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Kanhaiya Kumar falsely implicated: Prashant Bhushan

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A file photo of activist-lawyer Prashant Bhushan. Photo: PTI

A file photo of activist-lawyer Prashant Bhushan. Photo: PTI

New Delhi: Senior Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan today alleged that arrested JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar has been “falsely implicated” and that he is ready to represent him in court.

“I am ready to represent Kanhaiya Kumar. I am usually busy with Supreme Court and High Court but if the need arises I will represent him because he is a fine student leader who has been falsely implicated,” Bhushan said.

Swaraj Abhiyan, the outfit floated by Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav, has been supporting the students and teachers of the Jawaharlal Nehru University who have been agitating in the wake of Kumar’s arrest over charges of sedition.

Professor Anand Kumar, another leader of the group who also taught in JNU, has slammed the police action as “shameless abuse” of state power to settle political score which is making a “mockery of democracy”.

Kumar was arrested last week in connection with a case of sedition and criminal conspiracy registered over holding of the event at the varsity during which anti-India slogans were alleged to have been raised.

(PTI)

JNU student leader Kanhaiya Kumar beaten up at Patiala court

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kanhaiya-kumar-jnu

New Delhi: Arrested JNU student leader Kanhaiya Kumar was allegedly attacked by lawyers at Patiala House Court premises on Wednesday.

A group of lawyers bet him up as the police produced him in the court, said media reports.

The Supreme Court has sent a team of lawyers under police protection on a fact finding mission.

Earlier, in an open defiance of Supreme Court order, a large group of men dressed in lawyers’ robes barged into the Patiala House court complex and allegedly beat up a journalist and a student ahead of the hearing in the sedition case of JNU students’ union President Kanhaiya Kumar.

The group, which could be seen raising slogans “Vande Mataram” and waving India’s flag in the court premises, was led by Vikram Chauhan, one of the lawyers who had attacked JNU students and faculty on February 15.

The journalist, identified as Anwar of news channel CNN IBN, said despite heavy police deployment, clashes erupted in the court complex and the cops’ presence did not deter the lawyers from shouting slogans and fighting with journalists and students.
The Supreme Court had, earlier in the day, restricted the number of people inside the courtroom, allowing only five reporters and two supporters of the arrested students to attend the hearing.

The apex court had acted on a petition that alleged that the police were a “mute spectator to the brazen display of brute force” on February 15.

On Monday, groups of lawyers had beaten up journalists and JNU students and teachers ahead of the hearing of the sedition case registered against Kumar.

Yesterday, top editors of national media and hundreds of journalists had hit the streets demanding action against those involved in beating up members of their fraternity in the court complex in police presence.

The journalists had also sought Supreme Court’s intervention in protecting freedom of speech.

(Agencies)

JNU Case: Support for arrested student from Chomsky, Pamuk, 84 others

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(Photo: Andrew Rusk/flickr/cc)

(Photo: Andrew Rusk/flickr/cc)

New Delhi: Eminent academicians, scientists and writers from across the world, including Noam Chomsky and Orhan Pamuk, have recorded their condemnation of the arrest of a JNU student in a strongly-worded statement that says it is “evidence of the present government’s deeply authoritarian nature, intolerant of any dissent”.

A statement signed by 86 academicians from renowned universities also condemns “the culture of authoritarian menace that the present government in India has generated”.

The statement says: “We have learnt of the shameful act of the Indian government which, invoking sedition laws formulated by India’s colonial rulers, ordered the police to enter the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus and unlawfully arrest a student leader, Mr. Kanhaiya Kumar, on charges of inciting violence –without any proof whatever of such wrongdoing on his part.”

Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested last week for allegedly shouting anti-India slogans during an event held on the campus on February 9 in support of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, who was hanged three years ago.

Mr Kumar has been charged with sedition, for which the maximum punishment is a life term. A report by the Delhi Police on the arrest credits “reliable sources”, explaining sedition charges against the student.

Expressing solidarity with protesting JNU students and faculty, who have boycotted classes to press for Mr Kumar’s release, the statement says: “Mr. Kumar, whose speech (widely available on a video) cannot in any way be connected with the slogans uttered on the previous day, was nonetheless arrested for ‘anti-national’ behaviour and for violating the sedition laws against the incitement to violence. Since there is no evidence to establish these charges, we can only conclude that this arrest is further evidence of the present government’s deeply authoritarian nature, intolerant of any dissent, setting aside India’s longstanding commitment to toleration and plurality of opinion, replicating the dark times of an oppressive colonial period and briefly of the Emergency in the mid-1970s. ”

The action of the police had brought “great dishonor” to the government, the signatories assert, and urge “all those genuinely concerned about the future of India and Indian universities to protest in wide mobilization against it.”

