Political slugfest over the JNU row spiked today with BJP chief Amit Shah accusing Rahul Gandhi of backing "anti-nationals" and the Congress leader hitting back saying the saffron party was promoting a "divide and hatred" agenda.
Police, meanwhile, claimed the student leader charged with sedition had raised anti-India slogans.
On their part, the JNU students stepped up their agitation by boycotting classes demanding unconditional release of students union president Kanhaiya Kumar. The teachers association of the premier institute has rallied behind the agitating students but have not struck work.
In a related incident, at least six persons, including students and mediapersons, were thrashed by a group of men in lawyer's robes within and outside Patiala House courts during the hearing of the sedition case against Kanhaiya. A BJP MLA, present there for a different case, allegedly roughed up a CPI activist.
Amid the raging row, Delhi Police Commissioner B S Bassi, after a meeting with Home Minister Rajnath Singh, said Kanhaiya had raised anti-national slogans during a controversial event on JNU campus but admitted police have so far found "no evidence linking the LeT" to the incident.
Singh had yesterday claimed the event at JNU to protest the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru had received "support" from LeT founder Hafiz Saeed.
Speaking on the the raging controversy for the first time, Shah targeted Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi alleging he was supporting "anti-nationals" and wondered whether he wanted another "division" of India.
Posing a slew of questions to Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Rahul, Shah also demanded that he apologise for his stand on the JNU issue. Rahul had visited JNU on Saturday and extended support to the students' cause.
"An attempt was made to defame a leading university in the national capital by turning it into a centre which encourages terrorism and separatism. I want to ask Rahul Gandhi if it would be in national interest had the central government kept quiet?
"Are you not encouraging traitors by protesting in support of these anti-nationals?", Shah wrote in a blog.
Addressing a party meeting in Assam's Sonitpur district, Rahul returned fire saying BJP wanted to control everyone's views. "The BJP and RSS are following an agenda of creating divide and hatred, as can be seen from the recent developments in JNU, by imposing their views forcibly on people."
Kanhaiya was arrested on Friday in connection with a case of sedition and criminal conspiracy registered over holding of the event at the varsity during which anti-India slogans were alleged to have been raised.
When asked about alleged links between Kashmir militants
and the JNU students who were suspected to be involved in the incident, Bassi said, "Kanhaiya's interrogation will be analysed for terror links and the police are looking for some other students who all went absconding after the incident but will soon be arrested."
As the exchanges between the BJP and Congress grew shriller, CPI-M general secretary Sitaram Yechury targeted the BJP, saying there can be no "bigger farce than Godse- worshippers" putting out certificates on nationalism, in a sharp counter to Left parties being labelled as "anti-national" forces.
Yechury's predecessor Prakash Karat accused the NDA government's "top" machinery of "directing crisis" at JNU and charged the Narendra Modi dispensation with "imposing ideological hegemony" on varsities in the country.
Karat said ever since the Modi Government came to power, universities across the country have been "under siege".
Karat, who is also ex-JNUSU president, made these remarks during his visit to the university campus to express solidarity with the protesting students.
Controversial Hindutva leader Sadhvi Prachi was, meanwhile, not allowed to enter the JNU campus. She spent some time with the ABVP activists outside one of the gates of the varsity.
Later, speaking to reporters, she attacked Rahul and even demanded that his membership of the Lok Sabha be terminated for supporting anti-national elements.
Meanwhile, JNU Vice Chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar appealed to the students to not to go on strike or engage in protests so academic functioning of the university is not hampered.
"We also stand for free expression of ideas but I believe there is no need for strikes as the problem can be solved amicably. We are reaching out to the entire JNU community to see how the problem can be addressed but academic functioning of the university is of prime importance and should not be hampered," he told reporters.
While the teachers association of the university has raised questions over the VC allowing a police crackdown on campus, Kumar said he was bound by the "law of land".
"I never invited the police to enter the campus and pick our students. We only provided whatever cooperation was needed as per the law of land. We were bound to do so," he added.
