Political drama ensued at the Jawaharlal Nehru University after some students organised a cultural programme that turned into a celebration of the 'martyrdom' of Afzal Guru – hanged for his involvement in December 13, 2001 Parliament attack.
Slogans like “JNU is anti-national” and “Shut down JNU” echoed in the national capital as the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad launched a war against the 'anti-nationals'. The campus row has visibly divided the country between the Central government, people who believe the students involved are against the country, and the teachers, artists and students who can't relate to the issue that seems to intensify by the hour.
The cultural event titled 'A Country without a Post Office' was organised by students of the JNU to commemorate 2001 Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru. The event saw slogans like “Ye Kashmir hamara hai, saara ka saara,” “Tum kitne Afzal maaroge, har ghar se Afzal niklega,” “Hum kya chahte? Azaadi!” It soon ended into a one-on-one between the students and the protesters and resulted in the arrest of JNU Students' Union president Kanhaiya Kumar on sedition charges. The university campus saw a heavy police presence who carried out a search in hostels looking for “anti-nationals”, after Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh instructed the Delhi police not to spare anyone indulging in anti-India activities.
Another FIR was also registered over the Press Club event, against DU lecturer SAR Geelani and his alleged associates all of whom have been booked for sedition, unlawful assembly, and criminal conspiracy. The police are looking for 10-12 students who participated in the event. Action against the lecturer was taken suo motu by the police as the request to book the hall at the Press Club went through his e-mail ID and thus, he was treated as a co-organiser.
Rajnath Singh went as far as to say that the event had the backing of Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed. The statement found immediate protests from the Congress and other political parties which demanded evidence.
Addressing reporters, Singh said, “The incident at JNU has received support from Hafiz Saeed. This is a truth that the nation needs to understand. What has happened is unfortunate. Any such incident that poses threat to the unity, integrity and sovereignty of the country will be dealt with strongly.”
Congress party leader Manish Tewari gave a scathing retaliation saying, “The JNU incident again demonstrates the intrinsic fascism of the RSS, BJP and ABVP. These people feel the only voice in public discourse should be theirs. The fundamentalists, who occupy the highest seats in this government, want to use every opportunity to shut JNU and convert it into a shishu mandir.”
The Bharatiya Janta Party supported the home minister and said it was surprising that Congress was betraying such poor understanding of how terror groups operated online. Party spokesman Sudhanshu Trivedi said, “They are taking advantage of the fact that the home minister can't put all intelligence inputs out in the public domain.”
Meanwhile, the university's own high-level inquiry decided that eight students, including two top members of the students' union; its president Kanhaiya Kumar and general secretary Rama Naga had prima facie engaged in “objectionable sloganeering” on the campus.
“The high-level inquiry conducted by a three-member committee submitted its interim report and recommended debarring eight students from academic activities. The report is based on the prima facie evidence based on JNU's own video footage. The interim report recommends the action because of objectionable sloganeering and indiscipline,” said registrar Bupinder Zutshi. Besides Kumar and Naga, the others to be implicated are Sayed Umar Khalid, Anirban Bhattacharya, Ashutosh Kumar, Ananth Prakash Narayan, Aishwarya Adhikari and Shweta Raj.
The entire situation has turned into a gala for the political parties as they pit against each other. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the authenticity of the video footage examined by the police “to find the truth”.
The Opposition has called out to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, asking him to intervene in the crisis. The PM assured them that he is the leader of the country and not just of one political party. Tempers in the ABVP camp flared up when Rahul Gandhi arrived on the campus. There was uproar as ABVP activists began shouting, “Rahul Gandhi go back”, demanding an apology from him for “supporting anti-nationals”. They waved black flags at him and others. Rahul, however, managed to join Left party members Sitaram Yechury and D Raja and Congress' Ajay Maken and Anand Sharma at the venue.
