Sedition charge slapped on JNU student leader

GOVT CRACKS DOWN Says those shouting anti-India slogans ‘won’t be spared’

NEW DELHI: The government said on Friday it would take strong action against Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University students accused of shouting anti-India slogans as police arrested the student union president and lodged sedition cases.

Home minister Rajnath Singh said he instructed police to take strict action against students who organised a controversial event in JNU to protest against the hanging of 2001 Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru three years ago, and allegedly shouted anti-India slogans. “If anyone raises anti- India slogans and tries to raise questions on the nation’s unity and integrity, they will not be spared,” Singh said.

Police arrested JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar, who was remanded to three days of police custody by a Delhi court. Students protested against the court allowing Kanhaiya’s cus- todial interrogation.

The JNU administration distanced itself from the row, with vice-chancellor Jagadesh Kumar saying the incident was a result of “fringe elements” misusing their freedom.

Human resource development minister Smriti Irani said the nation couldn’t tolerate “any insult to Mother India”, as police filed a second sedition case against the organisers of a similar event at Delhi’s Press Club of India on Wednesday.

Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad ( ABVP) workers clashed with police and protested against the JNU students, many of whom demonstrated outside the VC’s house. On Thursday, police lodged an FIR and examined video footage from the event titled, “A country without a post office” — where the sloganeering allegedly happened — after the ABVP and east Delhi BJP MP Maheish Girri filed a complaint.

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