Reacting to the incident of violence inside the campus, Dhulipudi said JNU is a free university. We respect individuals’ choices.
Delhi: Days after a clash broke out on the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus over food menu and havan, the vice-chancellor of the university, Shantishree Dhulipudi Pandit, on Wednesday said she wants to correct the public perception that they are members of the ‘tukde-tukde gang’.
“I want to correct the public perception that we are tukde-tukde…After I have taken over, I have not seen anybody talking like that. We are as nationalistic as anybody else,” she said.
Reacting to the incident of violence inside the campus, Dhulipudi said, “JNU is a free university. We respect individuals’ choices, it’s a melting pot of all identities. Young people have opinions and we appreciate diversity and dissent but let’s not end up having violence.”
She further said, “The issue erupted on whether Ram Navami Havan should be conducted and regarding the food menu. These are the versions of the two groups. The proctorial enquiry was ordered and we are waiting for the reports. It will be an impartial enquiry.”
On the day of Ram Navami last week, a violent clash had broken out between the members of the Left parties and the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) allegedly over cooking chicken. Videos and photos of the violence were shared on social media platforms. While the Left group claimed that ABVP assaulted the Left members over the cooking of chicken on Ram Navami, the ABVP said Left students attacked their Ram Navami prayer ceremony.
Meanwhile, a meat seller who has been delivering meat to the JNU hostel mess said some of the students called him and said chicken should not be supplied to the university’s Kaveri Hostel on Ram Navami. “It has never happened that I have been asked not to supply meat (at hostels) as there is a festival being celebrated,” Afzal Ahmed had told news agency PTI.
“I told them that I had received the order on April 9. But they threatened me saying if I supplied meat to the hostel, they would ensure that I am not able to supply meat to other JNU hostels. I told them I will come down and speak to them,” PTI further quoted him as saying.
