THE IMAGES OF AGIRL, VISIBLY DISTRESSED, holding her bleeding forehead while explaining haltingly to a camera that she had been attacked by masked assailants, shocked the sensibilities of the nation. The girl was Aishe Ghosh, the elected president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU), who had just returned from a peace meeting on January 5 called by the JNU Teachers’ Association (JNUTA).
The meeting had been called specifically to assuage tempers that rose following sporadic incidents of assaults on students on the previous day. It was not unusual in the university’s culture to conduct such a meeting given its democratic culture. JNU is the only university where student elections are conducted by the students and an election commission elected by the students for the purpose. The administration has no role in it.
UNPRECEDENTED VIOLENCE
On January 5, the university witnessed unprecedented violence. That evening, apart from Aishe Ghosh and a large number of her fellow students, several members of the JNU faculty were attacked by a large mob of unidentified assailants armed with stones and sticks. One faculty member sustained serious head injuries. A particular students’ hostel and a teachers’ residential complex known as New Transit House (NTH) were specifically targeted by the mob.
Only a part of the violence of January 5 was captured on video by students, but even that was chilling. One particular image grabbed from the video showed two men and a woman in a checked shirt, all masked, holdings rods and sticks on the premises of SabarmatiHostel, named after the river in Gujarat (which evokes the memory of Mahatma Gandhi and his ashram on its banks). The gang went on the rampage looking for targets and smashed windows and doors.
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