Several Left parties today staged a protest seeking withdrawal of sedition charges against JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar and a government job for the younger brother of Rohith Vemula who committed suicide in Hyderabad University.
During their sit-in protest at Jantar Mantar, Left leaders also hit out at HRD Minister Smriti Irani over her speech in Parliament yesterday, saying the BJP leader targeted opposition over the JNU row and Vemula's suicide but had no answers to his mother's questions.
"Kumar has been arrested on the basis of fake evidence. We demand his immediate release and withdrawal of charges against him," CPI general secretary S Sudhakar Reddy said.
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Reddy, who met Kumar in Tihar jail today along with the latter's brother Manikant, said the students' leader is "prepared" for a long battle ahead and that his family has expressed full faith in the party. Kumar is leader of All India Students' Federation, a wing of CPI.
The former MP termed Kumar's arrest as an example of "misuse of state machinery and police" and said "people's democratic and constitutional rights were under attack" in NDA rule.
"RSS and BJP are dividing the country on religious, food, region and caste lines. They are the forces trying to impose RSS ideology on all," he alleged and added the Left parties will fight them at all levels.
CPI(M) politburo member Brinda Karat slammed Irani for "not addressing" the concerns raised by the Opposition and Vemula's mother, Radhika, in her speech.
"When Irani delivered her speech yesterday, Rohith's mother was with me. She had certain queries for Irani. She wanted to know on what basis Rohith and other students were called anti-national extremists? Why Rohith's stipend was stopped?
Rohith's mother has also questioned why Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not taken action against those who called the Dalit scholar "anti-national", Karat said.
Delhi CPI Assistant Secretary Dinesh Varshney, CPI (M-L) politburo member Ramji Roy, Pran Sharma of SUCI (C), RSP secretary Shatrujit Singh, Dharmender Kumar Verma of AIFB and Communist Ghadar Party of India's Prakash Rao were part of the protest.
