Slamming the Narendra Modi government over the police crackdown on JNU and the attack on students and journalists at a court complex here, Swaraj Abhiyan leader Yogendra Yadav today said its message is that those who disagree and dissent "will not be spared".
"When I saw what happened in the Patiala House (court premises), I realised that anti-nationalism is just a pretext. JNU is just an excuse, Kanhaiya is just a symbol.
"The message to the country is, if you hold a different view which is contrary or opposite (the government or the BJP), if you try to think which is contrary, then you will not be spared. If JNU cannot escape, nor can a students' leader and journalists in court, then who can escape. This is an open challenge," he said in a video clip posted on Abhiyan's Facebook page.
Yadav, himself an alumnus of JNU, also defended JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar saying, he has been arrested "despite no iota of evidence against him". He said even the Supreme Court has said that sedition charges cannot be slapped upon the way it has been in this case.
He said that more than JNU, it was important to save the concept of a university.
Incidentally, Swaraj Abhiyan Convenor Anand Kumar is a professor at the JNU.
Yadav had yesterday joined a teeming mass of protesters in the heart of the national capital demanding imediate release of Kanhaiya, who is facing sedition charges.
He had described the crackdown on the JNU as an attack on the "idea of India", alleging the Kumar episode was "carefully planned" to eventually "strike" at the very roots of the ideals on which this university was founded.
