JNU alumni march today: Opposition led by Congress to take up campus attack with Prez
New Delhi: A day after shocking violence in the premier Jawaharlal Nehru University, Opposition parties on Monday decided to seek a meeting with President Ram Nath Kovind on January 13 on the “shameful” incidents in the Central varsity of which the President is the Visitor. There was widespread condemnation by the Opposition led by Congress president Sonia Gandhi who sought a judicial inquiry into the incident while the CPM demanded that the JNU vice-chancellor be sacked.
The varsity will also hold an alumni march at 3 pm on Tuesday where all eminent persons who have studied in JNU would be asked to participate.
The meeting with the President is being coordinated by the Congress and the party has asked its treasurer Ahmed Patel to speak to other parties, sources told this newspaper.
The Congress also constituted a fact-finding committee to look into the incident, which would be led by Mahila Congress chief Sushmita Dev. Apart from Dev, the other members of the fact-finding committee are former NSUI president and Kerala MP Hibi Eden, MP Syed Naseer Hussain, and former president of JNU NSUI and Amrita Dhawan, a former NSUI president and ex-DUSU president.
Earlier in the day, Sonia Gandhi issued a statement in which she said, “Sunday’s bone chilling attack on students and teachers in JNU is a grim reminder of the extent the government will go to stifle and subjugate every voice of dissent”.
“The entire Congress stands in solidarity with India’s youths and students. We strongly deprecate the sponsored violence in the JNU and demand an independent judicial inquiry,” she added.
Former home minister P. Chadambaram said that the Jawaharlal Nehru University incident was perhaps the most clinching evidence that the country was rapidly descending into anarchy. “This is the gravest act of impunity that we have seen in recent times. Nothing can be more shocking and shameful,” he said seeking the immediate arrest of the perpetrators of the violence.
Congress Chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said the role of the home ministry, JNU administration and the Delhi Police should also be probed.
“The manner in which youths are being attacked and their voices stifled, reminds us of the Nazi Germany of 1933 which seems to have come back under the rule of Modi and Amit Shah after 90 years,” he said.
He alleged that ‘goondaism’ had happened under the watch of the JNU administration as also the Delhi Police which is directly controlled by home minister Amit Shah.
CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury, a former JNUSU president, said, “The vice-chancellor is also complicit in this attack. He must be sacked immediately”.
The Trinamul Congress sent a three-member team to the JNU campus, led by Dinesh Trivedi who claimed that they were not allowed to enter the campus.
BSP chief Mayawati too took to Twitter to seek a judicial inquiry into the incident.
Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal (United) which is also a part of the NDA in Bihar, has also sought an inquiry by a Supreme Court judge and the removal of all Jawaharlal Nehru University top office-bearers including the vice-chancellor.
