The debate around Afzal Guru

Earlier, students from the Jawaharlal Nehru University organised an event on Parliament attack
convict Afzal Guru who was hanged in 2013. This was to be done the day after Gurus third death
anniversary.
The event organisers had pasted posters across the campus inviting students to gather for a protest
march against judicial killing of Afzal Guru and Maqbool Bhat and in solidarity with the struggle
of Kashmiri migrants at the Sabarmati dhaba in the campus.

Afzal Guru, the mastermind behind the Parliament attacks in 2001, was hanged in 2013.
The programme called A country without a post office against the judicial killing of Afzal Guru
and Maqbool Bhatt, was supposed to showcase the protest through poetry, art and music.
This set off the row, with the Members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) staging a
protest to demand expulsion of the organisers.
The university administration ordered a disciplinary enquiry and said the event organisers
went ahead without permission.
Anti-India slogans

ABVP members alleged that the protest march consisted of students shouting anti-India slogans. A
purported video from the event shows students shouting anti-India and pro-Pakistan slogans.
Students in the video are heard saying slogans like: Kashmir ki azai tak bharat ki azadi tak, janh
rahegi jari.
Students say:
The students who were part of the committee that organised an event to mark the death anniversary
of Afzal Guru said that none of them were part of the group that was shouting slogans.
A student who was a part of the event organising committee, told The Hindu: The programme was a
cultural evening organised to question the working of the Supreme Court. It was also meant to bring
the grievances of the Kashmiri citizens to light. The struggles of self-determination must be openly
spoken about. Considering this is a democratic republic, why should dissent be suppressed?

Members of the ABVP protest against JNU's event on Afzal Guru. Photo: AP
Sedition charges

A case of sedition against several unknown students was lodged at Vasant Kunj (North) police
station. It was registered under IPC Sections 124A (sedition), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 34
(acts done by several persons with a common intention).
The university also initiated action, barring eight students from academic activity pending an
enquiry, though they would be allowed to stay as guests in the hostels.
Arrest of Kanhaiya Kumar
JNU Students Union president Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested on sedition charges after allegations of
anti-national sloganeering against him surfaced. He was ordered to three days of police custody.

JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar. Photo: Sandeep Saxena

Why did the police take action?
The police struck after videos of the alleged protest went viral. Home Minister Rajnath Singh talked
to Delhi Police Commissioner B.S. Bassi and released a statement: If anyone raises anti-India
slogans, tries to raise questions on the countrys unity and integrity, they will not be spared.

Students protest police raj within campus

Students of JNU gave a shutdown call, saying that they will not allow classes to be held on the
campus till students union president Kanhaiya Kumar is released. JNU teachers too, joined the
students in boycotting classes and said they would take classes on nationalism in the varsity lawns.
The university teachers had earlier rallied behind its protesting students and questioned the
administrations decision to allow the police crackdown on the campus even as they appealed to the
public not to brand the institution as anti-national but they had not joined the strike earlier.

Police personnel guard the entrance of JNU. Photo: PTI

Fake Twitter handle
Rajnath Singh alleged that JNU students had the backing of Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) chief Hafiz
Saeed. But, his statement was based fake tweet from an unverified Twitter account. The account
has posted funny messages in the past, with many on the social media considering it as a parody
account. The account @HafeezSaeedJUD is no longer in use.
When contacted, a senior officer who handles the Delhi Police Twitter account said, What proof is
there that it was a parody account? Our domain is not to check parody accounts but to red-flag any
incendiary content on social media. The law is very clear on this, Internet is just a medium of
communication. Idea was to caution young people and students to not get carried away by such
messages.

