Courting controversy, students of the JNU unit of the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), the student wing of the Congress, burnt effigies of PM Modi, BJP president Amit Shah and MK Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godseon Tuesday.
Besides these three figures, the students also burnt effigies featuring the faces of yoga guru Baba Ramdev, Sadhvi Pragya, Asaram Bapu and JNU Vice-Chancellor Jagadesh Kumar.
On the occasion of Dasara, the NSUI members said, these effigies were burnt to “mark victory of truth over falsehood.”
“We celebrated the victory of truth over falsehood in a modern and democratic country by burning effigies. For us Modi and RSS are symbols of untruth,” said Sunny Diman, an NSUI member on Tuesday.
“The effigy-burning was to symbolise our dissatisfaction with the current government. The idea is to root out the evil from governance and bring about a system that is pro-student and pro-people,” added Diman.
Following the incident, university Vice Chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar tweeted, “The effigy burning incident at JNU was brought to our notice. We are investigating the matter and examining all relevant information”.
Incidentally, last week , the university had ordered a proctorial inquiry after some students burnt effigies of the Gujarat government and gau rakshaks, in protest over reports of rising atrocities by cow vigilantes.
JNU has been in the news since February, after the then JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar and two other student leaders were arrested for participating in an allegedly ‘seditious’ public event.
