New Delhi, Feb. 15: This morning on the Metro, a student of the School of Languages was asked by a co-passenger whether he was from JNU.

When he replied in the affirmative, a few passengers yelled: "Deshdrohi ********* (expletive) bahar nikaalo (Throw out the traitor)!"

Successive demonstrations at JNU's North Gate today, led by Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Sadhvi Prachi and former BJP MLA Anil Sharma, demanded the "hanging of JNU traitors".

In the Patiala House Courts complex in heavily guarded Lutyens Delhi, JNU professors were beaten.

"If the nation believes that we are not radicals but traitors, then the epitaph to freedom has been written. When the ABVP raised slogans like 'Ghar mein ghuske marenge (we'll enter your homes and hit you)', as teachers we dismissed it as something young people say in anger. Today, we saw that they were not lying," sociology professor Susan Visvanathan told protesters in JNU after she was roughed up in court today.

A number of yesterday's protesters stayed indoors, fearing violence and counter-protests by non-teaching staff and the ABVP raised fears of clashes on the campus.

This morning, as former CPM general secretary and former JNU students' union president Prakash Karat arrived to address students, the JNU Staff Association (JNUSA) took out a rally demanding "hanging of the traitors" who raised slogans for Kashmir's secession.

The march circled around the protest site and students made a human chain around it.

The students' union, which had planned an indefinite strike until president Kanhaiya Kumar was released, restricted the strike only for today, lest it be accused of jeopardising the future of the varsity.

"The ABVP is campaigning in hostels that we, and not the RSS, are trying to shut down JNU. We won't let students be fooled. We will take a rally to hostels tomorrow to counter their propaganda," students' union vice-president Shehla Rashid said.

The JNU Teachers Association is scheduled to go on strike tomorrow.

"My students said they are scared to come to class. Their parents have asked them to return home. They're on the campus, but were not in the frame of mind to appear for a test today. Some of my students are with the ABVP. I was surprised when they requested me to postpone the test, as it is the other groups that had called the strike. They said that the day-scholars may face trouble at the main gate. I granted their request," a teacher in the School of Languages told this paper.

This reporter heard a youth telling two others at the School of Social Sciences: "If Kanhaiya is so poor, would he be doing politics? He is an ISI agent." Asked for his name, he retorted: "I am an Indian."

"The goons in lawyer coats pushed us around and groped us when we refused to leave the court after being let in," linguistics professor Ayesha Kidwai, who was among seven other teachers who went to court, told this paper. "The police pleaded with them. They had sealed both exits of the court. Finally, the cops smuggled us out of the first floor. The law can't be enforced even inside the court."

Other professors who were roughed up include Visvanathan, Nivedita Menon, Janaki Nair, Chitra Harshvardhan, Rohit and Himanshu.

Rohit faced the worst assault after he asked on what authority were the lawyers asking the teachers to leave. "I recognised one of the lawyers as the person in the photographs of the assault on students opposite the RSS office on January 30. Then he had worn a blue jacket, today he wore a lawyer's coat."

Rohit was kicked and punched until the other professors managed to shield him. "We actually got off easy. The goons hit any young person, even respondents in other cases, that they could find," said a professor.

"The attacks on JNU and its students are predictable," said Karat. "Every higher education institution is under siege. The BJP and the RSS have always branded this university as anti-national because we always have and will continue to challenge what they call nationalism."

He added: "What is happening in JNU is worse than what happened during the Emergency, I can tell you that." The CRPF had raided hostels and arrested 60 students when the Emergency began in 1975.

Students and teachers held talks with the JNUSA. At one point, student representatives were seen begging the staff to support them.

"Don't pressurise the VC," JNUSA joint secretary B.L. Sharma told former association general-secretary Sandeep Saurav, the designated negotiator. "Remember 1982 when the university closed for three months after students gheraoed the VC."

Saurav replied: "But Kanhaiya is innocent. You know it. Look at the BJP at the gates. They want to destroy us."

Sharma said: "Let the cops search and take the people they need. If they're innocent, they'll be acquitted. If the cops leave the gates, the mobs will burn this place down. You called politicians here instead of first taking us into confidence. Can politicians save our jobs?"

Vice-chancellor M. Jagadesh Kumar said there were no police personnel on the campus except those at the gates.