The BJP continued to be isolated on the JNU controversy, as all major opposition parties closed ranks against the slapping of sedition charges against JNU Students’ Union President Kanhaiya Kumar and the subsequent violence directed at journalists, teachers and students.
JNU continued to simmer with student protests inside the campus, and the BJP’s ideological sibling Bajrang Dal agitating at the university gates. Teachers joined in the students’ strike with some holding lectures on “nationalism” outside classrooms. Support poured in for the JNU community from global varsities including Columbia, Yale, Harvard and Cambridge. A joint statement signed by 455 academicians from global universities, said: “JNU stands for a vital imagination of the space of the university – an imagination that embraces critical thinking, democratic dissent, student activism, and the plurality of political beliefs. It is this critical imagination that the current establishment seeks to destroy. And we know that this is not a problem for India alone.”
“As teachers, students, and scholars across the world, we are watching with extreme concern the situation unfolding at JNU and refuse to remain silent as our colleagues (students, staff, and faculty) resist the illegal detention and autocratic suspension of students,” said the academicians.
Over 500 journalists marched to the Supreme Court against the onslaught on freedom of expression and violence against scribes at Patiala House Courts on Monday. They submitted a memorandum to the Supreme Court on the matter of police inaction and the refusal to register an FIR by journalists who were beaten up in the court is to be taken up by the Chief Justice on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, from Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to the Congress and the CPI(M), opposition parties attacked the government and the ruling party on seeking to turn a campus protest into a national battle between ‘patriots and anti-nationals’.
Kejriwal wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding immediate action against a party MLA who was seen beating up a CPI member in the Patiala House Courts.
He also warned the PM against “converting nationalism into a device for creating a fear psychosis”. “It is extremely dangerous that the JNU incident is being portrayed as a terrorist centre (sic). JNU and its students have achieved fame at the international level due to high academic standards and the hard work of its students,” Kejriwal told Modi.
The Congress, meanwhile, demanded that the Supreme Court ensure an independent probe into the episode that has triggered nationwide protests. “We will request the Supreme Court to ensure investigation by an independent agency into the JNU incident,” party leader Kapil Sabal said.
Questioning the sedition charges against Kanhaiya Kumar, Sibal wondered “how Delhi Police could move in the matter when no investigation was done by the university authorities”.
Sibal said the report of the Vice-Chancellor “on who is involved in the matter should be out first and then only any action can be taken as per the law. It is because universities are autonomous institutions.”
CPI(M) hit out at Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi over his comments on the violence at Patiala House Courts, saying the top cop is working as the Centre’s “spokesperson” and questioned the logic behind his remark.
“He is saying certain excesses were made by both sides. That means all sides had engaged in violence. Why will those who had gone to the court to see [that the] JNUSU President gets bail engage in violence?” Yechury asked.