Violence breaks out at JNU as ABVP and AISA activists clash

Violence erupted on the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus late Sunday night when a protest rally turned violent, with student groups accusing each other of being the aggressor, according to NDTV reporting.

The Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) had organized an ‘Equality March’ demanding the resignation of Vice-Chancellor Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit over alleged “casteist” remarks she made in a podcast on Feb 16. The union also sought the revocation of rustication orders against four student office-bearers accused of vandalism during a protest.

Protesters alleged that university authorities did not engage with the marchers and instead allowed members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) — the student wing affiliated with the **Bharatiya Janata Party — to confront them.

The ABVP rejected these allegations, accusing left-backed groups of provoking the clashes and spreading misinformation. Left-backed organizations, including the All India Students’ Association (AISA), claimed ABVP members threw stones at the JNUSU protest encampment and attacked “unarmed students,” leaving several injured.

In social media posts, the ABVP said that “common students were surrounded and attacked by left-affiliated groups while they were peacefully studying in the school areas on the campus” and called the episode a “night of terror”.

The ABVP’s JNU secretary, Pravin Kumar Piyush, said a large group of masked individuals entered academic areas during the protest, allegedly armed with sticks, rods and stones, and forced their way into reading rooms.

The organization also claimed that a Biotechnology student was ambushed inside the School of Social Sciences and beaten, although details about injuries and treatment have not been independently verified.

Following the clashes, the ABVP launched a social media campaign under the tag #LeftAttacksJNUAgain, accusing the Delhi Police of inaction and asserting that parts of the campus had been “turned into a battlefield”.

The protest, and subsequent violence, took place against the backdrop of wider criticism of the new University Grants Commission (UGC) regulations notified on Jan 13, which critics say could lead to discrimination against certain student groups