At a time when lawyers are being criticised across the country for the attack on journalists and students at the Patiala House Courts complex, the community has taken a stand by joining the JNU student’s solidarity march on Thursday.
About 50 lawyers practising in various courts in the Capital participated in the march and clarified that they were in support of the students and that they wanted justice unlike their other counterparts.
“The attack on media persons and JNU students was the work of a few lawyers who are not even active practising. They were all planted by the RSS. The lawyer community is actually in support of the students’ cause. A handful of people are trying to give a bad name to the entire community,” a senior lawyer said.
The lawyers added that the attacks, on the media and on Kanhaiya Kumar, were pre-planned by the RSS-supporter lawyers, who were issued instructions to this effect.
“They are trying to show that they are national. But what they did was not a show of nationalism, it was just hooliganism,” another lawyer added.
They also criticised BJP MLA O.P. Sharma who led the attack on journalists and students. Mr. Sharma later allegedly threatened that he will attack anyone who is anti-national.
“People like O.P. Sharma are a shame to the community. He is not even a practising lawyer. He does not have any right to brand us in a negative way,” a lawyer practising at the Patiala House Courts said.
JNU students, meanwhile, criticised the way their fellow students were attacked inside the court and questioned the role of the Delhi Police in dealing with the issue.
“Right from February 9, the role of the Delhi Police has been dubious. It has shown remarkable alacrity on cracking down on JNU students, but when BJP-RSS people like lawyers OP Sharma and Vikram Chauhan were named for attacking JNU teachers, students, the Delhi Police chief called it a ‘minor scuffle’,” said a JNU student.
