The Centre has stepped into the controversy engulfing the Jawaharlal National University in New Delhi. Home Minister Rajnath Singh said he has directed the police to take action against those raising anti-national slogans.
“The government will not tolerate any anti-national activities in the country. I have instructed Delhi Police to take strongest possible action against those involved in the incident,” said Singh on JNU campus row.
This comes after Delhi police registered a case of sedition in connection with an event at JNU against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru. The FIR was filed following complaints by Bharatiya Janata Party MP Maheish Girri and BJP’s student wing 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.
“Purported clippings of the event have been shown in media. Such things were happening in JNU. I am an Indian citizen so as soon I saw the footage, I lodged an FIR. I am hopeful that about the investigation,” said Girri.
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 had also filed a complaint with the police.
ABVP members had already filed a police complaint on Wednesday 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.
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.
