A certain students union holds grudge against JNU: Raut

In a veiled attack on the BJP and its affiliated outfits, Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut on Monday said a particular student union holds a grudge against the Jawaharlal Nehru University which has produced a Nobel Laureate, and renowned politicians, industrialists, poets, and authors.

While Raut did not name any outfit, it was possibly a reference to the RSS-backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad which has been accused of unleashing violence in the JNU campus in Delhi late Sunday night.

"I have seen that a student union is holding a grudge against an institution like JNU that has given a Nobel Prize winner, as well as politicians, industrialists, authors, and poets. The university has constantly been targeted for last the five years," Raut told a Marathi news channel here.

Professor Abhijit Banerjee, who jointly won the 2019 Nobel Economics Prize with Esther Duflo and Harvard's Michael Kremer, completed Masters in Economics from JNU in 1983.

Raut said amid the unrest, "people in government" are busy with legislations like the Citizenship Amendment Act.

"If students are not safe, then the country is not safe. It's not a good sign when police barge into a university campus in the national capital and open fire. Masked people storm another university and students are left bleeding," he claimed.

These are definitely not signs that the powers-that-be have the country's law and order under control, he added.

Violence had broken out at Jawaharlal Nehru University on Sunday night as masked men armed with sticks and rods attacked students and teachers and damaged property on the campus, prompting the administration to call in the police which conducted a flag march.