Tension continues in JNU over event

NEW DELHI: Things haven't calmed down at Jawaharlal Nehru University after October 9's scuffle over Mahishasur Shahadat Divas. The ABVP and its supporters sat on dharna at the administrative block on Monday afternoon to register protests against the Left groups on campus.
A rally was scheduled by a set of students calling themselves "United Hindus" on Monday night.
The Left groups in JNU had their own rally on Sunday. "Everyone except ABVP and NSUI were involved in that," said Sandip Kumar Singh. He added that Monday's protestors met the vice-chancellor as well. "He told us that a committee has been instituted to look into the event held at Kaveri hostel on October 9 and that its findings will be submitted soon," said Singh. He also explained that "United Hindus" is a group of "common students" who are upset about the distribution of a magazine on campus that allegedly maligns the Hindu goddess, Durga.
Interestingly, several new anti-Left groups in JNU that had sprung up. Though leery of revealing their names, they say they have on board large numbers of students from a variety of backgrounds. The "JNU Forum for SC, ST, OBC and Minority Students" is one.The All India Backward Students' Forum - AIBSF - had observed the fourth Mahishasur Shahadat Divas, after dinner last Thursday. There was trouble at the first in 2011, the second had gone smoothly and the third saw them celebrating on a much larger scale in the afternoon at the School of Social Sciences auditorium. Though they went back to the Kaveri hostel mess for the fourth, there were protests and a punch-up.
The JNU Students' Union chalked it up to yet another attempt by ABVP to stifle debate and promote a "culture of violence, threats, intimidation and lumpenism"; ABVP, on its part, argues that it welcomes debate but not "slandering."