Won’t get provoked by any violence: Kanhaiya Kumar

Kanhaiya Kumar on Thursday said he had faced the serious attack but did not want any police action in the matter. In his statement, Mr Kumar said: “I faced the serious attack on me at the administrative block, JNU. The guy expressed his feelings by slapping me, and I want to know the reason for his anger. I do not know who has used him to do so. But we won’t get provoked by any sort of violence. At any cost we will save the culture of JNU, and we don’t want any police intervention in the campus.”

JNUSU vice-president Shehla Rashid said the real responsibility lies with the government which did nothing to stop the vilification of a premier educational institute, its students and teachers. “JNUSU strongly condemns the attack on comrade Kanhaiya and the endless slander campaigns against him which are creating an atmosphere of hostility for the JNU community,” she said.

Mr Kumar is a member of the AISF, the students’ wing of the CPI. The Delhi police had slapped sedition charges on Mr Kumar for allegedly raising anti-national slogans during an event on the JNU campus some time ago.

The attack took place around 6.30 pm on Thursday when Mr Kumar, along with about 200 students, were busy attending a session by Prof. Badri Narayan on “Dalits and Hindutva Agenda of Nation Making” in the administrative block of the campus. Witnesses claimed that while the meeting was in progress the youth, on the pretext of an interaction with Mr Kumar, took him to a corner. He then called Mr Kumar a “traitor who betrayed the nation” and slapped him. Before he could attack again, the JNU students rushed towards him. The assailant then tried to flee but was caught and handed over to campus security. Preliminary investigations revealed that the assailant is a student of a private university in Ghaziabad.

It may be recalled that a group of lawyers had earlier allegedly assaulted Mr Kumar when he was being produced in the Patiala House courts. The JNUSU president, rapidly emerging as enemy number one of the ultra-right-wing and fringe elements of the BJP, has been receiving constant threats.

While the police recently arrested a Purvanchal Sena member, Adarsh Sharma, for offering a reward of Rs 11 lakh to “anyone who shoots Kanhaiya”, the BJP suspended a youth wing leader after he announced a reward of Rs 5 lakh for anyone who “cuts off Kanhaiya’s tongue”.