(Agencies)

BJP wins 4 seats as NDA fares better in by-polls

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BJP

New Delhi: The BJP on Tuesday won four seats and the Congress two as the ruling NDA bettered the Opposition in by-elections for 12 seats held across eight states three days ago. Uttar Pradesh’s ruling Samajwadi Party (SP) was the worst sufferer.

The SP lost two of the three seats it held in Uttar Pradesh – one each to the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The BJP also snatched two seats from the Congress – one each in Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka.

The BJP was the winner in Maihar (Madhya Pradesh), Muzaffarnagar (Uttar Pradesh) and in Hebbal and Devadurga in Karnataka.

The Congress grabbed Bidar in Karnataka and Deoband in Uttar Pradesh.

Bihar’s Harlakhi seat was retained by the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP). The Shiv Sena won from Palghar in Maharashtra, the ruling TRS crushed the Congress in Narayankhed in Telangana and the CPI-M won from Amarpur in Tripura again with the BJP taking the second spot.

Punjab’s Kharoor Sahib constituency went the Shiromani Akali Dal way in an election boycotted by both the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the state’s new entrant.

(IANS)

Former DU lecturer SAR Geelani arrested in sedition case

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SAR Geelani

New Delhi: Former Delhi University lecturer SAR Geelani was arrested on sedition and other charges in connection with an event here in which anti-India slogans were raised, police said.

“Geelani was arrested around 3 AM at the Parliament Street police station under IPC sections 124A (sedition), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 149 (unlawful assembly),” DCP (New Delhi) Jatin Narwal said.

Geelani was called to the police station last night where he was detained and questioned for several hours, and later arrested. After his arrest, he was taken to RML Hospital for a medical examination, he said.

His arrest comes amid the raging row over the arrest of JNU students’ union president Kanhaiya Kumar over sedition charges in connection with an event on February 9 against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.

At a Press Club event on February 10, in which Geelani was present on the dais along with three other speakers, a group allegedly had shouted slogans hailing Afzal Guru. Taking suo motu cognisance of the matter, the police registered a case against Geelani and other unnamed persons on February 12.

Police had claimed that Geelani was booked as he is presumed to be the “main organiser” of the event.

“Request for booking a hall at the Press Club was done through Geelani’s e-mail and the nature of the event was proposed to be a public meeting, which did not turn out to be so,” a senior official had said.

Following the registration of the FIR, the police questioned for two consecutive days DU professor Ali Javed, a Press Club member, under whose membership number the hall for the event was booked.

In 2001, Geelani was arrested by Delhi Police in connection with the Parliament attack case but acquitted for “need of evidence” by the Delhi High Court in October 2003, a decision upheld by the Supreme Court in August 2005, which at the same time had observed that the needle of suspicion pointed towards him.

(Agencies)

JNU Row: Journalists take to streets to protest assault

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protest-journalists

New Delhi: Top editors of national media and hundreds of journalists today hit the streets demanding action against those involved in beating up members of their fraternity in a court complex in police presence and sought Supreme Court’s intervention in protecting freedom of speech.

The journalists, shouting slogans against the Modi Government and Delhi Police, marched from Press Club of India to the Supreme Court and submitted a memorandum to its, Registrar, seeking cancellation of licences of lawyers involved in the assualt.

The protesters also demanded Police Commissioner B S Bassi’s sacking due to alleged inaction by the security personnel at the Patiala House Courts yesterday when journalists, students and teachers of JNU where attacked by people wearing lawyers’ black robes.

A separate delegation of journalists met Home Minister Rajnath Singh demanding his intervention in ensuring “accountability of the Delhi Police who watched silently as the assault happened”.

The memorandum by the journalists was submitted to Supreme Court even as it agreed to hear a petition tomorrow on a plea seeking action against those involved in the violence at Patiala House court complex.

“We demand the intervention of the highest court of the land to take appropriate action against the advocates involved in the assault,” the memorandum said, urging the court to direct the bar council to cancel the licences of the errant advocates.

No arrest has been made even 24 hours after the assault where Delhi BJP MLA OP Sharma was also seen beating up a CPI activist.