Journalists, activists attacked in front of Patiala Court

A student gets assaulted at the Patiala House court complex on February 15. Photo: PTI
On February 14, the Patiala House courtswitnessed violence as a mob, wearing lawyers robe,
slapped and kicked supporters of Kanhaiya Kumar. The attacks began when Mr. Kumar was
scheduled to appear before metropolitan magistrate Loveleen and continued for about 45 minutes
during which whoever ran into the mob looking young and carrying a mobile was slapped, kicked
and chased away from the premises. Journalists and students bore the brunt of the violence, while
the older men and women were intimidated by the mob.
O.P. Sharmas comments
The BJP MLA O.P. Sharma who was also in Patiala House Courts during the scuffle, got embroiled
in the controversy when a video of him started surfacing. The video showed Mr. Sharma beating
up a CPI worker outside the courts gate number 4.
As I was leaving the court I saw a man raising anti-India and pro-Pakistan slogans. I lost my cool,
like any patriot, and asked him to shut up. And when I turned, he attacked me with an object.
Mr Sharma doesnt know what he was hit with, but the people around him got offended seeing the
MLA being attacked and started beating up the attacker, read anti-national. The problem of this
country at present is that terrorism and being anti-national are considered being progressive. And
JNU is promoting this kind of ideology and producing anti-nationals. JNU should be sealed, Mr.
Sharma said.
Rahul Gandhis role
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi criticised the BJP government, accusing it of bullying
the prestigious institution. Soon after visiting the JNU campus Mr. Gandhi called an emergency
meeting at his residence where he discussed ways to tie up every compelling issue the students are
facing in India today and place them in its anti-BJP narrative.
Rahul Gandhi met President Pranab Mukherjee over the JNU row and the alleged targeting of
students in various parts of the country. Accompanied by senior leaders and also the young MPs of
the party, the Congress vice president highlighted the lawlessness in Delhi in the wake of Patiala
House court attacks and the way the government has handled the JNU row.
Kanhaiya Kumar thrashed
In a shocking sequel to the incidents of February 15 in the Patiala House courts complex, violence
was unleashed barely moments before a hearing on sedition charges against JNUSU president
Kanhaiya Kumar was to start at 2 p.m.
The Delhi Police again filled the role of a silent spectator as attackers defied the Supreme Courts
order for restricted entry to the trial court complex, bashed up Mr. Kumar en route to his court
hearing and hurled the choicest abuse, gravel and a jagged end of a flowerpot piece at a six-member
team of senior advocates, including Kapil Sibal, hand-picked by the Supreme Court to verify and
report back on the ground situation in the court complex.
Three ABVP members resign

Three members of the RSS student wing, Akhil Bharatiya Vidhyarti Parishad (ABVP), have
resigned from their positions in the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) unit of the party, citing
ideological differences. In a letter jointly issued by the three students, they have dissociated
themselves from any further activity of ABVP. The letter adds that they cannot be the mouthpiece
of a government that has unleashed oppression on student community.
Kanhaiya Kumar released from Tihar
A court in New Delhi ordered release of the JNUSU president from the Tihar jail after he
furnished bail bond of Rs. 10,000 in the sedition case, a day after he was granted six months interim
bail by the Delhi High Court.
Mr. Kumar was granted interim bail for six months by high court which had observed that FIR
lodged in connection with an on-campus event that led to his arrest on sedition charge suggested it
is a case of raising antinational slogans which do have the effect of threatening national integrity.
'We want freedom in India, not freedom from India'
Addressing a huge gathering of students on the campus, soon after release from Tihar Jail, Mr.
Kumar said: It is not azadi from India, it is azadi in India [we want]... from the corrupt practices
that are going on inside the country. Mr. Kumar made his fiery speech at the same place where
he had addressed students just a day before his arrest.

In 2012, cartoonist Aseem Trivedi was charged with sedition for drawing cartoons that
commented on corruption scandals of the Manmohan Singh government.
Writer Arundhati Roy, when charged with sedition for advocating right to selfdetermination in Kashmir,
The British gave India the sedition law in 1860, to be able to detain those who spoke against
the colonial government. In 2010, the British parliament repealed the sedition law. It is time
for India to rethink sedition law, too.
Guardian news

The standoff at New Delhis famous Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) that
has transfixed India has nothing of the routine campus controversy about it.
Following the arrest of a student leader, Indias Hindu nationalist BJP
government now finds itself facing down a large coalition of progressive
groups laying claim to the idea of an India where the right to dissent is
foundational.

