JNUSU Defaced V D Savarkar Marg Signboard Inside Campus, Alleges ABVP

The RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) on Tuesday alleged that the Left-led JNU Students’ Union (JNUSU) has defaced the V D Savarkar Marg signboard inside the campus. The students’ union had objected to a road inside the campus being named after Hindutva ideologue V D Savarkar.

JNU vice-chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar said they have filed a police complaint regarding the defacement, but the police said they have not yet received it. "The JNU administration last year took the decision to name the roads inside the campus and as a result the road at the Subansir Hostel was named after V D Savarkar, but the Left-wing students defaced it by pasting a Mohammad Ali Jinnah Marg poster," president of ABVP-JNU Shivam Chaurasia alleged.

But former Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) president N Sai Balaji claimed that the photo of the signboard with Jinnah being circulated by ABVP is ‘photoshopped’. “For all the propaganda that is happening about renaming the roads... the images what ABVP ares circulating is fake & photoshopped just like their patron Savarkar’s role in freedom struggle of India!,” he posted on Twitter.

He said “JNU students renamed it after B R Ambedkar, who gave us Constitution of India which RSS-BJP-ABVP hate”. Vice-chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar said the incident was “highly regrettable” and they have filed a police complaint regarding the defacement.

“The naming of different roads in JNU campus, which is more than 1000 acres, has been approved by the Executive Council based on the recommendations of the campus development committee in 2016.

“During the last two years, several roads have been named after great personalities. But last night some miscreants indulged in defacing the road signage in our campus. This is highly regrettable. In an educational institution, one can disagree intellectually but stooping down to such acts is unwarranted,” he said.

The administration on Monday had said that the decision to name the road after Savarkar was taken at the Executive Council held in November last year.