The JNU administration has filed separate complaints against those behind the defacement of the Administration Block and the yet-to-be unveiled Swami Vivekananda statue in the varsity's campus, Vice Chancellor Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar said on Thursday, 14 November.
The complaint was filed by JNU professor Buddha Singh, who is the chairman of the Swami Vivekananda Statue Installation Committee.
The statue at the administration block of the varsity was installed on 5 January this year "to pay homage to Swami Vivekananda and his ideologies", Singh said in the complaint.
“Swami Vivekananda stands as a role model for the youth of India and has inspired millions of minds. Swami Vivekananda has represented soul of Indian identity for last 100 years. The act of vandalism is not just an attack on Swami’s ideologies but also on an aspect of Indian identity.”Buddha Singh, JNU Professor
Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, on the directions of its national president Poonam Mahajan, also lodged a police complaint against the miscreants "who vandalised the statue of Swami Vivekananda" on the JNU campus.
Jagadesh Kumar wrote to his colleagues urging them not to “condone” such methods of protests that have “maligned the image of JNU seriously.”
He wrote, “It is our duty and responsibility to keep JNU on the path of becoming a globally renowned university for which peace and normalcy have to be restored in the campus. We should do our best in our mission of making JNU a place of learning and enviable recognition.”
On Wednesday, students had painted various messages for the vice-chancellor inside the administration block as they barged inside the building to talk to him about the hostel fee hike, while on Thursday, objectionable messages were found written at the base of the yet to be unveiled statue.
Kumar on Thursday told PTI that the varsity has video evidence and has identified the perpetrators.
"We have identified the culprits and we will be approaching the police," Kumar said.
The vice-chancellor termed as "uncivilised" the "vandalism" of Swami Vivekananda's statue. The statue, which is covered in a saffron-coloured cloth, is located at the varsity's administrative block.
JNUSU Denies Involvement in Defacement of Vikekananda Statue
Representatives of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) denied their involvement in the incident.
Former JNUSU President N Sai Balaji said, “If you are questioning the students' attempts to occupy the admin block and the graffiti which has taken over the walls, we promise that if the fee hike is rolled back completely, we, the students, will collect funds and get them all restored,” according to news agency IANS.
However, he made it clear that the JNUSU or any other left oriented students were not involved in the defacement of the surroundings of the Vivekananda statue.
The protesting students have accused the RSS-affiliated students wing, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), of defacing the statue “to defame the varsity and its students.”
"Unfortunately, the media and everyone else is hyping the incident which just reflects the anger of the students after they have been denied justice," he added.
NSUI's Sunny Dhiman condemned the incident and denied the involvement of any JNU student in the incident, reported news agency ANI.
"The statue of Vivekananda in JNU campus was not vandalised. Some people had written on its platform. I don't think any student of JNU could have done this. Now, we have cleaned it," Dimann said.
On Wednesday, the fee hike saw a partial rollback and JNU said the clauses in the Draft Hostel Manual pertaining to the dress code and curfew timings were also removed.
Hundreds of students, led by the JNUSU, had barged inside the administration block to talk to the VC and on not finding him and other officials in the building, painted messages on the walls near his office.
The varsity administration, after facing two weeks of protests, rolled back the hostel fee hike partially for BPL students not availing any scholarship. However, the students dubbed the move an "eyewash".
(With inputs from PTI, IANS and ANI.)
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