JNU students face off with police during march to Rashtrapati Bhavan

The march had begun at Mandi House in the afternoon. The nearly 2,000-strong crowd, comprising teachers, students and political leaders such as Sitaram Yechury, Sharad Yadav, Manoj Jha, D Raja, Brinda Karat and Kiran Walia, marched to the National Archives — where they were stopped by police barricades. Speeches by political leaders and student activists followed even as a delegation of JNUSU and JNUTA office bearers went to meet HRD Ministry officials.

The situation spiralled after the delegation was allegedly not given any assurance on the removal of the V-C – a “non-negotiable” demand.

On coming out of the meeting, JNUSU president Aishe Ghosh addressed the students and said any dialogue could only take place after the V-C had been removed. “We will not let our movement end here. We will march to Rashtrapati Bhavan and demand the V-C’s removal,” she said.

No sooner had the march moved towards the Rajendra Prasad roundabout that police started using force to detain students. “A gathering of JNU students and teachers marched from Mandi House to MHRD, Shastri Bhawan via Rajendra Prasad Road. A delegation of nine persons, including teachers, went to meet the joint secretary, MHRD. The gathering remained peaceful till they remained in meeting,” said Additional Police PRO Anil Mittal.

“However, when the delegation came out after meeting, one of the student leaders provoked the gathering to move
towards Rashtrapati Bhavan. Consequently, they stopped normal traffic at Rajendra Prasad Road; some of them tried to march towards Rashtrapati Bhavan. They were prevented from doing so. In the process, 11 persons were detained and subsequently released,” he said.

While some students were detained, others scattered. Preeti Umarao, who was detained in a truck along with former
JNUSU vice-president Sarika Chaudhary, alleged they were both beaten up. “I lost my glasses and Sarika lost her slippers. We were detained after 6 pm, which is after sundown and is not allowed,” she said.

For the next one hour, the students tried to regroup – which finally happened around 7 pm at Connaught Place.
As police made announcements asking students to leave, JNUSU vice-president Saket Moon addressed the crowd. “We don’t have the numbers after the police action to continue here anymore. We will regroup and come back later,” he said, before the crowd finally dispersed.