JNU student union accuses ABVP of 'vandalising' portraits of social reformers

New Delhi, Feb 21 The dispute between the left and right wing-associated student unions is on the rise in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).

On Monday night, the students belonging to the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) vandalised portraits of several great social reformers, including Babasaheb Ambedkar, Periyar, Shaheed Bhagat Singh, Karl Marx, Jyotiba and Savitribai Phule among others, alleged JNU Student Union's (JNUSU) President Aishe Ghosh.

Ghosh said that the portraits were on the walls of the union's office which were damaged by the ABVP, and many students were injured in the act.

She accused the ABVP of attempting to disturb the communal harmony inside the campus, adding that it would not be tolerated at any cost, adding that the union strongly condemned such acts of violence.

The tussle began on Sunday evening when the ABVP had organised a wreath-laying ceremony on the birth anniversary of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, following which his picture was put up alongside others in the student unions' office.

The ABVP alleged that the students of leftist organisations removed the portrait from the wall and threw the garland away.

Adding that, when the ABVP student activists tried to put up the portraits again, they were assaulted by the students associated with the left student organisations.

Ghosh, however, said that a candle light march was organised in the campus in memory of the IIT Bombay student Darshan Solanki, who was institutionally murdered by a casteist environment.

The ABVP attacked the students to derail the movement against caste discrimination, added Ghosh.

In the matter, ABVP JNU President Rohit Kumar said that pictures of Lenin, Karl Marx and many opponents of Indian thoughts have been on the office's walls since years, but when Maharana Pratap's portrait was put up last year, JNUSU protested violently.

Kumar said that the "Left's character is anarchic and it cannot tolerate anyone other than itself, as soon as the ideas of Shivaji and Maharana Pratap were discussed in JNU, they attacked as usual."

Kumar added that ABVP is committed to spreading the ideas of great Indian men and honouring them in JNU.