Students in Patiala, Sangrur show solidarity with JNU

Left-leaning students’ unions staged a protest on the Punjabi University campus here on Monday against the violence that broke out at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on Sunday evening.

The protesters gathered outside the main library and carried out a march. University security personnel and policemen were deployed on the campus to maintain law and order.

Representatives of Punjab Students’ Union (PSU), All India Students’ Federation (AISF), Punjab Radical Students’ Union (PRSU), Democratic Students’ Union, Students’ Federation of India (SFI) and PSU (Lalkar), along with research scholars’ association, addressed the gathering.

“The assault on JNU students was an organised act. Our voices cannot be suppressed like this. We would unite and come out stronger to fight such attacks,” said Rashpinder Singh, an activist of PRSU.

Later, the students gathered at Nehru park near main bus stand and joined the protest organised by democratic teachers’ front and other associations of members of civil society.

Punjabi University teachers’ union besides former member of parliament (MP) Dr Dharamvira Gandhi and incumbent MP Preneet Kaur also condemned the assault on JNU students.

Similar protest was witnessed in Sangrur with members of PSU, PRSU and some human-rights outfits taking to streets to express solidarity with JNU students.

The protesters burnt effigies and raised slogans against the BJP and RSS while demanding arrest of the accused.

“JNU is playing the role of opposition in the country and goons are targeting the students of this prestigious institute to suppress their voice. The government is continuously attacking JNU using different tactics such as hiking fee and implicating its students in false cases,” said Gurwinder Singh, a state committee member of the PRSU.

The activists of PSU also held a rally at Akal Degree College, Mastuana Sahib, and demanded strict action against the ABVP, which they claimed had plotted the Sunday attack.