Unwarranted: JNU VC reacts to defaced Savarkar signage

Terming the defacing of the Savarkar road signage as "highly regrettable" and "unwarranted", the Vice Chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Jagadesh Kumar Mamidala on Tuesday claimed that the road was renamed only after the approval of the Executive Council in 2019.

"Last night some miscreants indulged in defacing the road signage in our campus. This is highly regrettable. In an educational institution, one can disagree intellectually but stooping down to such acts is unwarranted," Mamidala told IANS.

Just two days after the varsity renamed a road in the campus after V.D. Savarkar, a poster saying 'Muhammad Ali Jinnah road' was seen pasted on the signage board early morning on Tuesday.

The student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ABVP has now alleged that the poster was put up by the Left-led JNU Students Union (JNUSU).

"The Left-led JNUSU's intolerant activism continues in JNU; Defaces V.D. Savarkar Marg signboard, put up 'Mohammad Ali Jinnah Marg' poster," a statement by the JNU unit of the ABVP said.

Although no organisation has taken responsibility for the 'Jinnah' poster, but the National Students Union of India (NSUI) on Tuesday morning had claimed that it had blackened the Savarkar road signage and also renamed it as the B.R. Ambedkar road. IANS