Party accuses Govt of unleashing ‘State-sponsored terrorism’ on campuses across India
The Congress on Monday accused the Government of unleashing “state-sponsored terrorism” on campuses across the country and said the violence in the Jawaharlal Nehru (JNU) campus reminded it of the Nazi rule. Party chief Sonia Gandhi appointed a four-member fact-finding committee to carry out a detailed inquiry into the violence at JNU.
Demanding a judicial probe into the violence that erupted in the JNU campus, the party said the enquiry should look into the role of the government, the JNU administration and the Delhi police.
Questioning the role of the Delhi Police in the entire episode, former Home Minister P Chidambaram demanded that Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik be held accountable for the attacks on students saying the perpetrators must be identified and arrested. The buck starts with the Commissioner of Police and stops with Home Minister Amit Shah,” Chidambaram said.
Chidambaram said the JNU violence was an example of the country’s “descent into fascism” and the incident was the most clinching evidence of India rapidly descending into anarchy. He said he was “absolutely sure” that there were intelligence inputs on Sunday’s attacks and pointed towards the failure of the Delhi Police in preventing the violence on JNU campus.
“This incident is perhaps the most clinching evidence that we are rapidly descending into anarchy. It has taken place in the national Capital in India’s foremost University under the watch of the Central Government, the Home Minister, the L-G and the Commissioner of Police. This is the gravest act of impunity that we have seen in recent times. Nothing can be more shocking and shameful,” Chidambaram said.
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra met injured JNU students at AIIMS and alleged that it was “deeply sickening” about the Government that allowed violence inflicted on students. AICC chief spokesman Randeep Surjewala said the ABVP goons went from hostel to hostel and entered girls hostel, Sabarmati hostel, Periyar hostel and Kaveri Hostel. They entered half a dozen hostels and they beat up each and every student on their way, calling them “anti-nationals and urban naxals”.
“What is the enmity that you have with students and the youth of India Modi ji and Amit Shah ji, that’s the question the INC and the people of India ask. Why are you torturing, suffocating, subjugating the youth of India under your autocratic rule. The more you suppress voice of the youth, more emboldened it will become,” Surjewala told reporters.
“The manner in which youth is being attacked and their voices stifled, reminds us of the Nazi Germany of 1933 which seems to have come back under the rule of Modi and Amit Shah after 90 years,” he said. The Congress president has appointed a fact-finding committee on the JNU incident. The members of the fact-finding committee are Sushmita Dev, the Mahila Congress chief, Hibi Eden, an MP and former NSUI president, Syed Naseer Hussain, an MP and former president of JNU NSUI and Amrita Dhawan, a former NSUI president and ex-DUSU president.
They have been asked to conduct a detailed inquiry into the incident of violence in JNU campus and (will) submit the report to the party chief within a week, a statement from AICC general secretary KC Venugopal said.