NEW DELHI, Feb 15: Violence broke out in the Patiala House court complex when groups of lawyers today thrashed journalists and students and teachers of JNU while the political slugfest over the arrest of the university’s student leader snowballed with BJP chief Amit Shah targeting Rahul and Sonia Gandhi on the issue.
The Congress hit back at Shah, saying those once “externed by the Supreme Court over criminal charges” should not teach patriotism to the party, which has played a “stellar role” in freedom movement.
Rahul himself attacked the BJP and RSS, saying they do not have respect for diversity of the nation’s culture and wanted to control everyone’s views.
In a significant turn in the probe, Delhi Police Commissioner B S Bassi said police have so far found “no evidence linking the LeT” to the controversial event at the JNU to mark protest against hanging of Afzal Guru that triggered the crisis.
The Delhi Police a few days ago had pinned a purported tweet of LeT founder Hafiz Saeed in an alert over Twitter asking students not to get carried away by anti-India rhetoric. Yesterday, Home Minister Rajnath Singh had claimed that the JNU event had the backing of Saeed that set off a storm of protests from the Opposition.
He justified the arrest of Kumar, claiming that he had raised anti-national slogans during the event.
On the ground, the JNU students today boycotted classes while teachers decided to follow suit from tomorrow.
The university also sent a status report to the HRD Ministry, saying eight students identified by them as shouting slogans at the event.
But it is not clear from the the Registrar’s report whether Kanhaiya Kumar, the JNUSU President, who has been slapped with sedition charge, was among those who allegedly shouted anti-India slogans.
Groups of lawyers attacked journalists, students and teachers of JNU and unidentified people in and outside the court dubbing them as anti-nationals.
A Delhi BJP MLA O P Sharma, who happened to be in the complex, also joined a group of lawyers in beating up a person, identified as CPI activist Ameeque Jamai, who was taken to Tuglaq Road police station.
The violence broke out when JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar against whom a sedition case has been filed was to be brought before Metropolitan Magistrate Lovleen for remand proceedings but was later taken elsewhere.
The lawyers, claiming to be patriots, first targeted the JNU students and teachers inside the court. They beat them up telling them that the JNU is a “den” of anti-India elements and terrorists.
A television reporter was attacked while a woman journalist was spared even as the crowd threatened them that their phones and bones will be broken.
Outside the court, another group of lawyers thrashed journalists, JNU students and even court officials. BJP MLA O P Sharma who was in the complex in connection with the hearing in the defamation case filed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, was seen beating up Jamai. Jaitley himself was in the complex for sometime.
Later, when asked by the media, Sharma claimed he was roughed up when there was a melee when slogans like ‘Pakistan Zindabad, Hindustan Murdabad’ were shouted. When told there was footage about his beating up somebody, Sharma said “I do not know which video you are taking about.”
And in the same breath, he said “it is not wrong if some body shouting such slogans is beaten up or even done to death.”
In all, at least nine journalists were attacked, according to complaint by them with the Tuglaq Road police station. Two of the journalists were taken to RML hospital for medical check up.
JNU teachers said 10 of their colleagues were beaten up. They said they had gone to attend the proceedings but a group of lawyers started yelling at them saying teachers were also anti-nationals, Rohit Azad, one of the teachers said.
Escalating the row, Shah accused Rahul of supporting “traitors” who shouted anti-India slogans in JNU and asked Sonia to make Congress party’s stand clear whether freedom of expression meant supporting country’s division.
He also questioned them if it meant supporting Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru and such terror attacks and asked Gandhis to apologise to nation if their party is sensitive to the feelings of martyrs’ families.
Asserting that the shouting of slogans against India and in favour of terrorists like Guru amounted to treason, he told the media that BJP would not allow such an incident to take place in any part of the country.
What was more worrisome was the support given by Rahul to the incident, he said.
“If Rahul Gandhi wants to support it in the name of freedom of expression, then I will ask the Congress party if that if there can be a bigger evidence of treason than the slogans which were shouted there.
“I want to ask Congress if it as a party supports the statements made by its vice president Rahul Gandhi? It should answer this. I want to ask Rahul Gandhi when you support treason in the name of freedom of expression, then do you spare a thought for the families of those soldiers who have sacrificed their lives for the country?”, Shah said.
The BJP chief wondered how long Congress will continue with its vote back politics and asked if it worries about “providing shelter” to anti-national activities while pursuing its vote back politics.
Congress spokespersons were still supporting these ant-national activities, he said, and took a jibe at its chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala for calling the Parliament attack convict ‘Afzal Guruji’.
“What is there in the heart at times comes out,” he said.
Earlier in the day, Shah wrote in his blog that Rahul had “proved” that national interest had no place in his mind and asked if he had joined hands with separatist forces and wanted another division of India.
Speaking on the raging controversy for the first time, Shah asked Congress president Sonia and Rahul a host of questions and demanded that he apologise for his stand on the JNU issue, saying support to anti-national forces in the name of the Left’s progressive ideology is not acceptable.
Addressing party workers in Assam, Rahul attacked the BJP and RSS over the JNU row, saying they do not have respect for diversity of the nation’s culture and wanted to control everyone’s views.
“The BJP and RSS have no respect for the diversity of the nation’s culture and sentiments of the people. They just want that everybody follow their views,” Gandhi said at a party meeting in Gohpur in Assam’s Sonitpur district.
“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,” he said.
“They find terrorism everywhere, even in universities and brand anybody who do not agree with their views as terrorists,” he added.
Congress chief spokesman Randeep Surjewala told reporters it is ironical that those who are “inheritors of the thought process of Nathuram Godse” are giving new definition of patriotism and love for the nation.
He said it was “distressing and condemnable” that “those who helped British and sided with them” in the freedom movement and whose parent organisation RSS did not hoist the National flag at its headquarters in Nagpur were teaching nationalism to Congress. (PTI)
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