JNU students’ union President Kanhaiya Kumar, arrested in a sedition case in which anti- India slogans were allegedly raised in the university premises on February 9, was on Wednesday remanded to judicial custody till March 2 by a Delhi court.
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Seeking to derail any attempt by BJP to turn the protest against hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru on his third death anniversary at JNU campus into a battle between “patriots and anti-nationals”, Congress also demanded that the Supreme Court should ensure an independent investigation.
Fears expressed after similar violence on Monday that JNU Students Union President Kanhaiya Kumar could be “lynched” by the slogan-shouting mob of lawyers, were validated on Wednesday when he was assaulted when he was brought to the Patiala courts for his bail hearing.
The attacks and Mr Kumar’s arrest highlighted allegations of increasing intolerance in India since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in 2014.
The apex court also sent a lawyers team with police protection after the reports of the attack on Kumar at the Patiala House court complex as well as clashes between two groups of lawyers. “Did the people vote for seeing this kind of goonda-gardi and hooliganism?” the party asked following the fresh round of violence at the Patiala House Courts complex.
Delhi Police last Thursday registered a sedition case and arrested Kanhaiya Kumar. Delhi Police is facing the fire for not acting on those responsible for the scuffle and being mute spectators to the ugly scenes of violence.
Delhi Police Commissioner Bassi told the media that the alleged inaction of police personnel is being probed and the guilty will face action if anyone had transgressed law.
The lawyers waved Indian flags and chanted slogans like “glory to Mother India” and “traitors leave India”.
He made this appeal moments after he was attacked twice by lawyers. Some threw stones at journalists.
Sedition carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment and convictions are rare.
“What is happening in our courts in the country especially in the capital is something that is completely unacceptable and very, very serious”, he told reporters.
Political parties, especially Delhi centric, have started to react on it. However, the big question is, will Bassi be promoted? “We have identified the ringleaders and a search is on to find them”.
Om Prasad, who is pursuing a doctorate in history at the university, notes that Mohandas Gandhi was tried under the same colonial-era sedition law now being invoked against student leader Kumar.
Police sources said the raids were taking place on premises in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and the region of Jammu and Kashmir, where separatist violence has simmered for decades.
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“We will not allow any anti-national activity”, Kuldeep Kumar Sharma, 55, a protester outside JNU, said, according to Reuters, adding: “The students are hiding behind those four walls”.
