Skip to main content

"Pakistan zindabad" slogans raised by BJP students wing men to "provoke" JNU arrest, allege top political activists

Protest at JNU campus against the arrest
By Our Representative
Did students attached with the BJP-backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) shout “Pakistan zindabad” slogans during a demonstration at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU)? This is what well-known feminist and secretary of the All India Progressive Women's Association Kavita Krishnan has sought to suggest, even as releasing a video through twitter allegedly showing their faces, asking people to circulate it "widely."
A similar allegation has been made by senior Aam Admi Party leader Ashish Khetan, who is known to be close to Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal. Khetan, who has been a well-known investigative journalist, has insisted in a tweet, that evidence is “merging that the JNU incident was a fabrication by ABVP”, seeking “independent probe… to unmask the real culprits.”
These facts have come light amidst unprecedented protests across India by civil society organizations, teachers’ associations, academics and students’ associations against the arrest of Kanhaiya Kumar, president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University students union(JNU) on sedition charges.
Kumar was arrested on February 12 in connection with a case of sedition and criminal conspiracy over holding an event at JNU against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru. During the event, anti-India slogans were allegedly raised, while denouncing the hanging of Guru.
The case was registered under Section of 124 A (sedition) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of IPC against unknown persons at Vasant Kunj (North) Police station following complaints by BJP MP Maheish Girri and ABVP.

JNUSU president's video

Kumar’s arrest comes amidst a 21-minute video going viral, in which he is shown giving his speech on the JNU campus saying that “unidentified” persons had entered into the campus to shout “Pakistan zindabad” slogans, insisting, “We swear by the Constitution, given to us by DR BR Ambedkar”, and “we oppose all forms of violence.” 
Kumar belongs to the All-India Students’ Federation (AISF), the student wing of the Communist Party of India (CPI), whose political stance is "well known", say prominent academics in a statement, adding, "To accuse of sedition is beyond the bound of credibility."
Calling the arrest of Kumar as “intimidation of worst type”, the academics, KM Panicker, Zoya Hasan, Utsa Pattnaik, Prabhat Patnaik, CP Bhambri, Anjan Mukherjee, Mridula Mukherjee, Aditya Mukherjee – all former deans of the JNU – have said that the only other time when the JNU students’ union president was arrested was during the Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi in 1975.
Top social activist Medha Patkar-led National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM), which acts as an apex body of several top civil society organizations, meanwhile, in a statement has termed the arrest as “Delhi police high handedness”, adding, “It is acting as a political tool rather than being the enforcer of the law and order situation in the state.”
The NAPM says, “The political dissent of the students with the ruling establishment as evident on several occasions now, #OccupyUGC, #RhoithVemula Suicide and others is being used to criminalise them and term the whole campus as a den of Pakistani sympathisers, terrorists and Naxalites”, which is “completely malicious and fictitious.”
The All-India Federation for Right to Education (AIFRTE) said, the new JNU vice-chancellor Jagdesh Kumar’s decision to allow police to enter and comb JNU hostels for so-called ‘anti-national’ students was done without even informing the deans.
It recalls, the Deans of the Schools of Social Sciences, International Studies, Languages and Arts and Aesthetics have stated that the decision to give “blanket permission” to police amounts to a “major change in the policy adopted by successive Vice-Chancellors ever since JNU was established.” 
The JNU Teachers’ Association, similarly, has stated that the “university has its own internal mechanisms for resolving any controversies that may arise within the university community.”

Comments

Unknown said…
pakistan is my motherland i love pakistan its very beautiful place ...
Pakistan Web Online

TRENDING

'Very low rung in quality ladder': Critique of ICMR study on 'sudden deaths' post-2021

By Bhaskaran Raman*  Since about mid-2021, a new phenomenon of extreme concern has been observed throughout the world, including India : unexplained sudden deaths of seemingly healthy and active people, especially youngsters. In the recently concluded Navratri garba celebrations, an unprecedented number of young persons succumbed to heart attack deaths. After a long delay, ICMR (Indian Council for Medical Research) has finally has published a case-control study on sudden deaths among Indians of age 18-45.

SC 'appears to foster' culture of secrecy, does not seek electoral bond details from SBI

By Rosamma Thomas*  In its order of November 2, 2023 on the case of Association for Democratic Reforms vs Union of India contesting constitutional validity of electoral bonds, the Supreme Court directed all political parties to give particulars of the bonds received by them in sealed covers to the Election Commission of India. SC sought that information be updated until September 2023. 

How national chauvinism 'overtook' sport despite cricketing glory of World Cup 2023

By Harsh Thakor*  The recently-concluded cricket World Cup was a testimony or manifestation of the thrills, intensity, twists and turns in sport and evolution of the game of cricket. It carried on the trend of the World Cups of yesteryears. Possibly, this was the best ever Indian team in a World Cup, and arguably amongst the best ever to contest a World Cup.

Only 12% of schools RTE compliant: Whither 6% budgetary allocation for education?

By Ambarish Rai* Despite Indian state’s commitment of 6% GDP on education, the Finance Minister completely ignored right to education for children and strengthening implementation of RTE Act which makes education a fundamental right in her budget speech . The Right to Education (RTE) Forum, which is a collective of different stakeholders in education, condemns this neglect of a legal entitlement, which is unconstitutional and demand for overall increase in the budget to ensure improvement in learning outcomes and overall enhancement of quality education.

A Hindu alternative to Valentine's Day? 'Shiv-Parvati was first love marriage in Universe'

By Rajiv Shah*   The other day, I was searching on Google a quote on Maha Shivratri which I wanted to send to someone, a confirmed Shiv Bhakt, quite close to me -- with an underlying message to act positively instead of being negative. On top of the search, I chanced upon an article in, imagine!, a Nashik Corporation site which offered me something very unusual. 

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Our Representative Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

'Ambiguous policy': India late in advocating EVs as energy storage in national grid

By Shankar Sharma*  This is regarding the points raised by the Chief Electricity Authority’s (CEA's) advocacy for usage of electrical vehicles (EVs) as energy storage technology, and few associated issues . An objective reading of what he states should reiterate the enormously growing importance of battery energy storage systems (BESS) in our need to transition to a net-zero carbon scenario for the country.

Savarkar in Ahmedabad 'declared' two-nation theory in 1937, Jinnah followed 3 years later

By Our Representative One of the top freedom fighters whom BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi revere the most, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, was also a great supporter of the two nation theory for India, one for Hindus another for Muslims, claims a new expose on the man who is also known to be the original proponent of the concept of Hindutva.

Is India emulating west, 'using' anti-terror plank to justify state-supported violence?

Fahad Ahmad, Baljit Nagra*  Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has accused India of being involved in the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian Sikh leader, on Canadian soil. Narendra Modi’s right-wing Hindu nationalist Indian government is defiant and denies involvement. Indian officials have instead admonished Canada for being a “ safe haven ” for Sikh “terrorism,” a pejorative for Sikh self-determination .