JNU Students Arrested During Protest to Ministry of Education Amid Ongoing Hunger Strike

New Delhi: The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student union took to the streets to march to the Ministry of Education (MoE) to voice out their demands. During the march, the members of the student union were arrested by the police deployed at the protest location.

The march was organised as part of a campus-wide hunger strike that has now entered its 13th day. The students were demanding to raise the amount of the scholarship awarded, to conduct a caste census on campus, to abolish the ban on gatherings on campus, and to stop the investigation that was started against students who took part in the protests.

To prevent the students from leaving the campus, a large number of police officers were stationed outside the university, and several layers of barricading were put in place, reported PTI.

A total of 43 students were arrested on Friday, August 23, 2024. Reportedly, the students weren't given permission to march outside the school. "They will be stopped if they come out of the university," an official told PTI.

According to PTI, the students were escorted to the police station. The students were then permitted to leave. The police stopped the students after they marched outside the university. After the students managed to cross the barricades, the police arrested them.

The general secretary of JNUSU, Priyanshi Arya, who is affiliated with the BAPSA, said that she is not a part of the protest, saying that the Union should stage a protest first in the prohibited zone, which is a 100-meter radius surrounding the vice-chancellor's office.

The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), connected with the RSS, declared that it will not participate in the march or the full university strike that the Union has called for.

(With Inputs From PTI)