How sedition charge in JNU over Afzal Guru harms democracy. The reference, of course, is to the series of incidents on the Capital’s Jawaharlal Nehru University ( JNU) campus leading up to the arrest of the students’ union president on charges of sedition. How sedition charge in JNU over Afzal Guru harms democracy.
NEW DELHI — The police in New Delhi arrested a former university lecturer on suspicion of sedition early Tuesday, the second arrest in a week on the colonial-era charge, as student and teacher protests against the government continued.
The arrest of the lecturer, S.A.R. Geelani, came just days after the police arrested the student union president of Jawaharlal Nehru University, Kanhaiya Kumar, on a sedition charge.
India’s sedition laws, which date back to the British Raj, mandate prison terms ranging from three years to life. Though the Supreme Court has ruled that sedition charges apply only to speech that incites violence, the law has been used in recent years on apparently political targets: a cartoonist in Mumbai, or a group of Kashmiri students cheering the Pakistani cricket team, among others.
The police did not specify the exact grounds for Mr. Kumar’s arrest, though it seems to involve an event on Feb. 9 on the third anniversary of the execution of a Kashmiri militant, Muhammad Afzal, also known as Afzal Guru, for his involvement in an attack on Parliament in 2001 that left nine dead. Mr. Kumar was present at a protest surrounding the anniversary where the participants chanted slogans police described as “anti-national,” said the Delhi police commissioner, B.S. Bassi.
Though the university called off the event, videos circulated on television and online afterward showing people shouting slogans condemning Mr. Afzal’s execution and calling for India to be “split into pieces.” After the protest, a speech by Mr. Kumar was circulated online condemning a right-wing group and presenting himself and fellow students as the true defenders of the Constitution.
Legal experts said it would be difficult to prove sedition based on the content of the speech, which did not call for violence, but some said that the authorities were not concerned about making the charge stick.
“If it is brought to the court, in my view there is no case against him,” said Raju Ramachandran, a Supreme Court lawyer. But, he said, “in the meantime you’ve intimidated and harassed.”
He added: “It has a chilling effect, in a sense, because people would tend to think twice before expressing their views on sensitive subjects.”
A police official, Jatin Narwal, said that Mr. Geelani, formerly of Delhi University, has been arrested on the same charges of sedition and criminal conspiracy after organizing an event at the Press Club of India, where a group of people shouted slogans hailing Mr. Afzal, the Press Trust of India reported.
It was not clear whether Mr. Geelani had shouted the slogans, and Mr. Narwal declined to give details about the case. Mr. Geelani had been charged with involvement in the 2001 Parliament attack, but the Delhi High Court overturned his conviction in 2003, citing a lack of evidence.
Mr. Kumar’s arrest led to chaos on Monday at a Delhi court, where he was to appear at a hearing on whether to extend his detention. He never got there as a mob scene developed, with a number of men wearing black lawyers’ coats forcibly evicting reporters and attacking students and professors from Jawaharlal Nehru University who had come to support Mr. Kumar, reporters present said. Eventually, the hearing was held elsewhere, and Mr. Kumar was remanded to two more days of police custody.
Om Prakash Sharma, an assemblyman in Delhi from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, was seen beating a man outside the court in a video that circulated widely online. In a televised interview with India Today, Mr. Sharma said that he had been attacked by the man, who had been shouting anti-India slogans and was fighting back.
“They will hit you, abuse Mother India and then what will you do? Will you pray to him?” he said.
On the sprawling campus of Jawaharlal Nehru University, a wellspring for generations of left-leaning academics and politicians, students gathered on Tuesday to protest Mr. Kumar’s arrest. As the students held a sign reading “Release Comrade Kanhaiya,” teachers formed a human chain around them to protect them from assault, though there were no clashes.
“Who are these people to teach nationalism to this progressive university?” asked Bikash Mishra, a 30-year-old Ph.D. candidate in environmental science. “In a university, students should be free to discuss anything.”
The teenager backed the PM and questioned why wasn’t JNU under scanner
Ludhiana: A 15-year-old girl, who was awarded for her contribution to ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’, yesterday criticised Jawaharlal Nehru University students’ union president Kanhaiya Kumar, who got bail three weeks after being arrested on sedition charges, and challenged him for an open debate on freedom of expression.
Jhanvi Behal. Pic/ANI Twitter (right) JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar. Pic/PTI
“What Kanhaiya ji said about Prime Minister Modi wasn’t appreciable at all. Instead of criticising the Prime Minister, he should have said something on those who raised anti-national slogans in the campus,” said teenager Jhanvi Behal.
“There have been reports
of anti-India slogans being raised in Jawaharlal Nehru University. I want to ask him as to why there is no check in the university, but on the contrary he is criticising Prime Minister Modi,” she added.
of anti-India slogans being raised in Jawaharlal Nehru University. I want to ask him as to why there is no check in the university, but on the contrary he is criticising Prime Minister Modi,” she added.
Jhanvi has raised several public issues in the past, including the matter of road blockage of various organizations which she had taken to the court. Recently, she had filed a writ petition in the high courts of Punjab and Haryana against adult movies and pornographic content on social networking websites.