Manmohan Singh Dies: When former PM had requested JNU VC to be lenient with protesting students

Former prime minister Manmohan Singh was shown black flags at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) by Left-backed students who were staging a protest during his visit to the campus in 2005.
The incident led to show-cause notices to students by the university with few of them getting detained by the Delhi Police. However, a day later Singh intervened, suggesting to the then vice chancellor (VC) B B Bhattacharya to be lenient with students. Singh died here on Thursday night at the age of 92 after he had sudden loss of consciousness at home.

In his speech at the university where he went to unveil a statue of former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Singh had said, "Every member of a university community, if he or she wishes to aspire to be worthy of the university, must accept the truth of Voltaire's classic statement. Voltaire proclaimed 'I may disagree with what you have to say, but I shall defend, to the death, your right to say it'. That idea must be the cornerstone of a liberal institution." "The students waved black flags at him. The VC had then received a call from the PMO asking him to be lenient with students as protesting is their right. The students were then let off after a warning," a retired JNU professor said on condition of anonymity.

JNU has been an epicentre of widespread protests in the past decade with the sedition controversy in 2016 triggering a debate about freedom of speech and expression on campus.

Bhattarcharya had in 2016 narrated the incident during an interview. "Manmohan Singh had told me 'please be lenient, Sir'. I said I have to at least warn them... But the problem today is that lines of communication with students have broken down," he had said.

Former JNU student leader Umar Khalid, who was also booked in the sedition row in 2016 and continues to be in jail in a separate case, had also shared the incident.

"In 2005, Manmohan Singh faced black flags in JNU as a protest against his economic policies. It became a big news. The admin immediately sent notices to students. The very next day, PMO intervened & asked the admin not to take any action as protest was students' democratic right," he had said in a post on X (then Twitter) in 2020.

"PM Manmohan Singh facing sloganeering and black flags from student protestors began his speech by quoting Voltaire: 'I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to death your right to say it'," he had added.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DNA staff and is published from PTI)