JNU has become a threatre of national politics as Rahul Gandhi, Sitaram Yechury, Sudhakar Reddy, D Raja and other leaders landed to participate in a protest meet against the arrest of JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar in a sedition case.
Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi accused the Narendra Modi government of trying to crush students’ voices in university campuses by ordering police crackdowns.
Showing solidarity with the “Save JNU” campaign launched by the students’ union and teachers’ association after Delhi police arrested JNU Students’ Union president Kanhaiya Kumar on sedition charges over a pro-Afzal Guru event
The university’s own inquiry found eight students, including Kanhaiya, to have been prima facie involved in “objectionable sloganeering” on February 9. The decision is likely to harden the stand of JNUSU, which has called for a strike on Monday which will continue “till Kumar is released unconditionally”.
The protest was held in a volatile atmosphere with the ABVP activists constantly shouting slogans against what they called “anti-India sloganeering” by students at a commemorative function held at the campus to mark the death of Afzal Guru who was hanged in the Parliament attack case.
Gandhi was received by the ABVP activists with black flags and cries of “go back”.
Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken, Communist Party of India-Marxist general secretary Sitaram Yechury, Communist Party of India national secretary D. Raja, senior Communist Party of India-Marxist-Leninist leader Kavita Krishnan and others also joined the protest attended by a 2,000-strong gathering of students and teachers.
Gandhi drew comparisons with the Hyderabad university controversy involving students linked to ABVP and Ambedkar Students’ Association (ASA) and consequent suicide of a Dalit student activist, Rohit Vemula, following his suspension from the university.
“I was in Hyderabad a few days back. A youngster there expressed himself and the government says that he is an anti-national. What did he do? Later the minister turns around and says that he was not even a Dalit,” said Gandhi referring to the NDA government’s reaction to the suicide of Vemula of the ASA who was suspended after an ABVP activist accused him of physically assaulting him.
Earlier in the day, Yechury, who was himself a JNUSU leader, met union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and demanded the release of the JNUSU leader.
“We apprised home minister that whatever is happening is worse than that happened during the Emergency. It should be proved that the 20 people, who are being targeted, are at fault,” he told reporters after the meeting.
“Home minister guaranteed us that action won’t be carried out on any innocent person. We demanded him to release the arrested student leader… which he assured us to look into the matter,” Yechuri added.
