On Violence In JNU, BJP Leader Uma Bharti's "Snake" Analogy

Reacting on the Sunday attack on Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in which over 30 teachers and students were injured, BJP leader Uma Bharti on Wednesday said a section of thinkers are trying to create a "poisonous" environment. She also compared such thinkers with a particular type of snake "which is less in number but highly poisonous".

"There is a particular type of snake, which is less in number but highly poisonous. There is a section of thinkers in the country which is small in number, but is very poisonous. Efforts are being made to make the environment poisonous. We have to fix some things and we will fix them," she was quoted by news agency ANI as saying.

A masked mob had barged into the JNU campus and attacked students and teachers with sticks, sledgehammers and stones. The police, which were accused of doing little to stop the attackers, have filed a case of vandalism against those who were attacked.

JNU students' union chief Aishe Ghosh, who was badly injured in the attack, has also been charged with vandalism during a protest against a hostel fee hike that had led to a clashes between the Left and Right Wing students.

The JNUSU had blamed ABVP- a student body linked to the BJP- for the attack.

The central government had condemned the violence. Union Minister S Jaishankar and Nirmala Sitharaman- both JNU alumni - had also called for peace on the campus.

Protests to show solidarity with the JNU have been taking place at several universities across the country. Bollywood personalities such as Sonam Kapoor, Anurag Kashyap, Vishal Bhardwaj and Dia Mirza took part in a protest earlier this week. Actor Deepika Padukone on Tuesday visited JNU and met with Ms Ghosh.

The centre today asked the institution administration to take its students and faculty members into confidence and "restore normalcy" at the earliest.

With inputs from ANI