Kavitha Muralidharan 
Chennai: Tamil Nadu chief minister M.K. Stalin condemned the “cowardly attack on Tamil students by ABVP [Akhil Bharatiya Vidhyarthi Parishad] ” and took strong objection to defacing of portraits of Periyar and Karl Marx at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in Delhi. He called for strict action from the university administration against perpetrators of violence. The incident has had its repercussions in Tamil Nadu.
Stalin’s statement comes a day after Nasser Mohammed Moideen, a research scholar from Tamil Nadu at the Molecular medicine department, was among the students who suffered a physical attack from ABVP on Sunday, February 19. Naseer suffered bleeding injuries on his neck and head and was rushed to a hospital.
According to the students, they were attacked by ABVP when they tried to hold a meeting in memory of Darshan Solanki, an 18-year-old Dalit student who died by suicide at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT-B) recently. The IIT students alleged to have died by suicide due to caste discrimination.
“The ABVP members had gathered for the Sivaji event and wrote on walls that communists be hanged, Sharjeel Imam and Umar Khalid should be hanged. The students blacked out the writings. But when the screening of Jaane Bhi Yaaro was about to begin, the ABVP members reportedly came back again and heckled the students accusing them of removing the portrait of Sivaji,” said Ilaiya Kumar, a research scholar from Tamil Nadu at Jamia Milia University.
The students alleged that the ABVP has been systematically mounting a campaign against Periyar, the tallest among Dravidian leaders, for months now. “Some of us, including students of JNU, floated ‘Reservation Club’ on September 17 – the birth anniversary of Periyar last year. Since then, the Club has been holding several events, including on the rights of reservation, against EWS reservation, etc. The ABVP did a counter-campaign against Periyar since then,” added Ilaiya Kumar.
Nasser, the student who suffered injuries in the attack, said, “When I went there, I saw portraits of Periyar, Marx and Lenin were vandalised. When I asked who did this, the ABVP members said they did and started attacking me.”
The students also alleged that ABVP members also blocked the ambulance which was called in to take Nasser to the hospital, and also tried to attack other students as well.
“The attack happened in front of Delhi Police. When we asked them to intervene, they refused,” alleged Adarsh, JNUSU- convenor (SLL&CS). “They said they had no orders to that effect. Now, the ABVP is coming up with a new narrative that we have damaged the portrait of Sivaji. Why would we do that? The ABVP is saying this to save their own itself.”
The incident drew reactions from leaders in Tamil Nadu. In multiple tweets, chief minister Stalin condemned the attack of Tamil students at JNU.
He also said, “The securities of JNU & Delhi Police have time and again turned mute spectators to the violence unleashed on students who fight for their rights & are critical of the Union BJP regime.”
Expressing his solidarity with the students, Stalin appealed to the JNU vice-chancellor to initiate action against the culprits and protect students from Tamil Nadu.
Pointing out that students with affiliation to communist movements have been repeatedly targeted at the JNU, M.H. Jawahirulla, MLA and leader of Manithaneya Makkal Katchi, said it was evident that the perpetrators of such crimes enjoy impunity and hence continue to unleash violence on the campus.
“But this is totally unacceptable. The vice-chancellor must take action against the perpetrators,” he said.
Thol Thirumavalavan, MP and leader of the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi, said that “regressive forces like the BJP consider doing divisive politics on educational campuses an achievement, and that this anti-people action should be condemned”. He demanded criminal action against the ABVP members who indulged in violence and vandalized the portraits of Periyar and Marx.
The BJP Tamil Nadu president K. Annamalai said that it was “deeply saddening to see a state CM falling for the fake narratives of his Party’s IT wing without getting into the depth of the matter.” He claimed that people on both sides were injured in the attack.
There have been several instances of ABVP members resorting to violence on the JNU campus. In February 2022, six students were injured after the right-wing group protested and resorted to violence against non-vegetarian food being served on Ram Navami on the campus. In January 2020, masked men and women, wielding sticks and rods, barged into Sabarmati Hostel, Mahi Mandvi Hostel, and Periyar Hostel hostels on the campus to attack students affiliated with JNUSU. Several students suffered grievous injuries. According to JNUSU, the attack was orchestrated by ABVP.