Right and left clash in JNU over screening of 'Love Jihad' movie

Left and right student groups clashed in the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on Friday during the screening of a documentary on the contentious topic of 'Love Jihad'.

The screening of "In the name of love", was organised on Friday evening by 'Vivekanand Vichar Manch', a student group affiliated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

Terming the movie as a communalist propaganda, the JNU Students' Union was leading a protest against the screening, when it alleged that the students from the RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) clashed with them and manhandled the protesters.

"We were leading a peaceful protest when they (ABVP members) clashed with us. They even hurled eggs and stones at us. We didn't react to their violence at all," Shubhanshu Singh, the JNUSU Joint Secretary, told IANS while he was at the Vasant Kunj Police Station to lodge a complaint against the violence.

The ABVP, meanwhile, termed the protesters the incitors of violence and accused them of hitting a security guard.

"After having murdered Freedom of Expression at Sabarmati Dhaba, JNUSU President Geeta Kumari helped Mohit Pandey and Aamir escape after intentionally hitting a guard. The guard has been grievously injured," former Joint Secretary Saurabh Sharma, an ABVP member and one of people named in the complaint by the union, said in a statement.

Talking to IANS earlier, the organisers had said that they had due permission for the screening of the movie and it was anybody's right to protest.

"The movie is based on the issue of 'conversion' in Kerala, of any community whether Hindu or Muslim or Christian, where people are being forcefully converted... JNUSU is protesting against the screening but it is their right to protest," Srikant Kumar, a member of the organising group, had said.

The film, subtitled "Melancholy of God's own country", is directed by Sudipto Sen.

--IANS

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