Aishe may have faked injury with red paint, says West Bengal BJP chief

The BJP and the Sangh Parivar seem to have stepped up their rhetoric after the January 5 attack on JNU by masked goons. A day after the Delhi police named JNU Students’ Union (JNUSU) president Aishe Ghosh, who suffered injuries to the head in the attack, in an FIR, a prominent BJP leader has said the attack was orchestrated by the Left students’ union.

West Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh on Tuesday (January 7) said a probe would be needed to check if Aishe Ghosh faked an injury.

“The entire country is losing its mind over the JNU violence. But we have seen reports where it was claimed that the violence was a fabricated incident. It was cooked up by the Left students union,” the BJP leader said while addressing a press conference.

“It needs to be probed whether the JNU student leader (Aishe Ghosh) was really injured in the violence or has used paints to pretend to be so,” Dilip Ghosh added.

Aishe Ghosh, in a fresh police complaint on Wednesday (January 8), said she had been dragged behind a car and was surrounded by 20-30 people during the attack on Sunday.

She also said the men had used iron rods and stones and hit her multiple times on the head, chest, hands, and back, all the while shouting ‘sexual expletives’ and even ‘physically molesting’ her.

Also watch: Interactive: How JNU lived through eight hours of terror and its aftermath

NDTV quoted Aishe Ghosh as saying, “I fell to the ground when I was attacked and my head started bleeding. Some of them kicked me and hit me with the rod on my hand and rest of the body including my head, chest and back… The intention of the group of men and their acts were definitely to murder me. The group also hurled abuses and sexual expletives at me and physically molested me. One of them screamed ‘Maar denge, kaat denge’ (Will kill you).”

Aishe Ghosh further said that no police officer had recorded her previous complaint yet, so she filed another one in hopes that action would be taken against the attackers.

Aishe Ghosh also claimed that the ambulance in which the JNU students were being taken to the hospital was blocked and that they had to take a detour.

Dilip slammed opposition parties for blaming the ABVP for the violence at the JNU, claiming that activists of the RSS students’ wing were at the receiving end.

“The TMC, Congress and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee are condemning the violence at JNU. But what about the violence that had taken place at Jadavpur University a few days back? What about the police beating up Left students activists during an agitation a few months back?” Dilip Ghosh said.

Also read: ABVP youth, the real culprit in viral video used to blame Left for JNU violence

“When the TMC does it, there is no threat to democracy. But when it happens at the JNU, democracy comes under threat. This is a double standard,” he said.

Dilip also said that violence at educational institutes is a ‘gift’ of the Left who are now ‘getting it back’ as scores are being settled.

Reacting to Ghosh’s claim that Aishe Ghosh was pretending to be injured, TMC secretary-general and state education minister Partha Chatterjee asked him to be more humane. “He should be more humane in his approach. He is a politician and a public representative. Ghosh and his party should shun this strongman approach,” said Chatterjee.

More than 35 students and faculty members were assaulted on Sunday evening after masked men armed with sticks and iron rods went on a rampage inside the campus of the institute.

The Left-controlled JNU Students Union and the ABVP are blaming each other for the violence. The Delhi police is now probing the incident.

(With inputs from agencies)