JNU student leader Kanhaiya Kumar given clean chit in police report

Questions over hurry to book Kanhaiya for sedition.

Contradicting the claims by the authorities, a Delhi police intelligence wing report clearly indicates that JNU Students Union chief Kanhaiya Kumar was not involved in any anti-India sloganeering on campus. The JNUSU president was arrested on charges of sedition and is in police custody. The Delhi police intelligence wing report, which is in this newspaper’s possession, doesn’t also refer to any direct or indirect link of the JNU activists with Pakistan-based terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Tayyaba. But Union home minister Rajnath Singh, who stuck to his stand that LeT backed the JNU protests, said Tuesday the police was investigating the LeT’s role in the protests.

A situation report prepared by the Delhi police special branch, which mentions the FIR against Kanhaiya Kumar filed at the Vasant Kunj police station, says the authorities at JNU were alerted about the programme, which later turned into a huge political controversy.

While the report clearly states many Left-backed unions active at JNU had been “mild and non-reactive”, only two unions, the Democratic Students Union and Democratic Students Front, were “volatile” and “reactive” and were “indulging in anti-national and anti-social activities”.

The Delhi police action against Kanhaiya Kumar has led to questions on why the men in uniform acted so swiftly against the JNU Students Union president when slogans and protests with an anti-national and objectionable religious tone had been raised at he campus earlier too. The report says on October 6 last year the ACP in charge of the special branch met then JNU vice-chancellor Sudhir Kumar Sopory, and the two discussed various subjects, including CCTV surveillance at the campus to avert any untoward incident.The report says the two had also talked about the raising of slogans by students’ groups and their participation in protests inside the JNU campus.

It states: “Many times such slogans/protests have an anti-national colour. It is reflected through objectionable posters prepared mostly on computers and affixed at hotels or on the JNU campus. Sometimes, such posters are found to be hurting patriotic/religious sentiments. It was also discussed that objectionable/ anti-national activities of the members of the Democratic Students Union (DSU) have to be curbed by the JNU authorities with the help of the police.”

Another intelligence report prepared on November 12 last year, which is part of the situation report, states there are a number of Left-supported student unions active in JNU and clearly mentions that most of these are non-reactive and mild in nature. It says these unions often raise slogans and hold protests on different national and local issues but their gatherings have a fairly low turnout. But it adds that the Democratic Students Union and Democratic Students Front were found to be “volatile” and “reactive”. It says: “They are found indulging in anti-national and anti-social activities. (But) they are less than 10 in number. Often they discreetly prepare nude and objectionable posters of deities on their computers and affix them on walls to hurt the religious feelings of society.”

Incidentally, Kanhaiya Kumar belongs to the All India Students’ Federation, the student wing of the CPI, while DSU is an extreme-left outfit, believed to have ties with CPI(Maoists). Security officials have pointed out that the students’ outfit of a mainstream political party usually has little to do with those backing extreme-left ideology. The report says one police officer from special branch is already on duty in plain clothes at the JNU campus. The officer, it states, has been directed to keep watch on the situation at JNU. “It will not be out of place to mention that due to the clash of ideologies, the possibility of dharnas, demonstrations or protests by ABVP, DSU and other students’ organisations can’t be ruled out in the backdrop of the incident (of February 9). Since different student organisations are backed by different political parties, there is every possibility of politicisation,” it adds.