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Protest, clashes greet Manmohan at JNU

New Delhi, IANS:

Fierce scenes greeted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) as protest by Left students ended in clashes among rival groups and with police, here on Monday.

Fierce scenes greeted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) as protest by Left students ended in clashes among rival groups and with police, here on Monday.

The trouble erupted as soon as Manmohan Singh reached the JNU campus to inaugurate a statue of the first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, with members of the All India Students Association (AISA) shouting slogans against the government’s economic and defence policies.

The AISA, which controls the presidency of the JNU Students Union, is affiliated to the Communist Party of India-Marxist Leninist (CPI-ML).

When the policemen tried to control the situation, the sloganeering became more vocal, resulting first in fisticuffs with the police and then in violent clashes.

Activists of the Congress-affiliated National Students Union of India (NSUI) began attacking the AISA members, after the policemen began to thrash some protesters.

Mr Singh witnessed the ugly scenes. However, he finished his brief speech and praised the country’s first Prime Minister after whom, the university was named.Four students were taken into police custody. After the Prime Minister left, men and women supporters of AISA and NSUI clashed again,and a few students were seen bleeding from their noses.

The Students Federation of India (SFI), which is affiliated to the Communist Party of India-Marxist and has a strong presence among JNU students, also joined the demonstration. The protesters said they were opposed to the recent Indo-US joint air exercise in West Bengal and India's stand on Iran's nuclear programme.

Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had faced similar protests in 1982, organised primarily by the SFI.