Protests to continue at Indian

university after student leader's
arrest
Read more
The hardline home minister, Rajnath Singh, believes otherwise, announcing
that those who question Indias integrity will not be tolerated or spared.
Questioning the Indian states actions in places such as Kashmir, in short, is
strictly off menu. This face-off between state repression and intellectual
freedom, which has been some time in the making, may well turn out to be a
watershed moment for the country.
A famously contentious campus synonymous in India with critical thinking
and vociferous debate, JNU has long been in the sights of the Hindu right,
many of whom want nothing more than for it to be shut down. Its student
union president, Kanhaiya Kumar, was arrested last week in the wake of a
public meeting held on the anniversary of the controversial 2013 execution
ofMohammed Afzal Guru, accused of the 2001 Indian parliament attack. After
that meeting Kumar gave a wide-ranging speech that was remarkable not for
the anti-nationalism with which he has been charged but for his
impassioned insistence on the need to uphold the Indian constitution.
The ferocity of his criticism was reserved for those who he said were
undermining this very constitution, the forces of Hindutva (Hindu-ness) that
form the backbone of the BJP government. We dont need a patriotism
certificate, he said. We love this country. From a poor, working-class
background himself, Kumar noted: We fight for the 80% poor population of
this country. Addressing a topic all too familiar to students in Britain, he also
attacked government cuts to higher education budgets and the steady decline
of resources, including financial support, available to students.
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In a shocking move police are not allowed on to Indian university

campuses without the permission of the vice-chancellor, precisely in order to
safeguard dissent Kumar was arrested under one of Indias many outdated
pieces of legislation (which include, notoriously, a law criminalising
homosexuality). The sedition law, intended to prevent anti-colonial
resistance, prohibits inciting disaffection towards the government, and
many in Indias freedom struggle, including Gandhi, were detained under its
auspices. In recent years it has been used liberally to constrain those who
would challenge the transgressions of the postcolonial state.
Kumar had noted correctly that the forces of Hindu India now most
vociferous in laying claim to true patriotism were not only notably absent in
the actual freedom struggle but were often to be seen collaborating with the
British. Subject now to open thuggery as well as state force, there have been
astonishing scenes of lawyers beating up JNU students in court dissenters
have been arrested or are being hunted down. Students and teachers have
responded by shutting down the university, while normally cautious
broadsheets are issuing unusually critical editorials warning the government
not to let events escalate. Student unions across the country and from as far
away as South Africa have condemned the arrests, as have hundreds of
academics from Britain, the US and beyond.
So what is really at stake here? In short, it is a struggle between those who
would lay claim to India as a democratic, heterogeneous, inclusive and at least
incipiently egalitarian national project, and those for whom nationalism has
devolved into a lethal cocktail of aggressive religious assertion and equally
ferocious unbridled capitalist growth, where neither the body count nor
widening inequality indices matter.
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It is worth noting that this flashpoint has followed and is connected to another
equally important campus movement inspired by the death of theDalit scholar
Rohit Vemula at the University of Hyderabad, who killed himself: an event
that has blown open Indias persistent and disgraceful caste inequalities, with
upper castes, much like the white well-off of Britain, disproportionately

dominating universities and the media as well as lucrative corporate positions.

To criticise the Hindu nationalism that governs India today is also to note its
roots in the continued domination of Indian institutions by Brahmins and
other upper castes. This faultline is now more visible than ever, and
addressing it has become a matter of urgency.
For those committed to the idea of India as essentially a Hindu country, which
includes many in the government of the prime minister, Narendra Modi, the
list of potential anti-nationals appears to be compendious. It seems to
include everyone from Muslim, Dalit, Christian, leftwing and liberal activists
to those who question the Indian states actions in Kashmir or suggest that
religious intolerance isnt a good idea.
Until recently, this dispensation has had the benefit of an acquiescent, even
cheerleading media, but that may be changing. Today, with journalists also
facing down manhandling and violence from government supporters, even as
some of their more rabid colleagues appear to be inciting it against JNU
students, the situation reminds many of the horrors of the 1975-77 state of
emergency. Now, as then, India is poised on the brink of a choice between the
dangers of authoritarianism and its historic commitment to dissent. It is
essential that the latter prevails.

