Dussehra witnessed the burning of effigies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah in Delhi’s Jawahar Lal Nehru by the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI). The university is now “investigating the matter”.
The JNU administration had recently served proctorial notices to four students for burning an effigy of the Gujarat government and gau rakshaks.
Claiming that the central government was a failure, members of the Congress-affiliated NSUI burnt an effigy representing the Prime Minister, to represent their “dissatisfaction with the current government” at the Sabarmati Dhaba.
Besides Modi and Shah, the effigy had faces of Yoga guru Ramdev, Sadhvi Pragya, Nathuram Godse, Asaram Bapu and JNU vice-chancellor Jagadesh Kumar. The students also carried placards with the slogan, ‘Truth shall prevail over evil’.
“The effigy-burning was to symbolise our dissatisfaction with the current government. The idea is to root out the evil from governance and bring about a system that is pro-student and pro-people,” said Sunny Diman, an NSUI activist.
“Look at what this government has done to our country. The promises it made are still on paper and are repeated only in speeches. Whenever students want to raise their voice, they are attacked by the administration, certainly on instructions from the government. This Dussehra, we wanted to put an end to these rubbish activities,” he added.
