What started off with slogans has now culminated in tear gas shells, students being beaten and an atmosphere of hostility. We had reported how a few days back, after India lost to West Indies in the World T20 semi-final, many students of NIT Srinagar celebrated by raising anti-India slogans. Some students alleged that students from other states were harassed and abused. Another student from NIT Srinagar told us that many anti-India messages and abuses were circulated on their college whatsapp group.
Matters then escalated and groups of students began indulging in sloganeering and counter sloganeering. Eventually, we received a message which claimed that students had been directed to vacate their hostels by the Registrar.
Now, social media has thrown up a number of pictures and videos which show students being beaten. The social media users claim these are pictures from NIT Srinagar where J & K Police are using force against students:
Fuckin JKP is beating us…!!#jkp_are_goons Modiji help us @narendramodi@smritiirani@IndiaTodaypic.twitter.com/a78LXgQKlY
— Harsh khajuria (@harsh_khajuria) April 5, 2016
https://twitter.com/purushesh/status/717361204956516352
Students claim that even peaceful marches are being met with force:
During the today evening’s silent march towards the college gate, this student was badly hit by the police with lathis just for peacefully protesting.Shame on JK Police.Save the students of NIT Srinagar
Posted by Save the students of NITSrinagar on Tuesday, April 5, 2016
Innocent students are being beaten up guys…..what is the government waiting for? WE NEED HELP! WE NEED UNBIASED…
Posted by Save the students of NITSrinagar on Tuesday, April 5, 2016
A media report says that the non-local students of NIT Srinagar are indeed in deep trouble:
Although the CRPF has been deployed on the NIT campus, non-local students are allegedly facing life threats through “social media” and “phone calls” as some “outsiders” are bent upon “teaching a lesson” to the students who dared to oppose those who were mercilessly beating them for not celebrating the victory of West Indies against the Indian team.
In all this, the media has come under fire for either ignoring completely or barely touching on this issue. Also in the line of fire has been BJP and the Central Government for their apathy and inaction. Although Home Minister Rajnath Singh has tweeted out assurances, from the social media posts of local students, it doesn’t seem that any help is reaching them:
https://twitter.com/BJPRajnathSingh/status/716513351350616065
https://twitter.com/BJPRajnathSingh/status/717375125293649922
Media has slowly and partially woken up to these reports as journalists are now tweeting about the same:
https://twitter.com/AdityaRajKaul/status/717361456358883329
https://twitter.com/gauravcsawant/status/717373074648109056
It is indeed a compelling study of the double standards of Indian media as one can see the hyper exposure given to the JNU and Hyderabd University incidents, but almost zero coverage to the on-goings in NIT Srinagar. The BJP too has come received serious flak for being in power both in the state and the centre but being unable to protect patriotic students.