‘Objectionable slogans against PM, Shah’: JNU files police complaint

A protest by the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) on Monday night triggered sharp political reactions after purported videos linked to the event, in which slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah could be heard, surfaced online.

JNUSU president named

The JNU administration on Tuesday said it had written to the police, naming several students, including current JNUSU president Aditi Mishra, who were identified as participants, and that an FIR had been registered. The university promised the “strictest action” against students who had raised “objectionable and provocative” slogans at the vigil held around 10 p.m., describing the acts as “deliberate” and “repeated”, and as having the potential to “seriously disrupt public order, campus harmony, and security”.

Universities are centres of innovation and new ideas and cannot be allowed to become “laboratories of hate”, the administration said on X.

In a statement, the JNUSU said it had held the vigil to mark the sixth anniversary of the January 2020 campus violence, in which several students and teachers were injured, and to express solidarity with activists Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam, whose bail pleas were rejected by the Supreme Court on Monday. However, the union did not deny that the slogans were raised.

In a letter to the Vasant Kunj (North) police station, the university’s chief security officer said, “The raising of such slogans is wholly inconsistent with democratic dissent, violates JNU’s code of conduct, and has the potential to seriously disturb public order, campus harmony, and the safety and security environment of the university.” The police were yet to confirm, at the time of going to press, whether an FIR had been registered in the matter.

Ministers in Delhi and at the Centre condemned the purported slogans against the Prime Minister and the Union Home Minister.

Delhi Education Minister Ashish Sood said, “Personal and violent remarks made against the Prime Minister and the Home Minister are completely unacceptable.” Labour Minister Kapil Mishra demanded that those involved be given the most severe punishment while Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa said, “If people start opposing court verdicts, the system will collapse.” Union Ministers Kiren Rijiju, Piyush Goyal, and Giriraj Singh also denounced the “abuse” directed at Mr. Modi

‘Muzzling dissent’

The JNUSU, however, said the vigil — ‘A Night of Resistance with Guerrilla Dhaba’ — was held to protest the violence the university had witnessed and accused the authorities of muzzling dissent.

“Rather than focus on the real violence — brutal attacks on students by masked goons and the unjust incarceration of dissenting voices — there is an organised attempt to deflect and divert attention from these issues,” it said in a statement.

While the JNUSU did not respond directly to the administration’s letter to the police, it criticised a section of the media for attempting to “intensify the persecution of students”.