Video Editor: Vishal Kumar
Can any guardian stand and watch their children being hit on their heads, getting their hands fractured or being brutally thrashed? Can anyone allow their house to be robbed? Can you give that freedom?
The answer will be, NO!
However, students at the country’s most prestigious universities — JNU, Jamia, AMU — students are being beaten up.
Meanwhile. the universities’ vice chancellors are only extending sympathy.
Police picks up students from their hostels. But the VC, like the police in a 90s Hindi film, reaches the spot after the damage has been done. If this is the attitude of a guardian or VC, then the students and their parents would definitely ask ‘Janab, Aise Kaise?
What Transpired at JNU
At the JNU, protests had been underway for several days against fee hike and registration. However, what happened on 5 January was absolutely unthinkable.
Masked goons armed with rods storm campus hostel thrash students hit JNUSU president on the head beat the professors
At least 34 injured students were shifted to AIIMS Trauma Centre. When all this was happening the VC was stationed inside the campus. This time the police, unlike Jamia, did not enter the campus, but remained outside.
Between 2:30 pm and 7:45 pm the students called the cops nearly 23 times for help but, the cops placed barricades outside the campus and stood there. They entered when JNU's administration called them, but by that time the attackers had finished their work.
Let’s take a look at the police. Even days after the violence not one person from the masked mob was identified. No arrests were made. What’s worse is that even the VC did not bother visiting the injured students.
This is a Guardian!
The Chronology of Events at Jamia
Protests broke out in Jamia against CAA-NRC the protests took place both inside and outside the university.
Police barged into the campus and thrash students and threw tear gas shells at them.
When the students were assaulted then, the VC condemned the incident saying, “I am saddened looking at the pictures of the brutal attack.”
Not just this. VC Najma Akhtar also said there was so much chaos that the police would not have got time to seek permission from the university's administration to enter the campus.
Thank goodness, she did not say that the students were at fault because they came in the way of the cops.
What Happened at AMU
Students at AMU were protesting in solidarity with Jamia students. There was chaos. Police are called into the campus.
The university claims that the police were called in for protecting the students.
But the police, which was called for the protection of students was thrashed them and launched tear gas.
A student lost his hand. After all this, the university’s guardian. VC Tariq Mansoor said, “I condemn the incident. The students have the right to peacefully protest.”
When the university walls narrate the horror of students being attacked and being targeted by cops then where is the room for protests? Your condemnation would not heal the wounds of injured students.
Will the pain, which one wrong decision cased to the students go away with condemnation?
The Big Question: Can Anyone Just Storm Into a Campus?
Is the VC not responsible for the attack on the students in the campus?
Even if the students are on the wrong path is it not the VC’s responsibility to resolve the issue through dialogue?
Making a delayed entry in every complex situation and not taking the right call at the right time
Is this done on purpose? Or under pressure?
The answers to these questions can be given only by the VC but looking at the injuries of the students everyone would ask Janab, Aise Kaise?
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)