Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has asked Delhi Police to register a first information report after students allegedly shouted slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah during a campus protest, The Indian Express reported.

The protest on Monday, organised by the JNU Students’ Union (JNUSU), marked six years since a mob stormed the campus on January 5, 2020, leaving several students and teachers injured. Videos of the alleged sloganeering circulated widely on social media.

In a letter to Vasant Kunj (North) Police, the university’s security department said the gathering near the Sabarmati Hostel, attended by around 30 to 35 students, “initially appeared to commemorate the January 5, 2020, incident.” The letter, cited by The Telegraph, added that “the nature and tone of the gathering changed significantly” after the Supreme Court denied bail to activists Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam.

“Some students began raising highly objectionable, provocative, and inflammatory slogans,” the letter said, adding that the act showed “wilful disrespect for constitutional institutions and established norms of civil and democratic discourse.” It also stressed that the slogans were “clearly audible, deliberate and repeated” and reflected “intentional and conscious misconduct rather than any spontaneous or inadvertent expression.”

The university said the slogans violated its code of conduct and “have the potential to seriously disturb public order, campus harmony, and the safety and security environment of the university and the nation,” according to a separate statement reported by India Today.

Aditi Mishra, JNUSU president, told PTI that the protest is held annually to denounce the violence on campus in 2020. “All of the slogans raised in the protest were ideological and do not attack anyone personally,” she said. “They were not directed towards anyone.”

The incident has triggered a political row. Union Minister Giriraj Singh told ANI that JNU had become the “office of the ‘tukde tukde’ gang,” adding that those who “harbour pro-Pakistan sentiments” would not be tolerated. Singh also said, “Slogans are being raised against PM Modi, Amit Shah. Such people should be tried for treason…The graves of enemies have been dug before, and they will be dug again.”

BJP leader Shahnawaz Hussain suggested the slogans were voiced in frustration over Khalid and Imam being denied bail, while Congress leaders Rashid Alvi and Udit Raj claimed the participants were associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) or BJP. Alvi told ANI: “Delhi Police has claimed that they had information on this, so why did they not make arrests before? I am confident that those who raised the slogans were associated with RSS and BJP… This is the same policy as Hitler had, which benefited him.”

The university’s letter reportedly identified several students, including four JNUSU members, as being involved in the protest.