'Locked in to stay free': How JNU students outsmarted Emergency raids

NEW DELHI: In an extraordinary act of resistance during the Emergency, students at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) devised a plan to escape arrest by secretly locking themselves inside hostel rooms. The move proved vital during a massive police crackdown that saw paramilitary forces rounding up the entire campus. Historian Sohail Hashmi, who was then secretary of the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) at the JNU, in an interview with PTI recalled the dramatic night of July 8, 1975.