This is Modi's emergency: Sitaram Yechury on police action against protesting JNU students
New Delhi, Nov 18: CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Monday condemned the police action on protesting students of Jawaharlal Nehru University, saying it was not the right way to deal with democratic protests.
"This is Modi's emergency. The number of police personnel present at the spot of the protest is higher than what we saw during emergency," Yechury said during a press briefing here. "This is not the right way to deal with democratic protests. The Modi government is trying to provoke the students."
Yechury, who was the JNU students' union president during Emergency, said peaceful demonstration was a democratic right in a democratic society. He added that beating up students shows the "use of extreme authoritarianism on the part of the government".
The CPI(M) leader said during his student days, marches were taken till the Parliament without any violence. "Here the police is provoking the students who are still showing restraint," he said.
Thousands of JNU students, carrying placards and chanting slogans, marched towards Parliament on the first day of the winter session on Monday, demanding a total rollback of the hostel fee hike, but were stopped by the police around half a kilometre from the institute's campus in south Delhi.
Hundreds of police personnel stopped the students on the Baba Ganganath Marg, around 600 metres from the main gate of the university and some of them were forcefully blocked from moving ahead.
Several leaders of the agitation were detained by police when they were insisting on marching forward.
The varsity's students have been protesting for nearly three weeks against the draft hostel manual, which has provisions for hostel fee hike, dress code and curfew timings.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
NEET student hangs self in Rajasthan's Sikar
Jaipur (PTI): A student preparing for the NEET examination allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself in a rented room in Rajasthan's Sikar on Friday, police said.
According to the police, the student allegedly hanged himself from a ceiling fan using his sister's scarf while one sister was attending coaching classes and the other was in the bathroom.
He had appeared in the NEET UG exam 2026, which was cancelled due to paper leak, they said.
Udyog Nagar SHO Rajesh Kumar said that the deceased, identified as Pradeep Meghwal, was a resident of Kanika ki Dhani village in Jhunjhunu's Gudha Gaudji area.
He had been living in a rented room in Sikar's Jaldhari Nagar area with his two sisters while preparing for NEET over the last three years.
His elder sister later found him hanging and informed the landlord and police after bringing him down, officials said.
The SHO said the body was kept at SK Hospital mortuary, and a postmortem had not been conducted.
The student's father, Rajesh Kumar Meghwal, told police that Pradeep's NEET examination had gone well and the family was expecting him to score around 650 marks.
Former Rajasthan deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot expressed grief over the incident and linked it to anxiety among students after reports of irregularities and paper leaks in NEET 2026.
Pilot said repeated paper leak incidents and cancellation of examinations were affecting students' mental health and demanded a time-bound investigation and strict action against those responsible.
