ABVP finds reason to celebrate: HC order vindicates our stand

The high court had Wednesday granted interim bail to Kumar, who had been arrested on charges of sedition over an event held on campus on February 9.

An ABVP protest in Kolkata against a Jadavpur University event triggered by what was happening at JNU. (photo for representational purpose) Partha Paul

As students and teachers of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) celebrated the return of JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar, who was released on bail Thursday, members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) held a protest march to “celebrate the Delhi High Court judgment.”

The high court had Wednesday granted interim bail to Kumar, who had been arrested on charges of sedition over an event held on campus on February 9 to mark the third death anniversary of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, where “anti-national” slogans were allegedly raised.

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Participants in the ABVP march — held at the administrative block of JNU, the nerve-centre of the protests seeking Kumar’s release — quoted observations made in the high court order. They claimed that the order had “vindicated” the organisation’s stand that the February 9 event was “indeed an anti-national’ one and such an “infection needs to be cured.”

A leaflet by the ABVP, citing excerpts from the order, stated, “The court considers such anti-national sloganeering as a kind of infection/disease which must be cured, before it becomes gangrene and requires amputation (para 47 and 48)”

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The ABVP also protested the “witch-hunting, victimisation, stigmatisation and trauma inflicted upon the cadre by some teachers as well as the Left cadre.”

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“ABVP members have been continuously witch-hunted, traumatised and victimised by the Left cadre as well as some faculties for their pro-India stand. Incidents at Jhelum (last week), Koyna and Shipra, with our members, are clear proof of such behaviour,” said Saurabh Kumar Sharma, ABVP member and JNUSU joint secretary.

The organisation has also demanded that Kumar and two other JNUSU members — Shehla Rashid and Rama Naga — resign from the organisation over their “support to such anti-national activities as exercise of freedom of speech”. “The high-powered inquiry must recommend the rustication of eight students… there were many other students who were raising anti-national slogans, so an enquiry should be conducted against them,” said Sharma.

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