CPI-M condemns police crackdown in JNU

The CPI-M on Friday denounced the "indiscriminate arrests of Left and progressive student leaders" at the JNU here, calling it a "long harboured design of the RSS and its camp followers".

The statement followed the arrest of Jawaharlal Nehru University Student Union (JNUSU) president Kanhaiya Kumar for allegedly raising anti-national slogans at a meeting on Jammu and Kashmir in the campus on Tuesday.

"The CPI-M strongly condemns the indiscriminate arrests of Left and progressive student leaders from the JNU campus," a party statement said, not giving the names of the others supposedly arrested.

"It is reported that currently the police (are) conducting a combing operation in JNU and its hostels."

Kanhaiya Kumar is from the All India Student Federation (AISF), which is affiliated to the Communist Party of India.

The Communist Party of India-Marxist accused the police of raiding hostels without arrest warrant and indiscriminately searching for student leaders.

"The presence of police in the campus and such indiscriminate arrests from hostels had last happened during the Emergency (period of 1975-77)."

The CPI-M, whose student wing SFI has a strong presence in the JNU, said the student movement in the university has the "impeccable record of upholding the unity and integrity of our country.

"An isolated incident, which does not reflect the opinion of the vast majority of the students, is now being blatantly used as an excuse to clamp down on the progressive and democratic student movement.

"This has been a long harboured design of the RSS and its camp followers. This anti-democratic authoritarian attack on JNU campus, seen in the light of state sponsored efforts by the BJP central government to silence dissent in premier educational institutions, has serious implications."

The CPI-M demanded the immediate release of the arrested leaders and "a proper independent enquiry" on the Tuesday meeting on Kashmir where the supposedly anti-national slogans were raised.

"The university authority must also stop such illegal and uncalled for action by the Delhi Police."