A clash broke out at Jawaharlal Nehru University on Thursday evening during the Durga idol immersion procession on Dussehra. The violence erupted near Sabarmati T-Point, where students from different groups had gathered.
JNUSU President Nitish Kumar said the trouble began after a poster was circulated earlier in the day about a Ravan Dahan event that depicted jailed students Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam as Ravan. “Students from other groups were protesting against it when the ABVP’s Durga Visarjan procession reached the spot, and the situation turned chaotic,” he said.
The ABVP accused Left groups, including AISA, SFI and DSF, of attacking their procession. “They violently attacked the immersion procession, pelted stones, and even targeted female students. This is not just violence, but an assault on our traditions,” the group said in a statement.
However, Nitish Kumar alleged that ABVP members stopped their DJ at the tea point for half an hour, raised slogans like “Jai Shri Ram” and “Yogi ji’s bulldozer justice is here,” and then began “waving slippers.”
The AISA rejected ABVP’s claims, accusing the group of trying to use religion for political purposes. “ABVP is trying to communalise the campus through such programmes. This is nothing but propaganda,” AISA said.
The poster that sparked the controversy showed Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam, both in jail since 2020 under UAPA charges linked to the Delhi riots conspiracy case, as Ravan. The riots had broken out during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC), leaving 53 dead and hundreds injured.
Both Khalid and Imam deny the charges. Last week, the Supreme Court asked Delhi Police to respond to their bail pleas after lower courts refused them relief.
