Hyderabad: Undeterred by having a shoe thrown at him, JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar on Thursday asserted that he would continue his fight for freedom and social justice, and ensure that the Rohith Act was enacted to end caste bias in educational institutions.
He said universities were under attack in the country under the Modi government with budgets cuts, adding he would see that no Dalit or poor was denied education.
Two youth, suspected to be ‘Gomatha Raksha (cow protection) Dal’ activists, threw a shoe at Mr Kumar leading to a commotion at the seminar he addressed on “Constitutional Rights” at Sundarayya Vignana Kendram here on Thursday.
Attackers came early for front seats
The police on Thursday arrested two youths for throwing a shoe at JNU Students Union president Kanhaiya Kumar while he was addressing a meeting at Sundarayya Vignana Kendram at Bagh Lingam-pally. The two were identified as Pavan Kumar Reddy and Naresh Kumar, activists of Go Raksha Dal. While the slipper did not hit Mr Kumar, the two were immediately caught and roughed up before the police took over. The seminar continued.
The duo was produced before court and granted bail. A few minutes after Mr Kumar started speaking, one of the youths, who was sitting very close to the dais, started raising slogans against the JNUSU president and shouting “Bharat Mata ki jai”. And before anyone noticed, he hurled his shoe at Mr Kumar. But the shoe missed him and fell at a distance.
He was immediately surrounded by Mr Kumar’s supporters and soundly thrashed. Cops, who were stationed outside the campus, rushed in and rescued the duo and shifted them to the police station.
According to sources, the two came to the venue half an hour before the programme started and sat near the dais. While being shifted to the police station, they said that they had come to the venue with an intention to protest his address.
Amid protests, they were shifted to the police station and a suo motu case was registered against them for intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace (504 IPC), assault or using criminal force (352 IPC), wrongful restraint (341 IPC) and criminal trespass (447 IPC). Later they were produced in court and were granted bail.
Protests continue in university
Protests at the UoH following the suicide of Rohith Vemula showed no signs of abating. On Thursday night, students gathered near the shopping complex and burnt an effigy of vice-chancellor Prof. Appa Rao Podile.
Many students who got hurt in the police crackdown at the V-C lodge on Tuesday evening shared their experiences after burning of the effigy which was followed by sloganeering and raising of various demands including the release of 25 students and two faculty members of the university in judicial remand.
