JNU students union president arrested over Afzal Guru event

Delhi police today arrested JNU Students' Union president Kanhaiya Kumar and booked other students for sedition following the orders from the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh where he asked the Delhi Police to take "strongest possible action" against those who were allegedly involved in anti-India acts in Jawaharlal Nehru University campus recently.
Earlier today, Rajnath Singh had warned of "strongest possible" action against those involved in raising anti-India slogans at an event in JNU campus here, saying such activities will not be tolerated.
"If anyone raises anti-India slogans, tries to raise questions on country's unity and integrity, they will not be spared. Stringent action will be taken against them," he said.
Taking serious note of the incidents, Vice Chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University M Jagadesh Kumar, after consultation with the Dean's Committee, said that appropriate action will be taken in the case and that a high-level enquiry.
A statement from the vice chancellor said: "Committee has been constituted to investigate the matter and take appropriate action as necessary. 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. While that problem would be appropriately addressed in this case, the University would also take steps to protect the academic atmosphere and the environment for vibrant discussion that JNU has always provided and stands for. All sections of the JNU community including representatives of the students, teachers and karmacharis have assured that they uphold the values and ethos of this University. lt is an appeal to all sections to go beyond this incident and return the campus to normalcy."
JNUSU vice president said, "They want to witch-hunt and target us, like they targeted Rohith Vemula. They want us to hang ourselves like Rohith did"
"Police are doing rounds of the campus and mindlessly witch-hunting activists. RSS is running campaigns to shut down JNU," he added.
Sitaram Yechury compared the incident to what happened during the time of Emergency. He said, "What is happening in JNU? Police on campus, arrests and picking up students from hostels. This last happened during Emergency."
Delhi Police today registered a case of sedition in connection with an event at JNU against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru following complaints by BJP MP Maheish Girri and RSS's student front ABVP.
Delhi Police spokesperson Rajan Bhagat said an FIR under Section of 124 A of IPC (sedition) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) has been registered against unknown persons at Vasant Kunj (North) Police station and the video footage of the event was being examined for further action.
Marking the death anniversary of Guru, a group of students on Tuesday held an event on the campus and shouted slogans against government for hanging him, despite varsity administration having cancelled the permission following a complaint by ABVP members, who termed the activity as "anti-national".
The JNU administration has already instituted a "disciplinary" enquiry as to how the event took place despite withdrawal of permission and said it will wait for the probe report before taking any further action.
Meanwhile, Girri has written to the JNU Vice Chancellor as well as the HRD Ministry seeking action against the organisers and participants of the Tuesday event. He also filed a complaint with the police today.
ABVP members had already filed a police complaint yesterday and submitted a purported video of the event showing the organsiers shouting slogans calling Guru a "martyr" and clashing with the protesters, to both police and the VC.
Earlier in the day, the left-dominated JNU students union distanced itself from the controversy, saying ABVP was opposed to it and not the union. Of the four top posts of the union, three are held by Leftist AISA and AISF and one by ABVP.
The Left leaders of the union also termed the ABVP complaint as an attempt to curb the "democratic traditions" of the university.
There were protests on the campus for the second day today with slogan shouting by the two groups.
Meanwhile, BJP National Secretary Shrikant Sharma has condemned the event, saying there were a handful of people who were trying to "pollute the atmosphere" in JNU.
"Slogans against India were raised and a terrorist was called a martyr. This is unfortunate and BJP condemns it in strongest terms. We hope that the university administration will take strong action against such people," Sharma added.
The controversy at JNU erupted earlier this week when some students had pasted posters across the campus inviting people to a protest march against "judicial killing of Afzal Guru and Maqbool Bhatt" and in solidarity with "struggle of Kashmiri people for their democratic right to self determination" at varsity's Sabarmati dhaba.
Members of the ABVP objected to the event and wrote to the Vice Chancellor that such kind protest should not be held on campus of an educational institution, prompting the university administration to order cancellation of the march as they "feared" it might "disrupt" peace.