2020 Jawaharlal Nehru University attack
On 5 January 2020, more than 50 masked people armed with rods, sticks and acid attacked the campus of Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, and injured more than 39 students and teachers. Many students received serious injuries. Professors who tried to intervene and protect the students, as well as ambulances carrying injured individuals, were attacked. Eyewitnesses stated that police within the campus did not intervene to stop the mob. After attacking residents of the university campus for three hours, the mob escaped; none of its members was arrested or detained. All 36 students who were injured and admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi were discharged within 24 hours.
Eyewitnesses, including students injured in the attack, as well as opposition parties and left-wing organizations, accused the members of the Bharatiya Janata Party's student wing, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad of orchestrating the attacks. The ABVP, a Hindu nationalist organization, initially denied any involvement and accused left-wing organisations of carrying out the attack. On 6 January, ABVP's joint secretary for Delhi, Anima Sonkar, admitted on television that two armed men seen in videos of the incident were members of ABVP. Although any one clear motive has not emerged, the attack has been described by some as a way to prevent students from raising their voice against a fee hike and the Citizenship Amendment Act.
Police have said that three of the masked attackers have been identified but no arrests have been made, and complaints have been filed as a single FIR on unknown people. On 15 January, police confirmed the identification of the masked woman, seen in the video recording of the attack, as a member of ABVP. Police have issued a notice to the woman and two other men. According to police all three have switched their phones off and are yet to be located. As of 31 January, 26 days after the attack, the Delhi Police have not arrested any suspects in the attack.
Background
The Jawaharlal Nehru University has been associated with student activism for many years. Since December 2019, the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union had been participating in Citizenship Amendment Act protests. On 13 November, the JNU administration raised the university's hostel fees, with a fee hike of 150%, making it the most expensive Central University in India. Since 28 October 2019, students of the JNU had been protesting against the fee hike. As part of this protest, students boycotted the final semester examinations. After protests, the university partially rolled back the fees increase by reducing the fee only for students from families with extreme poverty who did not have a scholarship. The move did not convince the students, as there was no rollback in the fee hike for non-BPL category students or for BPL students with a scholarship. To press the administration for a complete rollback of the increase in fees, JNUSU had continued the protests. The semester registration with the increased fee was started by 1 January.Incidents between 1 and 4 January
The JNU administration filed two FIRs on 5 January at 8:39 and 8:43 p.m. against JNUSU president Aishe Ghosh and 19 others. The first FIR was for allegedly attacking JNU security guards and vandalising a server room on 4 January 2020 at 1:00 p.m., a day before the attack on campus. A second FIR was registered based on events that had happened on 1 January. On 10 January, police disclosed the names of suspects who were involved in the incidents on 4 January. Police announced that seven of them were members of left-wing organisations. The names included Ghosh and two people belonging to the ABVP.Incidents on 5 January
According to a professor, around 50 teachers and 200 students were holding a meeting on the campus to discuss their opposition to the increase in hostel fees when the attack started. The attack has been described by some as a way to prevent students from raising their voice against the fee hike and CAA.Attack on the campus
On 5 January, at around 7:00 p.m., a masked mob armed with iron rods, sledgehammers, sticks, and bricks attacked the campus of Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, injuring students and teachers, as well as vandalising hostels. The assault lasted for three hours. The mob moved from one hostel to another, attacking people. They chanted slogans calling the victims "Naxalites" and "anti-national". Attackers shouted "Jai Shri Ram", a slogan that has been often used as a battle cry by far-right Hindu groups.Witnesses stated that the attackers broke windows and attacked medics. In a video, attackers were seen charging down a hostel hallway raising sticks, bats and broken bottles while students shouted "get out". The leaders of student bodies with liberal views and those who spoke against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist policies were attacked. Some students locked themselves inside rooms to escape the attackers.
Sabarmati Hostel, with 400 students residing in it, was reported to have faced the worst attack. Two students residing in the hostel jumped from their rooms on the first floor in an attempt to escape the attackers, fracturing their legs in the process. The hostel was badly damaged in the attack. Every floor in the hostel had shattered glass, as well as broken doors, windows and furniture.
