Police stop JNUSU protest rally, several student leaders detained

Several members of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union (JNUSU), including president Aditi Mishra and former president Nitish Kumar, were detained on Thursday after attempting to march towards the ministry of education, as protests against vice-chancellor Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit’s remarks on caste and “victimhood” continued to escalate.

Students had assembled at Sabarmati T Point and began moving towards the university gates carrying placards and banners before being stopped by heavy security deployment at the barricaded exits. While sources confirmed the detentions, there was no immediate official confirmation from the Delhi Police.

The latest mobilisation is rooted in a deepening campus confrontation triggered by Pandit’s recent podcast remarks in which she drew a comparison between Dalits and Black communities while criticising what she described as a politics of victimhood.

In the interview, Pandit said: “There’s a permanent victimhood… you cannot progress by being permanently a victim or playing the victim card. This was done for Blacks, the same thing was brought for Dalits here.”

She further described such narratives as a “temporary type of drug” that manufactures an enemy rather than enabling real progress.

The remarks sparked immediate backlash from student groups and faculty bodies, who accused the vice-chancellor of trivialising caste oppression and undermining equity safeguards in higher education. Protests intensified further after students linked the controversy to recent disciplinary action taken by the administration.

Earlier this month, JNU rusticated five PhD scholars — including four elected JNUSU office-bearers — for two semesters following a proctorial inquiry into vandalism of facial recognition access gates at the Dr B.R. Ambedkar Central Library during a protest last year.

The students were also barred from campus for the winter and monsoon semesters of 2026, effectively leaving the university without elected student representation for months.

Pandit defended the decision in the same interview, stating that dissent was acceptable but “vandalism and violence” crossed a line and required administrative action.

Student organisations have since argued that the rustication reflects a pattern of punitive governance and shrinking democratic space on campus.

Tensions boiled over earlier this week when protests against the vice-chancellor’s remarks turned confrontational, with clashes reported between JNUSU activists and ABVP members. The university administration subsequently filed an FIR against student leaders.

The students’ current demands include:

• Revocation of rustication orders

• Implementation of UGC equity regulations on caste discrimination

• Enactment of a proposed Rohith Vemula Act

• Increased public funding for higher education

• Resignation of the vice-chancellor

Meanwhile, Pandit has defended herself publicly, saying her remarks were taken out of context and misrepresented.

The administration has also increased security deployment on campus following the clashes — a move criticised by Opposition leaders. Reacting to the developments, RJD Rajya Sabha MP Manoj Jha said reports of sudden security deployment had created anxiety among students and faculty. “A confident democracy governs its universities through trust, not opacity,” he said.

With rusticated student leaders barred from campus, FIRs filed against protest organisers, and detentions now underway, the controversy over the vice-chancellor’s remarks has expanded into a wider struggle over caste justice, disciplinary authority and the future of dissent within India’s public universities.

With PTI inputs