Jawaharlal Nehru University campus remained tense on Monday after the return of five students, accused of sedition and facing criminal conspiracy charges, who were in hiding for past 10 days. The university students blamed the media for wrongly framing some of their colleagues as “terrorists.”
Two of the accused, Rama Naga and Anant Prakashan, spoke to the media reiterating their stand that masked people who raised anti-national slogans inside the campus were not JNU students and they, being a part of JNUSU, were there just to prevent any untoward incident.
“The masked group of people who were shouting anti-national slogans were not from JNU. We were there to witness the protest and prevent any untoward incident. We strongly believe that the masked people are from the ABVP and it was their strategy to vanquish Left politics in the varsity,” said Mr Prakashan, a student of law and governance in the university.
When asked where they had been hiding, Mr Prakashan said: “We were in the heart of JNU students. We had left the campus on February 12 because our lives were in danger. Had we stuck around, we would get attacked and maybe killed. We still feel unsafe in such an environment and we have taken legal opinion. Whatever the vice-chancellor feels the best for us, we agree with it.”
JNUSU general secretary Rama Naga said he along with Ashutosh and Anant returned to the campus by auto on Sunday evening around 5.30 pm and Umar Khalid and Anirban surfaced later in the campus. Mr Naga claimed that he was not in touch with Umar and was surprised to see him in the university later in the evening and subsequently joined him to address the big crowd.
Mr Naga added that the media was portraying them as anti-nationals and terrorists even after the video footages they were depending on were proved to be fake. “As you all know that the video footages are doctored, it is quite evident that the media is trying to make us look like terrorists. The BJP, RSS and ABVP are behind defaming the university and us because the people who are accused are Aisa and DSU. Right-wing parties want to eradicate the JNU culture of dissent and debate and want to completely do away with Left politics from the varsity,” said Mr Naga, who is from Orissa and is an M.Phil student at the university.
Former JNUSU president Ashutosh Kumar, speaking to this newspaper, said: “We have full faith in our Constitution. After getting public support from the march on Thursday, we felt safe and came back or else we would have been victims of mob lynching. The doctored videos were a strategy by the government to defame us and hide their faults and the Delhi police played a major role in it as well”.
Raju, a third year student in the School of Languages, who claimed to be close to Khalid, said, “Khalid was targeted because he is a Muslim. We students in JNU protest regarding any major incident. I was present during the February 9 event and the people were protesting for freedom from state repression in Kashmir, freedom from AFSPA. Back when students were protesting against demolition of Babri Masjid in the campus, RSS wanted JNU to be shutdown.”
