JNU student protests: Agitation over hostel fee hike escalates as students clash with cops; police use water canons

Students of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) clashed with the police outside the outside the university campus in Delhi as protests by the JNUSU against the hostel fee hike and draft hostel manual continued for over six hours.

The police also reportedly resorted to the use of water cannons and formed a barricade to enable the Vice-Chancellor of the university and professors attending the convocation ceremony at the AICTE auditorium to leave the venue.

#WATCH Delhi: A scuffle between the police and protesting students breaks out, as the protest organised by Jawaharlal Nehru Students' Union (JNUSU) over different issues including fee hike, continues outside the university campus. pic.twitter.com/yOlezY9Rjx

— ANI (@ANI) November 11, 2019

Earlier, PTI had reported that Union Human Resource Development (HRD) minister Ramesh Pokhriyal, who had been trapped inside the auditorium due to the protest raging outside, had cancelled two events. Protesting students refused to back down without meeting the Vice Chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar Mamidala  and continued to raise slogans outside the auditorium, calling the VC  a “thief” and urging the police to “go back”.

Police then opened water canons on the protesting JNU students and even detained a few students, reported CNN News18. A few girl students were also shoved by the police, reported ANI.

#WATCH Delhi: Women police personnel push back girl students of JNU as the protest by Jawaharlal Nehru Students' Union (JNUSU), over different issues including fee hike, continues outside the university campus. pic.twitter.com/FahM7wi8VV

— ANI (@ANI) November 11, 2019

The Jawaharlal Nehru Students’ Union (JNUSU) has been on strike for the past two weeks against the “anti-student” policies of the varsity’s administration. The protest escalated on Monday morning as students attempted to break broke police barricades to protest outside the AICTE auditorium in New Delhi, where the varsity’s convocation was being held.

The protests, which started in the morning, are a part of the agitation against the hostel manual and several other issues like restrictions by the administration on entry to the Parthasarathy Rocks, attempts to lock students’ union office, according to the students. They claimed that the manual has provisions for the fee hike, curfew timings and dress code restrictions.