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Protests mar Manmohan Singh's visit to JNU

     New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was on Monday welcomed by black flags and slogan-shouting students at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, where he had gone to unveil the country's first premier's statue, after whom the university is named. Jawaharlal Nehru's birthday, which falls today, is celebrated as Children's Day all over the country. Hundreds of protesting students, who disrupted Singh's unveiling programme and did not allow him to complete his speech, were whisked by security personnel out of the venue. Office-bearers of the students union, while condemning the incident, said they had planned to submit a memorandum to the Prime Minster concerning a lot of campus as well as national issues including India's vote at the IAEA over the Iran issue and joint Indo-US military exercises.

    "We have differences with him be it on the vote over Iran, be it his speech on Oxford and be it on lots of other things, be it joint US military exercise. We had said that we would give him a memorandum of appealing with demands that we have on campus issues and on national causes. That is what we have done. At the same time, we had given an appeal to all students asking not to go about and disrupt him during the speech but it is very unfortunate," said Arani Sinha, joint secretary, JNU Students' Union. The students' union, affiliated to the Left Parties, which provide crucial support to the Congress led UPA alliance, are demanding the reversal of the neo liberal economic policies and have sought his attention to effectively address the developmental aspirations of the vast majority. The Communists have been critical of the ruling UPA government headed by Singh on several economic and foreign policies and even threatened to censure the government.

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