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Students injured in India after masked attackers raid top university Students protest across India after attack at top Delhi university
(about 13 hours later)
Leftists blame ‘goons’ linked to prime minister Narendra Modi’s BJP party as tensions simmer over citizenship law and fee increases Opposition links violence to Narendra Modi’s BJP party and tensions over citizenship law
More than 20 people have been injured at a prestigious Indian university after masked attackers entered the campus in New Delhi and lashed out at students with batons. Students have protested in cities across India after a masked mob stormed a high-profile university in Delhi and attacked students and teachers with weapons including sledgehammers, iron rods and bricks, injuring more than 30.
Amid simmering tensions over the government’s citizenship laws and student fee increases, videos on social media appeared to show the attackers roaming Jawaharlal Nehru university (JNU) in the capital on Sunday and beating students with sticks, leaving 23 students injured. Opposition parties and injured students blamed Sunday night’s violence on a student organisation linked to the prime minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), which has increasingly targeted the institution.
Police said the clashes were between rival student groups but opposition politicians blamed the trouble on a student organisation linked to the prime minister, Narendra Modi. The attack at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), long seen as a bastion of leftwing politics, comes as students lead a nationwide campaign against a citizenship law introduced last month by Modi that is seen as targeting Muslims.
“Two groups clashed with each other and some students are injured,” a senior Delhi police officer told journalists. “The university administration has requested the police to enter (the campus),” the officer said, adding, “Things are under control right now.” Videos that emerged after the assault showed people in masks roaming inside the corridors of the university and beating students who were protesting against a fee rise.
But Sitaram Yechury, general secretary of the Communist party of India, called the attack a “collusion” between the JNU administration and “goons” of a student group linked to Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party (BJP). Students at the Sabarmati hostel, which bore the brunt of the violence, described on Monday how they had locked themselves into their rooms when they heard glass being smashed or ran outside and hid in bushes until the attackers dispersed.
“It is a planned attack by those in power, which is afraid of the resistance provided by JNU,” Yechury said. “Even after it was over, I had the most fearful night of my life, lying awake listening to every footstep in the corridor,” said Arjit Sharma, 23, a student of ancient history at JNU. One attacker told him: “We’ll come back for you.”
Police fought street battles with JNU students in November after protests broke out over fee increases at the university. The violent clashes have further polarised an already poisonous atmosphere that’s prevailed for three weeks over the citizenship law. Although the JNU clashes were not about the law, which has triggered massive nationwide protests, they have added to the growing sense of unrest.
JNU student organisations dominated by leftwing factions have since staged demonstrations demanding a rollback of the fee increase while facing accusations of obstructing administration officials. Scores of students left JNU on Monday, ignoring a plea by the university’s proctor to stay. One of those preparing to leave, Gayatri Basumatary, 23, said: “My parents are frantic. What happened is beyond any limit. They want me to get away from this madness.”
At the same time, India has seen a series of violent clashes that have killed at least two dozen people amid protests over a controversial new citizenship law Modi’s government passed in December. More than 100,000 people marched through the city of Hyderabad on Saturday in protest at the law. Those students who have remained are being extra vigilant. Satarupa Lahiri, who was in the hostel washroom when she heard screams and window panes being smashed, said: “It feels like a battle zone. We are walking around only in groups of 10 or 12 for safety.
The law allows New Delhi to grant expedited citizenship to minorities from three neighbouring Islamic countries who entered India by December 31, 2014, but critics say it marginalises Muslims in the country as part of Modi’s larger Hindu nationalist agenda. “I am staying. Some students live a long way away and can’t afford the fare home so we have to show solidarity by staying on. We have to stick together. After all, it’s our campus. We can’t let these thugs take it away from us,” she said.
The government invited numerous Bollywood stars and film industry personalities to a private gathering in Mumbai on Sunday in an effort to garner support for the new citizenship law. Opposition parties have accused the BJP of tacitly encouraging rightwing gangs to enter campuses and attack students. The main opposition Congress party called the attack on JNU “state-sponsored terrorism”. The BJP in turn has accused the opposition of encouraging anarchy and rioting.
The BJP distanced itself from Sunday’s incident at JNU and Akhil Bharatiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student organisation blamed for the violence by the opposition, said that 25 of its members were injured during the campus attack. “The fascists in control of our nation are afraid of the voices of our brave students. Today’s violence in JNU is a reflection of that fear,” tweeted Rahul Gandhi, a leading Congress politician.
“This is a desperate attempt by forces of anarchy, who are determined to use students as cannon fodder, (to) create unrest to shore up their shrinking political footprint. Universities should remain places of learning and education,” the BJP said on Twitter. The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the student wing of the BJP, denied accusations that it was behind the attack, which it blamed instead on rival leftist unions.
An official at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi said that most of the injured at the hospital were undergoing treatment for “lacerations, cuts and bruises.” Authorities faced criticism for failing to rein in the violence on a campus viewed as a centre of resistance to Modi’s policies, including the abolition last year of special status for Muslim-majority Kashmir.
“The brutal attack on JNU students & teachers by masked thugs, that has left many seriously injured, is shocking,” tweeted Rahul Gandhi, a leading politician of the main opposition Congress party. Amit Thorat, who teaches economics at JNU, said he called the police a little after 7pm on Sunday but they didn’t come until an hour later. Nearly a dozen students Reuters spoke to said police watched as the mob rampaged inside the campus.
Delhi’s chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, said: “How will the country progress if our students will not be safe inside (the university) campus?” Surya Prakash, 25, a research scholar at the university’s Sanskrit school, said he had been brutally beaten in his dorm room despite telling them he was blind. They broke the door and windows of the room, barged inside and hit his head with a rod, said Prakash.
The prestigious university counts top Indian politicians including foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman and this year’s Nobel economics prize winner Abhijit Banerjee amongst its alumni. One floor up from Prakash, above the dorm wardens’ residence, students said two Kashmiri Muslim students living in adjacent rooms were targeted. While the attackers used a fire extinguisher to ram open a door, one student climbed over his balcony into the next-door room while another jumped on to the ground below, sustaining an injury, according to Mukesh Kumar, a research scholar who lives across the hall.
An ambulance carrying injured people off campus was attacked by a group of men with sticks while police stood by, bystanders said.
Critics accuse Modi of pushing a Hindu-first agenda that undermines India’s foundations as a secular democracy. The citizenship law lays out a path for Indian nationality for minorities from six religious groups in neighbouring countries but excludes Muslims.
The government condemned the violence. “Horrifying images from JNU the place I know and remember was one for fierce debates and opinions but never violence. I unequivocally condemn the events of today,” said the finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, a member of the prime minister’s party, on Twitter.
Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report