The signage for a road recently named after V.D. Savarkar was defaced on Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus on Tuesday, sparking off a blame game between students’ organisations. The sign was painted over with the name B.R. Ambedkar.
The JNU Administration had put up a signboard near Purvanchal Bus Terminal naming the road V.D. Savarkar. This was done on the basis of recommendations made by a committee set up to name roads on campus. The report was presented at an Executive Council meeting on November 13, 2019.
The JNU Students’ Union (JNUSU) said the administration knows that “Savarkar and his ideology is unacceptable to JNU students”. “Mr. Savarkar’s apology to the British, his antipathy to Muslims and women, and his endorsement to the two-nation theory are well known and he cannot be accepted as an icon of a secular, plural and inclusive nation,” the JNUSU said in a statement. “JNU believes in the ideals of Bhagat Singh and Ambedkar, and not Savarkar as the ABVP does,” it added.
Reacting to the incident, JNU Vice-Chancellor M. Jagadesh Kumar said, “Last night some miscreants indulged in defacing the road signage on our campus. This is highly regrettable. In an educational institution, one can disagree intellectually but stooping down to such acts is unwarranted.”
The ABVP alleged that students belonging to Left outfits defaced the signage. “The ABVP strongly condemns this act of the Left in defacing public property on the JNU campus. The campus had witnessed similar incidents during the struggle against fee hike,” Shivam Chaurasia, president of ABVP (JNU) said.
