Opposition to meet Prez on shameful' incidents

New Delhi: A day after shocking violence in Jawaharlal Nehru University, Opposition parties on Monday decided to seek a meeting with President Ram Nath Kovind on January 13 on the “shameful” incidents in the Central varsity of which the President is the visitor. There was widespread condemnation by the Opposition led by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who sought a judicial inquiry into the incident while the CPI(M) demanded that the JNU vice-chancellor be sacked.

The varsity will also hold an alumni march at 3 pm on Tuesday where all eminent persons who have studied in JNU would be asked to participate.

The meeting with the President is being coordinated by the Congress and Mrs Gandhi has asked party treasurer Ahmed Patel to speak to other parties, sources told this newspaper.

The Congress also constituted a fact-finding committee to look into the incident, which would be led by Mahila Congress chief Sushmita Dev. Apart from Ms Dev, the other members of the fact-finding committee are former NSUI president and Kerala MP Hibi Eden, MP Syed Naseer Hussain, and former president of JNU NSUI and Amrita Dhawan, a former NSUI president and ex-DUSU president.

Earlier in the day, Mrs Gandhi issued a statement in which she said: “Sunday’s bone chilling attack on students and teachers in JNU, Delhi is a grim reminder of the extent the government will go to stifle and subjugate every voice of dissent”. “The entire Congress Party stands in solidarity with India’s youth and students. We strongly deprecate the sponsored violence in JNU yesterday and demand an independent judicial inquiry,” she added.

Former home minister P. Chidambaram said that the JNU incident was perhaps the most clinching evidence that the country was rapidly descending into anarchy. “This is the gravest act of impunity that we have seen in recent times. Nothing can be more shocking and shameful,” he said seeking the immediate arrest of the perpetrators of the violence.

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said the role of the home ministry, JNU administration and the Delhi police should also be probed.

“The manner in which youth is being attacked and their voices stifled, reminds us of the Nazi Germany of 1933 which seems to have come back under the rule of Modi and Amit Shah after 90 years,” he told the media.

CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, a former JNUSU president, said: “The vice-chancellor is also complicit in this attack. He must be sacked immediately”.

The Trinamul Congress sent a three-member team to the JNU campus.