Six days after Najeeb Ahmed went missing, protests at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus took an unprecedented turn with agitating students locking down the Vice Chancellor (VC) Jagadesh Kumar and other senior officials in the administrative building for at least 22 hours on Thursday. The campus was divided over JNU Student's Union (JNUSU)'s decision to call off the blockade, though the Union held that it was just a strategic change of tactics.
“We haven't called off our protest. We have only changed the methodology,” JNUSU spokespersons said. The decision was taken keeping in mind the Academic Council meeting which was scheduled for 2:30 pm, Thursday.
Najeeb Ahmed, a first year MSc student who lived in Room No. 106 of Mahi Mandvi hostel on JNU campus, went missing on October 15 allegedly following an altercation with ABVP activists the previous night. The lockdown began on Wednesday when the students lay down in front of the administrative block in which they held the VC and several other senior administrative officials captive, lying down on the ground and asking them to walk over them if they wanted to leave.
Shortly before the VC was allowed to leave on Thursday, he had called a press meet inside the block where he was held and appealed to agitating students to call off the blockade stating that otherwise, the “law will take its own course”.
The VC claimed that the authorities were taking every possible ef fort to trace the missing student and blamed students for their illegal detention. “We slept on the floor and were not provided food. Several of our colleagues are sick and they spent whole night without any facilities,” VC Kumar said.
Rejecting Kumar's allegations, the JNUSU said that the incident occurred due to the administration's insensitive handling of the issue. “The blockade is due to the insensitive way of handling the matter of Najeeb Ahmed-the violence against him by ABVP which led to him missing from the campus for over five days now and the JNU administration trying to shield the culprits while refusing to lodge an FIR,” JNUSU President Mohit Pandey said.
As soon as the blockade was called off by JNUSU President Mohit Pandey on Thursday at around 2.15pm, a section of students, including activists of BAPSA, AISF, and DSU started protesting, asking Pandey to explain his decision.
“We have been sitting here for the last 24 hours pressurising the authorities to step up their efforts in tracing our missing friend. How can JNUSU take this decision abruptly without apprising us about the status of their meeting with the VC?” a student who wished to stay anonymous, asked.
“We'll continue our protest. We don't care if JNUSU is with us or not. We'll carry out a march tonight in the campus in support of Najeeb,” said another student.
The atmosphere on campus remained tense on Thursday evening. “JNUSU thinks they are the only legitimate body on campus. They have forgotten that we students elected them. They can't betray us like this. We won't stop this movement here. We'll constitute another body without hierarchy to channelise our protest,” a BAPSA activist said.
Ahmad's family, who also blamed the varsity for not taking action to trace their son, remains grief stricken. “Yesterday we got a call from a mortuary to identify a body. Fortunately, it wasn't our Najeeb,” says Sadaf, Najeeb's sister. “The administration is not doing anything to trace my son. Had these students not protested, even the media wouldn't have come,” Najeeb's mother Fatima Nafees said. Meanwhile, the Delhi police constituted a Special Investigating Team (SIT) to trace the missing student following a direction from Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who announced a reward of Rs 50,000 for information on Najeeb.
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