We don't need money to do this: JNU security tells students while assaulting, molesting them at dawn

The students of the Jawaharlal Nehru University alleged that their own security guards assaulted, molested and manhandled them early on Saturday. They also accused the ABVP cadre of vandalising university property. Protesting students were, reportedly, sleeping near the Communication and Information Services Room in the school area when around 40 security guards, wearing masks, attacked them after they switched off the lights.

A statement released by the JNU Students' Union said that the JNUSU President, Aishe Ghosh, was openly slapped by one of the security guards. "A woman student was pushed into the bonfire and other women students who were sleeping were stamped over by male security guards. Thereafter they manhandled and assaulted the students," it read. "Today morning, ABVP lumpens came and vandalised SIS II which shows how loyal the ABVP is to the VC who gives them teaching appointments without any qualification," it added.

But this is not a one-off incident, said BASO member and student activist Apeksha Priyadarshini, "You may be aware of the issues we are fighting on. But you may not be aware of the kind of physical abuse that the new security force Cyclops, which was brought in by the VC. Every day, these guards harass women students, manhandle the male ones, use sickening language with us, humiliate us and beat us up," she said. "Our VC spent over 17 crore rupees to get this security. If he'd chosen to spend even half of this money on our education, today we'd not be on strike for nearly 70 days," added the young leader.

When the students asked the security why they were behaving like this when they aren't even receiving their salaries, they said they don't need money to do this, said a student. Some of the students, though, have identified a few of the ABVP members including SIS Councillor, Ritwik Raj. But there is no confirmation that he was associated with the vandals.

The students feel the administration is extremely rattled by the "unity of the students". "For almost seventy days now, students have faced beatings, assaults, threats, intimidation and circulars to coerce them into accepting the fee hike and the VC's agenda of selling off the university. They have braved the bitter winter and the everyday beatings of Cyclops security who have been instructed to vandalise, assault and create chaos. They have been sent proctorial enquiries en masse, suspended and ordered to be evicted and declared out of bounds,' said the JNUSU members. "Students in this university have always stood to protect the inclusive character of JNU. The VC is trying to impose the fee hike and kill off that very character. He is imposing the massively hiked room rent now and clearly plans to introduce service and utility charges at the end of the month," added the JNUSU.

The JNUSU further appealed to all students to continue to boycott the fraud registration process and "especially the online mode of fee payment through which they want to increase the fee surreptitiously".