As the slugfest continues, leaders of left parties, including CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury, and JD(U) met Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday demanding the release of Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union president Kanhaiya Kumar.
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi visited the campus on Saturday and expressed solidarity with the protesting students . He accused the NDA Government of “suppressing” students’ voice. Rahul’s campus visit was marred by protest as members of the ABVP held a counter protest, shouting slogans, “Rahul Gandhi go back”. Also, they waived black flag at the Congress V-P.
Emboldened by Rahul’s visit, the protesting students of JNU on Saturday threatened to “indefinitely shut down” the campus and demanded the release of Kanhaiya — a member of CPI’s student wing AISF arrested on charges of “sedition” on Friday for anti-India sloganeering during an event on the campus to protest Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru’s hanging.
Earlier during the meeting with the Home Minister, CPI MP D Raja apprised him of the calls he received carrying threats to his daughter, who is a student activist in the JNU.
The caller also “reminded” him that his daughter was a resident of the university and she would be shot down, he said.
After the meeting, Singh asserted that no innocent will be harassed but the guilty “will not be spared”. He told reporters on the sidelines of a function, “No question of harassment of students. But the guilty will not be spared.”
Hitting out at Rahul and other opposition leaders who have criticised the arrest of a JNU student leader, BJP alleged that they were speaking in the voice of terror outfit leT which was an insult to the martyrs and would boost the morale of anti-national forces.
BJP claimed the “anti-India” march on JNU campus by a handful of people had invited country-wide condemnation but Congress and other opposition parties were targeting the Modi Government due to their “political malice” and vote bank politics.
“Rahul Gandhi and his friends are speaking in the voice leT terrorist Hafiz Sayeed who had tweeted in support of anti-India event in JNU. 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.
“JNU has produced many intellectuals and bureaucrats. A handful of people there have given anti-India speeches. law is taking its course. BJP will urge Congress to not insult our martyrs for political reason,” BJP national secretary Shrikant Sharma said.
Inside the campus left-leaning students’ groups continued with their agitation, raising anti-administration slogans, “JNU VC down” and “go media go back”, making things difficult for the university administration to improve the situation.
Chancellor of the varsity Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan visted the campus and directed the newly appointed Vice Chancellor Jagadesh Kumar to deal with the situation with confidence “to restore normalcy”.
“The high-level committee appointed by the VC has debarred accused students on basis of the video footage that is taken by the JNU. We gave that footage to police. We only allowed police to take Kanhaiya from his hostel Brahamputra as per the law of land. Police gave us a list of 22 students, including these eight and asked about their whereabouts, which we were bound to give...,” JNU registrar Bupinder Zutshi told the media.
Zutshi, however, denied police crackdown inside the campus and said only police have been guarding the main entrance of JNU in order to stop outsiders from entering the campus.
Zutshi said, “Chancellor Kasturirangan had a long meeting with the VC, teachers and students, including ABVP’s Saurabh Kumar Sharma, Joint Secretary, JNUSU. We had called other leaders too but they did not turn up.”
While addressing students, Rahul made repeated reference to the suicide of Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula in Hyderabad University and targeted the Government especially HRD Minister Smriti Irani on the issue.
Meanwhile, Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and briefed him about the investigation into the case.