ON November 18, 2019, students of Jawaharlal Nehru University have yet again created history. In their March to Parliament, the students were brutally beaten up by Delhi police in their attempt to pass the police barricades. This particular scenario was repeated more than once in a protest march carried out in much peaceful manner. The students were marching with a single demand to roll back the fee hike and requesting the university administration to initiate a dialogue with the elected student representatives.

A pamphlet was distributed by JNU students along with the march among the citizens to build solidarity on a larger scale. At around 10 am when the students were beginning to march from the university, section 144 was announced by the Delhi police but the students had already gathered and decided to cross the barricades put at the North (main) gate of the university. The next round of the barricades was just 500 metres away where the first round of detentions began by police. Around 160 students were detained here and taken away in three buses in different directions. The first bus going towards Badarpur police station had detained many female students including JNUSU president, Aishe Ghosh yet there was no female constable along with them and the bleeding students were denied medical help despite there being a medical kit available inside the bus.

The second slot of barricading was just some steps away where students, despite being injured and knowledge of some friends being detained, continued to march on and pass the barricades. Here again, around 30 students were detained and taken to Fatehpuri and Kalakaji Police Station.

The students continued to march on taking shortcuts in smaller groups through Budh Vihar as the main road was blocked by barricading at Ber Sarai as well.

Around 3 pm, the march had crossed Bhikaji Cama flyover with 3,000 students. They were stopped at Jorbagh Metro Station with a heavy blockade of barricades. The students continued their sit-in with a demand that all students detained in the morning be released on immediate basis. The massive turnout of students had forced Delhi police to issue a notice to shut down 4 major metro stations including one of the terminal stations, Central Secretariat. While students waited for their friends to return to campus after being released from different police stations, Delhi Police had unleashed brutal lathicharge on students, including visually challenged students. Shashibhushan Pandey, removed his glasses and told Delhi police that “I am Blind”, to which police replied, with boots, kicks, lathis, asking him, “Why do you come for the protest, if you are blind”. Many female students who were part of the protests have reported being pricked by a pin by Delhi police. Many videos have revealed that there were men in civil dress claiming to be police officers and punching and kicking students.

On November 19, 2019 a press conference was called by JNU Students’ Union at 3pm. Followed by a peace march called by JNU Teachers’ Association. The faculty members who had reached Jorbagh to accompany students were also beaten up in Delhi Police lathi-charge.