Bbc newz
One of India's premier academic institutes, Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University
(JNU) is virtually paralysed by protests following the arrest of a student leader
who has been charged with sedition - inciting people to oppose their government.
Kanhaiya Kumar is the president of JNU's students union and was arrested after some
students held a rally against the 2013 hanging of Mohammed Afzal Guru, a Kashmiri
separatist convicted over an attack on India's parliament.

JNU is often seen as an Indian Berkeley, strongly influenced by the political left and
frequently rallying around diverse causes - from ideological debates on India's education
system, to communal riots, to global issues such as the war on terror.
Today its sprawling, tree-lined campus is tense.
Several hundred students are staging a sit-in in front of the university's main
administrative block, demanding that Kanhaiya Kumar be freed.
"Delhi police leave our campus," they chant, frequently breaking out into cheers and
cries of "shame, shame" as speaker after speaker condemns the police action.

Left vs Right
At the heart of the row is a fight between the political right and left.
India's mainstream political parties play an active role in campus politics in the country's
major universities.
Many student leaders have gone on to successful political careers, including India's
current Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley, a former Delhi university student president.
The JNU student union has close ties to India's Communist parties and after the arrest
of its president, the entire opposition has come out in support of the students over an
issue that they believe is an attempt by the BJP to push its Hindu nationalist agenda.

Sedition law in India

India's sedition law dates back to 1870, introduced by the British to hit back at anticolonial movements.
Some of the country's leading independence leaders, including Mahatma Gandhi, were
tried under the infamous law.

The sedition law has rarely been upheld by India's courts. But anyone charged under
the law cannot apply for bail immediately and so can be instantly imprisoned.
"The question of how much criticism a government can tolerate is indicative of the selfconfidence of a democracy," writes Lawrence Liang in an article for The
Wire.
"On that count, India presents a mixed picture where, on the one hand, we regularly see
the use of sedition laws to curtail political criticism even as we find legal precedents that
provide a wide ambit to political expression."

Many of the students believe that the move is a direct assault on their right to dissent.
"We are defending the right to have opinions," says one student.
"You can have opinions on a judgement, you can have opinions on any issue that is
going on and they are taking away that right."
Some are angry at suggestions made by BJP leaders, that the university has become a
hot-bed of anti-national sentiments with some accusing the campus of supporting
Kashmiri militants.
Image copyrightEPAImage captionStudent activists protest against the JNU
demonstrators

One student tells me that they totally condemned the "anti-national slogans that were
[allegedly] raised [at last week's rally] by certain fringe elements.
"But that doesn't give them the right to label an entire university of 10,000 students as
anti-national," he argued.
And it's not just the students who are protesting. Many of the university's faculty
members have also come out in strong support.

Sharp divisions
Surajit Mazumdar, an economics professor, sees the move to arrest Kanhaiya Kumar
and charge him with sedition as an attempt to "terrorise the students into submission".
"JNU has always been a university priding itself on its democratic culture of debate,
dialogue and discussion. There are diverse political, ideological and academic opinions
that exist in this university and it has always been possible to engage with each other
without requiring any police interference," he adds.
But the issue has divided India sharply with some coming out in support of the
government's action.
Just across the university, a counter-protest is taking place with demonstrators holding
aloft the Indian flag and carrying placards demanding that JNU be "cleaned up" and that
"traitors" should be hanged.
"The university has been built on public land using taxpayers' money," says Sumitra
Dahiya.
Image copyrightEPAImage captionThere have been huge protests against the JNU
students

"But they have shamed all of us - by supporting those people who have killed innocent
people in India. We want these students to be thrown out of the university."
"There is no place here for people who support Pakistan and terrorists," says Anand
Singh, who is also taking part in the protest.
Prakash Karat, a senior leader of India's main Communist party, says the government
should immediately withdraw the case of sedition.
"It is absurd to charge them with sedition," he told the BBC.

