 "Residents of Munirka village protest outside the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) against the organising of a meet to \"mourn\" the hanging of 2001 Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, in New Delhi")
The Delhi Police on Friday arrested Kanhaiya Kumar, president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students’ union, on charges of sedition, sparking protests from politicians and academics who termed it reminiscent of the police crackdown in the university during the Emergency years.
Kumar was sent to three days’ police custody by a city court. He was booked for allegedly holding an event at the university on Tuesday in protest against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru on his death anniversary. Guru was hanged in the Tihar Jail in 2013.
In the court, the police sought Kumar’s custodial interrogation for five days to ascertain the alleged links of Kumar and his associates with terrorist groups. Kumar told the court this was a politically motivated case and he was being framed by the police. He said he did not endorse the anti-India slogans allegedly raised at the event in any manner and that had full faith in the Constitution of the country.
The police case was registered on Thursday following complaints by Bharatiya Janata Party member of Parliament Maheish Girri and the party’s student wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). Tuesday’s event had taken place despite the varsity administration having cancelled the permission following a complaint by ABVP members, who had termed the activity ‘anti-national’.
A group of former deans said they were “shocked’ at Kumar’s arrest.
They said the student leader belonged to the All India Students’ Federation and his “views and political associations” were well known. They said to accuse him of sedition was beyond the bounds of credibility. K N Panikkar, Utsa Patnaik, Prabhat Patnaik, C P Bhambri and some others said the situation was reminiscent of the Emergency of 1975-77 - the last time a JNU students’ union president was arrested.
Some other former students, including Nationalist Congress Party leader D P Tripathi, also condemned the arrest. Tripathi was the JNU students’ union president to be arrested during the Emergency. “While we hold no brief for those who raised objectionable slogans, the arrested students have been charged with anti-national activities, precisely the charges on which we were also arrested during the draconian Emergency,” Tripathi and others stated.
They said the “storming of the hostels and the arrest of the president of students’ union were signs of the imposition of an ‘undeclared emergency’ that need to be opposed, confronted and defeated”.
The BJP welcomed the arrest of Kumar. Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, a JNU alumnus, said she was proud of it and the university had a culture of open debate but asserted that limits were crossed in this case. Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani said the “nation will never tolerate insults to mother India”.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh also warned of the strongest possible action against those who raise anti-India slogans.
The Left parties questioned the arrest of Kumar and asked Delhi Police not to act in ‘connivance’ with ABVP to target “the entire Left” even as they likened the ongoing developments in the varsity campus to “situations during Emergency”.
Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, a former president of the JNU students’ union, tweeted: “What is happening in JNU? Police on campus, arrests and picking up students from hostels. This had last happened during Emergency.”
Apart from students’ union president Kumar, the police also booked Zakir Hussain College professor S A R Geelani on charges of sedition. Geelani was part of an event at the Press Club of India where a group allegedly shouted slogans hailing Afzal Guru. Geelani was acquitted in the Parliament attack case. The Press Club of India condemned Wednesday’s incidents at its premises and said a show-cause notice was served and further action would follow.
