Rahul, Yechury, Raja join protest against police crackdown in JNU

Delhi Police cracked down on a group of protestors at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on Friday and arrested a student leader on sedition charges for allegedly raising anti-India slogans during a demonstration in the campus to mark the hanging of parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s son and Congress party’s Vice President Rahul Gandhi today visited Jawaharlal Nehru University(JNU) campus in support of groups of left-wing students there who are protesting Student Union President Kanhaiya’s arrest in anti-India slogans case. It raided a number of hostels at JNU and arrested Student Union President Kanhaiya Kumar, charging him with sedition.

Training his guns on the government, he said, “They will not understand that in crushing you, they are making you stronger”.

The Congress Vice President, who had yesterday accused the Modi government of “bullying” the institution, scaled up the attack saying “most anti-national are people, who are suppressing the voice of students in this institution”.

The entire saga has sparked a fierce debate in India, where some believe that JNU is being targeted for its culture of dissent, while others believe that the university has become a hotbed for alleged “anti-national” activities.

Gandhi was shown black flags by some students in the campus. After a BJP MP sought action against the protesting students, the HRD ministry repeatedly wrote to the university asking it to act against them. “It is an insult to our martyrs and armed forces who sacrifice their lives on the border and will boost the morale of anti-national forces”, BJP’s national secretary Shrikant Shamra said.

The protestors also raised slogans of “Rahul Gandhi go back” in the varsity.

The letter written by DCP South Prem Nath said that the “matter needs probe regarding links between JNU students and terrorist Afzal Guru”. Let world community and saner voices in India realize that if state agencies for their vested interests can persuade state to label its scholars, who are India’s future, as traitors, why should they be sparing Kashmiris.

Home minister Rajnath Singh instructed the Delhi Police to not spare anyone who indulges in anti-India activities.

“It is a politically strategic tactical attack on the freedom of speech and expression and a means to affirm the idea of nationalism of a few with misappropriate attention by media”, she said.

His visit was opposed by members of ABVP, who waved black flags when he spoke.

“We have told the Home Minister that what is occurring is worse than Emergency and all students should not be painted anti-national and the footage should be properly scanned before action”.

A delegation of Left and JD(U) leaders called on the home minister on Saturday demanding the release of Kumar.

On Thursday, a lawmaker from ruling Bharatiya Janata Party Mahensh Giri and rightwing Hindu nationalist students union Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) filed a report with police against the university students. JNU has been functioning for more than fifty years and has held innumerable protests in all these years, spanning virtually every conflict one can think of.