The assault left more than 39 students and teachers injured. When an ambulance arrived at 9:00 p.m., carrying two doctors and two volunteers to attend to the victims, the mob surrounded the ambulance with rods and sticks, and prevented the doctors from assisting the injured. The attackers also injured a volunteer and broke the windows and punctured the tires of the ambulance. The attackers said, "there was no need to provide medical assistance to any one on the campus".
Streetlights were shut off by the authorities during the incident. The mob roamed around the campus freely without any police intervention. Students accused the police of intentional inaction. Videos show students being beaten by the attackers, while police officers did nothing. While the students escaped through the gate, the police officers asked them to shout "Hail Mother India". The students accused the police of being complicit with the attackers.
The mob assaulted journalists and social activist Yogendra Yadav, who attempted to enter the campus on receiving news of the incident. JNUSU president Aishe Ghosh was also pictured bleeding due to injuries sustained in the violence. Cars and rooms in the Mahi Mandavi, Sabarmati and Periyar hostels were vandalized. The School of Social Sciences was also affected. The crowd of attackers were seen in videos walking around the campus with sticks.
After vandalizing the campus for around three hours, the mob went out without facing arrest or detention by the police. Police said they received 50 SOS calls between 4:00 and 5:00 p.m., however, they were only given written permission to enter the campus at 7:45 p.m.
Aftermath
The 36 students who were injured and admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi were discharged within 24 hours. 32 people had suffered injuries such as fractures, lacerations, abrasions and soft tissue injuries, while four had suffered minor head injuries. Three of the people injured were admitted to the Safdarjung Hospital.The warden of the Sabarmati hostel resigned, stating that he had tried but failed to provide security to the hostel. Several students left the campus, calling it unsafe.
Left-wing organisations and several students accused members of the BJP's student wing, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad of orchestrating the attacks. ABVP, a Hindu nationalist student organization denied involvement and blamed the left-wing organisations.
Screenshots of chats from WhatsApp groups named "Friends of RSS" and "Unity Against Left" were shared on social media, where the group members were seen planning to attack the JNU students. The group's members were found to belong to ABVP. NDTV published pictures of the members of ABVP with sticks and batons before the attacks began.
Chief Minister of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal held a meeting with ministers in the early hours of 6 January, to discuss the "serious condition" prevailing at JNU. After the meeting, Sanjay Singh stated that, "The assault on students and professors is really shameful. This is happening in the capital of India. The world is watching us. What message are we sending to the world?" He added that the Central government must "act immediately and restore peace in Delhi".
On 6 December, Swati Maliwal, the chief of Delhi Commission for Women, issued summonses to the police over the assault on female students in the attack.
Calls for removal of the Vice Chancellor
The JNUSU statements after the incident said, "The Vice Chancellor is behaving like a mobster who perpetuates violence For nearly seventy days now, the students of JNU have been fighting a courageous battle to save their university from the clutches of privatization and greed Today on 5 January they imported goons from outside, especially DU". The Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers' Association wrote a third letter to the President of India Ram Nath Kovind regarding the "urgent need for the removal of professor M Jagadesh Kumar from his position as the vice chancellor". The letter stated that, "Yesterday's unprecedented events at the University have served to highlight once again the extremely grave consequences of delay in heeding to our appeal".On 9 January, former HRD Minister and BJP senior leader, Murli Manohar Joshi, sought the removal of the vice-Chancellor. Joshi found the attitude of the VC "deplorable", as he had failed to implement the ministry's proposal to settle the fee increase issue. He had been advised to resolve the issue through a mediation process involving the teachers and the students.
On 18 January 2020, the JNUTA reiterated its demand of removal of the VC. The association said that for the restoration of "normalcy" in the campus the removal of the VC was necessary. The JNUTA also stated that the security of JNU was also responsible for the incidents and demanded a Judicial enquiry into the attack.