The Vice-Chancellor of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Saturday alleged that the students attacked him while he was on a visit to the School of Arts and Aesthetics. The students refuted the claims and stated that they merely raised slogans and asked him questions. A video of the VC leaving shows students trying to stop him as the car pulls away with a student hanging on to its bonnet.
"I was attacked today. I had gone to visit the School of Arts and Aesthetics in JNU where around 10-15 students surrounded me. They were trying to pull me down and in a mood to attack me. Fortunately, I was rescued by security and managed to escape," the VC told the media.
Students denied his claims and said that this was just an attempt to divert the attention from the issues at hand. "It is shameful that not only while leaving, his car tried to run over a student, whilst injuring other students near his car, but after going back he is tweeting complete lies and falsehoods," said the JNUSU. "The VC has a habit of running away and this was a typical example of the same behaviour. It is the VC's duty to have a democratic dialogue with the university students, and the dereliction of the same is unbecoming of the JNU VC. We urge him to resume dialogue with the elected JNUSU and resolve the issues by accepting our reasonable demands," the students added.
Reiterating what had happened at the SAA, JNUSU councillor and BASO member Apeksha Priyadarshini said, "Students raised some questions about why he was not trying to resolve the crisis in the university. He did not answer and just ran to his car. Ultimately he fled in the same car. The administration block looks like a barrack right now, there are several police personnel deployed. Will he give us answers about why are doors of schools being removed on his orders by his security officials? Why are students being manhandled constantly by his security? Why should JNU students be in constant fear of being picked up by the police?" asked Apeksha.
