Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of engineering violence on the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus, alleging that it was a “state-sponsored pre-planned conspiracy” and the police role in the incident was suspicious.
“Masked men attacking teachers and students in JNU indicates the low to which the government will stoop in order to rule by fear. The BJP is using violence and hate to polarise society and stifle dissent. The ABVP (Akhil Bharatiya Vidhyarthi Parishad) activists are acting like storm troopers of the BJP,” Akhilesh said at a press conference in Lucknow on Monday.
“The entire country and the world saw how masked attackers entered the JNU campus in Delhi and wreaked havoc in a planned manner. Fair probe is needed to know the prime conspirator behind the violence,” the SP chief said, indicating the BJP’s role behind this incident.
Akhilesh said the role of Delhi Police personnel was also under question as it appeared that they were waiting for instructions from the top while the goons of the ABVP unleashed a reign of terror in the girls’ hostels of the JNU.
“Police were in cahoots with criminals who beat up the students,” he said.
The SP chief said that the BJP conspired to attack the students of other ideology to force its communal agenda. “The BJP is trying to close down JNU where poor students are charged minimum fees and given facilities,” he alleged.
Akhilesh further said that the sangh parivar students’ wing, ABVP, had organised similar violence against students of the Banaras Hindu University who were participating in a demonstration organised by Samajwadi Chhatra Sabha in Varanasi.
The SP chief also showed a video of JNU violence and the incident in Varanasi, where the police supported ABVP activists in a college to disturb students’ union election process.
Reiterating his party’s stand on Citizenship (Amendment) Act and National Register of Citizens, Akhilesh said, “Everyone knows who will benefit from such violence and now the BJP is saying things to cover up illegal acts.”
“Riots after anti-CAA protests were triggered in UP to save the chair of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and divert public attention from real issues,” he said.
The SP chief also claimed that over 1,000 children had died at Baba Raghav Das Medical College hospital in Gorakhpur between January and October, 2019, but the officials were covering up the toll due to pressure from the top.
“We demand a probe by a sitting judge of the High Court into the deaths of children besides investigation by an expert team of doctors,” the SP chief said.