few hours before JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested and charged with sedition, the Vice-Chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University had made an appeal to restore “normalcy” in the university and also called the incident a work of “fringe elements”.
“While the JNU community upholds the right to free debate on campus, the university strongly condemns the use of the university as a platform for activities that violate the Constitution and the laws of the land. However, there could be aberrations where fringe sections misuse the freedom provided,” V-C M. Jagadesh Kumar said in a statement issued on Friday.
“It is an appeal to all sections to go beyond this incident and return the campus to normalcy,” the statement added. However, after Kanhaiya’s arrest, restoring normalcy in the campus was beyond control of the administration as a large number of students and some faculty members gathered outside the administrative office as a mark of protest against the police action.
“The police is mindlessly patrolling the campus and students are being witch-hunted and demonised for doing nothing. What is the proof that Kanhaiya was there among those raising anti-India slogans? Has he been spotted in any picture or video? Why are all JNU students being given ‘anti-national’ certificates? We condemn the arrest,” said JNUSU vice-president Shehla Rashid Shora.
“Is the university administration also hand in gloves with the police and administration? Why are they not making any efforts for Kanhaiya’s release?” another student asked.
The JNUSU president was picked up from the campus in the afternoon.
“Some policemen in plain clothes came to the campus, raided a few hostels and the convention centre and picked up Kanhaiya. He was later arrested,” sources in the university said.
However, Kanhaiya has denied involvement in any sort of sloganeering that could establish that he was involved in alleged “anti-national” activities. Also, he has maintained that he had rushed to the spot of the event to stop ABVP members from creating ruckus inside the campus.
The Delhi Police Commissioner B.S. Bassi, meanwhile, said some “objectionable things” were said at the JNU event on February 9, which forced the police to register an FIR.
“Whosoever breaks the law will come under the purview of criminal law. During that day’s sloganeering, some objectionable things were said. Those were transgression of the Indian Penal Code, for which we registered an FIR,” he told the media.
The police have also submitted to the court the footage of the event.
Senior investigators said that five more students are yet to be arrested in the matter and that police was going through the video footage submitted to them to identify others who might be involved.
“We are trying to identify others involved. More arrests are likely in the coming days,” said an officer.
