In a new turn of events at the JNU campus, an independent councillor of JNUSU alleged that some unidentified perpetrators defaced his hostel room door with abusive slogans and tore the national flag sticker he pasted on the door. Anirban Chakraborty, a student of School of International Studies (SIS), is a resident of Mahimandvi hostel and was elected as a councillor in 2015 elections.
Anirban, who claims of not holding any political affiliations with any student’s group, explained that he discovered the defaced door as he walked out early on Saturday morning. “It was around 5:30 am when I walked towards my door and saw an anti-ABVP graffiti. While on the floor I saw the torn pieces of the national flag sticker that was pasted on my door. The paint was almost dry so I cannot assure what time this must have been done. But this is scary because I am not even an ABVP activist neither I belong to any political student group. I am severely traumatised by this incident and seek justice.”
The students brought the matter to the notice of the hostel warden and filed a complaint. Meanwhile, Saurabh Sharma, JNUSU joint secretary, said that though Mr Chakraborty is not from ABVP, he would take up the issue with the hostel and university administration. “I can assure such activities are being carried out by Left students and few teachers who are not supporting our ideology. Even if he is not an ABVP councillor, I strongly condemn this act. This is witch-hunting of students”.
In the JNU campus, there are some students who feel ABVP might have done this act just to target the Left students. On the condition of anonymity, a PhD student argued, “Left never does all this, I haven’t seen the Left doing any such kind of activities in the past 4 years. But I have seen ABVP doing such things, but even if they haven’t done it, their image is so bad that people might think they must have only done this to malign the image of the Left.”
This comes after the belongings of a first year student were thrown out of her dormitory and a “Reject ABVP” slip was affixed on her bed. These incidents have come to light after the JNU campus became a political hotbed after the much famous February 9 incident.
