NEW DELHI: A noisy protest by Left students against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on Monday sparked fierce clashes among rival groups and with police, leaving several people shaken and injured.

Trouble erupted as soon as Singh reached an open-air theatre in the campus to inaugurate a statue of Jawaharlal Nehru, with members of the All India Students Association (AISA) shouting slogans against the government's economic and defence policies.

The AISA, which controls the presidency of the JNU Students Union, is affiliated to the Communist Party of India-Marxist Leninist (CPI-ML). Slogans of "Manmohan Singh, Hai! Hai!" and "Manmohan Singh, go back!" rent the air. Some students waved black flags while a few others took off their black shirts and began to wave them furiously. As policemen tried to control the situation, the sloganeering became more vocal, resulting first in fisticuffs with the police and then in violent clashes. As policemen began thrashing some of the protestors, activists of the Congress-affiliated National Students Union of India (NSUI) also began attacking the AISA members.

Manmohan Singh witnessed the ugly scenes and clearly did not seem to be happy with the disturbances. He, however, finished his brief speech in which he heaped praise on the country's first prime minister after who the university is named.

Four students were taken into police custody. After the prime minister left, men and women supporters of AISA and NSUI clashed again, hitting one another, necessitating further police intervention. Some students were seen bleeding from their noses. "Throw the Naxalites out of JNU!" shouted some NSUI members, referring to AISA.

The Students Federation of India (SFI) were opposed to the recent Indo-US joint air exercise in West Bengal and India's stand on Iran's nuclear programme.

"The occasion, unveiling of the statue of Nehru, one of the greatest socialist, did not warrant a PM who is antithesis of the person," said Dr Kamal Chenoy, a left leaning faculty member and former president of the teachers union. CPM politburo member Sitaram Yechuri's office said: "The students protested because they were not allowed to present their memorandum.”

With inputs from agencies