JNU students and staff members clashed over stalled scholarships.

On Monday, students and staff members of Jawaharlal Nehru University got into a fight over the release of scholarship money. The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) said that the university’s security guards hurt the students while they were demonstrating peacefully. 

The students said that their scholarships had been on hold for the past two years, and they went to the JNU administration to ask for them to be given back. Some of the students who were hurt include Rohit Kumar, ABVP’s campus head.

Also read: JNU Will Soon Have A New School For Indian Languages And A Centre For Partition Studies.

Five students went to the scholarship department at 11 a.m. to enquire about student scholarships, Rohit Kumar said. The guards abused the students and misbehaved with them, he added. “The students have been suffering for over two years now. They aren’t getting non-NET scholarships, MCM (Merit-cum-Means) or even JRF, “he said.

The videos and pictures from the scene show a group of security guards pushing and trying to restrain a group of protesting students inside an administrative office. Some videos show blood stains on the floor, clothed in the dustbins, and shattered glass scattered on the floor.

Several students, displaying their injuries, said they were “targeted” by security guards and suffered severe injuries.

“Few JNU students were demanding for the distribution of scholarships for students, which was pending at the end of the JNU administration for the last 2 years. Students staged a protest at the administration office when the guards of JNU security came and tried to remove protesting students, a scuffle broke out between students and guards on duty,” said Manoj C, DCP (South West).