educational institutes. “On March 2, all students organisations will be joining the Parliament march called by the JNUSU,” added Mr Kumar.
The students organisations also called for a march in the national capital on March 18 in which thousands of students and youth from across the country will participate. Chhatra JD(U) national pr-esident Pratyush Nandan said there has been concerted campaign of violence, threat and intimidation across the country. “The BJP leaders have been actively participating in this shameless tirade on JNU. This is a part of the RSS assault on higher educational institutions, whi-ch we have witnessed in IIT Madras, FTII Pune, Hy-derabad Central Univers-ity, JNU and elsewhere.”
Accusing the NDA government of using suicide by Hyderabad University student Rohith Vemula and JNU incidents to divert attention from its failure in keeping poll promises, youth wings of the Left and other parties decided to intensify their stir against the Centre. They demanded dropping of sedition charges against the JNU students and action against Delhi police chief B.S. Bassi, who will retire on Monday.
“The cases of Rohith Vemula of HCU and Kanhaiya Kumar of JNU have been politicised by the NDA government to only divert attention of people from its own failures,” said MP and president of Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), M.B. Rajesh.
