Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad has accused Left-wing students of insulting and damaging a portrait of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj on the occasion of his birth anniversary at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).
Students of ABVP had put the photo of Shivaji on the wall of the students’ activity centre on the JNU campus on Sunday night. The allegations are that a section of left-wing students removed the photo and threw it on the ground.
On Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Jayanti, ruckus erupted over vandalism of Shivaji's portrait in #JNUCampus
Reports @AlokReporter pic.twitter.com/EDPLZFQHCz
— The New Indian (@TheNewIndian_in) February 20, 2023
When ABVP students objected to it, the left-wing students allegedly assaulted them. ABVP students have demanded action against the accused students.
“Why are Naxalites always inviting outsiders to create anarchy in JNU? Why do they want to bring infamy to an esteemed institution? Why are they hell-bent upon desecrating the legacy of every Bharatiya icon?,” ABVP students asked in a statement before the media.
On Sunday, ABVP students installed a portrait of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj in the JNUSU office. In this room, the portraits of left leaders like Lenin and EVR Ramaswami Naicker have also been installed.
The ABVP students claim that the main grouse of the Left students was that Shivaji’s portrait was placed alongside that of Left leaders. They were incensed by the act of ABVP and allegedly vandalized not just Shivaji’s photos but also that of Phule and Maharana Pratap in retaliation. The flower offerings were also torn and destroyed.
“It is noteworthy that the pictures of foreign Lenin, Karl Marx, and many opponents of Indian thoughts, who killed lakhs of people, have already been put up in the student union office since years ago, but like Maharana Pratap’s photo last year and now Shivaji’s photo, it is not liked by the leftist organizations. came and they protested violently. Many ABVP workers have suffered serious injuries in the attack, who have been sent to Safdarjung Hospital,” it further reads.
ABVP JNU President Rohit Kumar said that the character of the Left is “anarchic”. “Left cannot tolerate anyone other than itself, as soon as the views of Shivaji and Maharana Pratap were discussed in JNU, they could not tolerate it and attacked as usual,” Kumar said.