Targeted violence

The main targets of the masked assailants were Dalit and Muslim students and those with Left affiliation.

- ZIYA US SALAM

SHORTLY AFTER MASKED ASSAILANTS, allegedly belonging to the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), created havoc on the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus in New Delhi on January 5, mauling students, ransacking hostels, and brandishing iron rods, the picture of a visually impaired student, who was one of those targeted, emerged on social media. Surya Prakash, a student pursuing MPhil in Sanskrit, was allegedly targeted because a picture of Dr B.R. Ambedkar was seen on the door of his room.

If Surya Prakash was attacked because he was a Dalit and identified himself with Ambedkar, Pervez and Mumtaz, pursuing courses in Persian, were targeted because of their religion. For Kashmiri Muslim students it was a double whammy; theywereMuslimand also Kashmiri. That was reason enough to attack them, ransack their rooms, and break the doors and windows of their rooms. The rampage drove the students away. A day after the attack, many of the rooms belonging to Muslim and Dalit students were found locked. As admitted by one of the ABVP functionaries on television, the violence was targeted. BesidesDalits and Muslims, the goons focussed their energies left-leaning students and those belonging to the students’ union. Rooms belonging to students with ideological affiliation to the ABVP were not touched. The attackers, it seemed, were keen to carry forward the casteist and communal agenda of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) according to which a Muslim is the perpetual “other”, the Dalit is supposed to exist only at the sufferance of the twice-born, and Left parties are an anathema to the idea of a Hindu Rashtra.