The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) accused the left organisations and political parties, including the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), of “diluting” the case of missing Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student Najeeb Ahmad by “excessive politicisation”.
Also, the ABVP has accused the left and other political parties of “politicising and communalising” Ahmad’s issue like the Central University of Hyderabad Dalit student Rohith Vemula.
However, the JNU Student’s Union (JNUSU) has called the ABVP’s claims “mere lies”. The family of Ahmad has also denied that the ABVP “approached” them while they said “ABVP member distanced himself when the family tried to speak to them.”
Days after ABVP activist Vikrant Kumar was found guilty of assaulting missing JNU student Ahmad, the ABVP’s response was mixed. They said “they will not support anyone found guilty of indulging in violence” but also defended the three activists, including Kumar who had visited Ahmad’s room on the night of the brawl.
“The left organisations and political parties like the Congress, the AAP and the Samajwadi Party have caused hindrances in the way of police by mere chest-thumping…the protests by left have not allowed police and JNU administration function and work to search Ahmad,” the national media convener of ABVP, Saket Bahuguna, told The Pioneer.
Mohit Pandey, the JNUSU president questioned the ABVP asking, “What it is doing in finding AhmadIJ” “If our politics will get justice to Ahmad, so it is good politics. The ABVP is talking now because its members have been found guilty by the JNU proctorial enquiry,” Pandey stressed.
Bahuguna said the “victims” who were slapped by Ahmad should not be “exploited” either. On being asked why the ABVP did not reach out to the family of Ahmad, Bahuguna defended his organisation by blaming the “over-protective attitude of left towards Ahmad’s family.” A claim refused by the JNUSU and Ahmad’s family.
“Seven to eight of our activists initially tried to meet the family of Ahmad but the left organisation has been surrounding the family in such a way that they didn’t give us a way to them,” he said.
Refuting the claim of Bahuguna, Ahmad’s cousin Sadaf Musharraf said it was the family that had tried to contact the three students through ABVP member Saurabh Sharma but “he distanced himself.”
“No one from the ABVP has come forward to help in finding Ahmad. I had tried to speak to Saurabh and he promised me to introduce me to the three students who were involved in the brawl but he never returned to me. I kept on waiting in hope to find any leads through these students but I was disappointed,” Sadaf told The Pioneer. She also accused the three boys of “misbehaving” with Ahmad’s mother at Maha Mandavi hostel where she had recently visited with her lawyer.
Ahmad, a first year student of MSc Biotechnology, went missing on October 15. It has been more than a month and there is no clue about his whereabouts.