Jawaharlal Nehru University students

Students and Human Rights Defenders

New Delhi

HRDA has issued an urgent appeal to the National Human Rights Commission of India on November 25, 2019 the brutal beating of the protesters, mainly student human rights defenders, including women, of Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi by Delhi police. The student human rights defenders are young students including women students from various student organizations of the campus of the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

The JNU administration had announced a partial roll back in a fee hike that was heavily criticised and protests continued against the same. The protesting students dubbed the move as eyewash and demanded that the JNUSU be treated as a stakeholder by the administration and the Ministry of Human Resource and Development. They also reiterated their demand for the resignation of the Vice- Chancellor.

According to sources on November 13, 2019, the Jawaharlal Nehru Students’ Union (JNUSU) organized a peaceful march towards Parliament on the first day of the Winter Session in this regard which resulted in prohibitory orders being issues both outside the parliament building and around the JNU campus, and set up barricades near Safdarjung Tomb in South Delhi to stop them from advancing any further. With restrictions on movement, the students sat on the main road at Safdarjung Tomb near Lodhi Road, singing songs, while negotiations between JNUSU and police continued. After around 6.30 pm streetlights were soon switched off and a second round of lathicharge took place, and over 50 personnel escorted students to INA Metro station.

As per sources, several students have been severely injured and videos surfaced showing the police beating up students in a brutal manner, including women. A particular video doing the rounds on social media shows a male student being forcibly led into a police vehicle while profusely bleeding from the head. It was reported that an FIR was going to be lodged by the Delhi Police against protesting students of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) for flouting Section 144 (which prevents unlawful assembly) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), which was imposed in the area surrounding the university campus and the Parliament.