"At stake is the very democratic ethos in our education system because you have a
government that is determined to impose its ideological and communal values into all
the educational institutes in this country," he added.

The protests at one of India's most famous universities continue to widen and polarise
public opinion across the country.
It began after the president of the student union was arrested on charges of sedition, a
move widely seen as an attempt to silence dissent.
Thousands of students have participated in a series of protests and Jawaharlal Nehru
University has come to a standstill.
The arrest of Kanhaiya Kumar, 28, last week took place after a demonstration that
marked the anniversary of the 2013 execution of Afzal Guru, a Kashmiri man convicted
of an attack on India's parliament in 2001.
The attack left 10 people dead and was blamed on an armed group based in Pakistan.
Kumar was arrested after a student group, ABVP, linked to the ruling Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP), filed a police complaint alleging anti-Indian slogans were heard during the
demonstration.
A smartphone video of Kumar's speech, which has since been widely shared, disputes
these accusations.

Accusing finger
Kumar points an accusing finger at the ABVP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh,
a nationalist group loyal to the BJP. He also explicitly condemns violence.
The Supreme Court of India on Wednesday ordered Kumar to be held in judicial
custody until a new court date of March 2.
On Thursday, BS Bassi, Delhi Police commissioner, said if Kumar were to apply for bail,
the police would have no objection. The Supreme Court will hear the bail plea on Friday.

As the verdict was delivered on Wednesday, there was a fresh round of violence outside
the court in Delhi.
Kumar was attacked by a number of pro-nationalist lawyers inside the court, as was a
journalist and a student.
Witnesses said about a dozen lawyers threw rocks at reporters and protesters. In the
ensuing violence, one lawyer grabbed the camera strap of an Associated Press news
agency photographer, breaking his lens.
The lawyers waved Indian flags and chanted "Glory to Mother India" and "Traitors leave
India".

Nationwide protests

The case has set off the largest nationwide protests by students in 25 years and
provoked an uncompromising response from supporters of Narendra Modi's
government, who say the actions against Kumar are justified.
The protests have since spread to several other universities and colleges across India
as students and teachers have held rallies to condemn Kumar's arrest.
In the southern city of Hyderabad, demonstrators clashed with right-wing student
activists. Students from Chennai clashed with police on Thursday, and protests at a
university in Kolkata also turned violent.
India's opposition leaders voiced their concerns earlier this week with Modi.
In a sign of how grave the situation is, they are due to meet the prime minister again on
February 23.
Hundreds of supporters of Kumar marched on Thursday in protest against his arrest.
Shehla Rashid, vice president of JNU Students' Union, has urged students to engage in
a peaceful march and avoid clashes with the police.

Perception of intolerance
The official reaction of the police and judiciary to the protests at JNU is feeding a
growing perception in India of a rise in intolerance in India since BJP under Modi's
leadership came to power in 2014.

Modi is perceived by his critics as a deeply polarising figure and has been accused of
fostering sectarian prejudice and authoritarian tendencies.
The government has also been accused of trying to repress free speech and tacitly
ignoring extremist nationalists who intimidate critics of the BJP.
Last week, Rajnath Singh, the home minister, said on Twitter: "If anyone shouts anti
India slogan & challenges nations sovereignty & integrity while living in India, they will
not be tolerated or spared."
The protests are also a reminder that areas of history, education and culture are
becoming battlegrounds in a struggle for dominance by Indias secular left and Hindu
nationalists.

My personal view is that we shouldnt have too much government interference in

universities. Even as minister, I felt our education system is over-regulated and undergoverned, Tharoor told PTI on the sidelines of Make in India Week here.
We should leave universities as autonomous places, he said, adding that as a
minister he would not have written to the Vice Chancellor about matters related to
disciplining or punishments.-shashi tharoor