PM Modi keeps silent on growing crisis; opposition attacks Govt.
By Sreekanth A Nair
As student communities across India showed support for the jailed Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU) President Kanhaiya Kumar, who was arrested on sedition charges, he moved a bail petition in the Supreme Court of India.
Senior advocates Soli J Sorabjee and Raju Ramachandran requested the bench of justice J Chelameswar and Justice AM Sapre to hear the plea on Thursday itself. But the bench said that they would hear it on Friday.
In his petition, Kumar said that there was no need for his custodial interrogation as he was already sent to judicial custody. He also raised doubts about his safety in the jail and outside as the police itself failed to protect him on Wednesday when he was being produced before Patiala House court.
The Supreme Court bench said on Thursday that everyone should be careful while making comments on the JNU row. “We are keeping an eye on law and order situation in Patiala House court. Everyone should be careful while giving statements,” the bench said.
Meanwhile, the Congress party and Aam Admi Party (AAP) visited Indian President and Chancellor of the JNU, Pranab Mukherjee, and raised their concern over ongoing issues in Delhi.
Opposition parties, including the Congress and the AAP, came down heavily on the ruling BJP and prime minister Narendra Modi. They alleged that the government was trying to suppress those raised voices against the ideology of the BJP.
“Nationalism is in my blood, I have seen my family sacrifice for this nation. If anyone said something against the nation he should be punished according to law. However, it’s not the government’s job to destroy educational institutions and crush its students,” said Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi.
“It is not the government’s job to destroy institutions. This nation will prosper because of our students’ imagination. Imposing an ideology on them will not benefit the nation,” he said.
“The government wants to crush anyone who opposes this ideology. The government’s job is to protect students, not crush them,” AAP chief and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said after his meeting with the President.
In the memorandum submitted to the President, Rahul Gandhi and Arvind Kejriwal criticized the BJP government for its failure to handle the law and order situation in the national capital and accused the BJP of using Delhi police to suppress their opponents.
“The government’s complete failure in managing tensions and restoring law and order, and its refusal to protect the democratic right of its citizens is a cause of deep concern for us,” Gandhi said in the statement.
“The Delhi police is a uniformed force… If its master says don’t do anything, they won’t do anything. If the master tells them to shoot, they will shoot. Their master is central government… this is the dictatorship of the prime minister,” Kejriwal alleged.
Arvind Kejriwal also criticized the government for not being able to catch the students who raised anti-India slogans at JNU. “This government can’t catch 4-5 students who shouted those anti-national slogans, how will they catch who carried out the Pathankot attacks,” he said.
The student protest that was centered on JNU for over a week spread to streets on Thursday as thousands of students, with some reporting pegging it at 5,000, conducted a rally from Mandi House to Jantar Mantar to protest the arrest of Kanhaiya Kumar. But the police said that they didn’t have the permission to conduct the march.
Raising concern over the safety of students, the JNU Vice Chancellor requested the students not to take their protest to streets. “While we appreciate your right to protest, we are concerned for your safety outside the campus. We, therefore, request you to reconsider the decision of taking out a march outside the university,” he said in a statement.
At the same time, the lawyers who attacked students and journalists outside Patiala House court didn’t summon before the police on Thursday. The police had issued them a notice asking to summon at 3 pm.
Delhi police commissioner BS Bassi said that they would move the court to get a warrant to arrest the lawyers if they didn’t summon before the police.
BJP MLA OP Sharma, who attacked Communist Party of India (CPI) activists outside the court, was arrested on Thursday and granted bail afterward.
Interestingly, when the country is witnessing a big ideological clash, Prime Minister Narendra Modi hasn’t spoken a word about the incidents going on in the national capital.
A few days back, in the all-party meeting organized ahead of the Budget session of the Parliament, Modi had assured the united opposition that all issues raised in the Parliament, including JNU row, would be discussed with due importance. But other than that he hasn’t commented on the whole issue.
Earlier also, his silence was severely criticized when Rohit Vemula, a research scholar at the Hyderabad University committed suicide over alleged racial issues.
Kumar, who was sent to judicial custody in Tihar jail until March 2, has been kept in jail number 3, where Afzal Guru, a convict in the Parliament attack case of 2001 was kept during his trial. Kumar was arrested for organizing an event and allegedly raising anti-national slogans to commemorate Afzal Guru who was hanged to death in 2013.
Meanwhile, in Patna, the state capital of Bihar, protests led to clashes between activists of the All India Students Federation (AISF) and Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the RSS student wing. Student protests in support of Kumar were also reported from Jadavpur in West Bengal and in Bengaluru.
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From where he belongs..