The journalists also said the CCTV footage of yesterday’s incident should be called for and police directed to ensure protection to journalists and other media persons.

Yesterday, groups of lawyers had beaten up journalists and JNU students and teachers ahead of the hearing of the sedition case registered against JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar in connection with an event at the university last week to protest the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru. Anti-India slogans were also allegedly raised at the event.

Nadeem Ahmad Kazmi, Secretary General of Press Club of India, said the Supreme Court registrar told them Chief Justice of India T S Thakur will meet a delegation of journalists in a few days.

“We hope that the Supreme Court will surely protect freedom of speech because it is constitutionally mandated to do so,” he said.

Senior journalist Siddharth Varadarajan slammed the Delhi Police for remaining “mute spectators” when the assault was going on.

“The manner in which the police allowed the goons to beat up jourmnalists and no action has been taken against them even after 24 hours tells you that the terrain is likely to get more and more hostile for journalism.

“There is not even a video of Kanhaiya Kumar saying anything and he has been booked for sedition and here you have a video recording of an MLA kicking and beating somebody and not even a case has been registered,” he said.

In the memorandum to the Home Minister, the journalists demanded that the perpetrators of the assault be brought to book at the earliest.

“As Union Home Minister, we urge your intervention in the matter on two counts. There should be some accountability of the Delhi Police who watched silently as the assault happened.

“And secondly, as there were CCTV cameras where the incident of assault must have been recorded, we demand that the perpetrators of the assault be brought to book at the earliest,” they said.

In the memorandum, the journalists also criticised Bassi for describing the incident as a “minor scuffle”.

“It is a matter of concern that the Delhi Police Commissioner has dismissed the incident describing it as a scuffle. Such observations will encourage only those elements who already believe that they are above the law of the land,” it said.

In the memorandum to the Supreme Court, the journalists said Delhi Police did nothing even as “brutal assault” was unleashed by lawyers on media persons including, on women scribes, in and outside the court room.

More than a dozen journalists were set upon by lawyers who prevented them in the discharge of their duties. The journalists had gone to cover the hearing of the sedition case against arrested JNU students union president Kanhaiya Kumar.

(PTI)

BJP wins two seats, Congress won in Karnataka by polls

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BJP

Bengaluru: The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday won two seats and the ruling Congress one seat in the by-elections held to the state assembly in Karnataka.

The BJP’s Y.A. Narayanaswamy won from the high-profile Hebbal assembly segment of the Bengaluru North parliamentary constituency by 19,149 votes, defeating C.K. Abdul Rahman Sharief of the Congress and Ismail Sharief Nana of the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S).

Narayanaswamy, a two-time lawmaker from the state legislative council, bagged 60,367 votes, while Abdul, the grandson of former union minister C.K. Jaffer Sharief, secured 41,218 votes and Nana 3,666 votes.

Similarly, in the Scheduled Tribes (ST) reserved Devadurga constituency in Raichur district, about 510 km from Bengaluru, the BJP’s K. Shivana Gouda Nayak won by 16,871 votes, defeating A. Rajashekhara Nayak of the Congress and Karemma G. Nayak of the JD-S.

In a family battle, the contestants being relatives, Shivana polled 72,647 votes, while Rajashekhara got 55,776 and Karemma 9,156 votes.

In Bidar in the state’s north, about 690 km from here, Congress nominee Rahim Khan won by 22,721 votes, defeating Prakash Khandre of the BJP and Md Ayaz Khan of the JD-S.

Rahim polled 70,138 votes, Prakash 47,417 and Ayaz 4,421.

Hebbal registered the lowest voting of 45 percent in the bypolls on Saturday, while it was 61 percent in Bidar and 67 percent (the highest) in Devadurga.

The BJP retained Hebbal and wrested Devadurga from the Congress, while the ruling party wrested Bidar from the BJP.

The by-elections were necessitated by the death of lawmakers — R. Jagadish Kumar of the BJP from Hebbal, Gurupadappa Nagamarapalli of the BJP from Bidar, and Venkatesh Naik of the Congress from Devadurga.

(IANS)

Academicians from 400 international universities extend support to JNU

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jnu-students-protest

New Delhi: Over 400 academicians from international varsities, including Columbia, Yale, Harvard and Cambridge, have come out in support of JNU students agitating against a row over an event on the campus.

A joint statement signed by 455 academicians from global universities, said, “JNU stands for a vital imagination of the space of the university – an imagination that embraces critical thinking, democratic dissent, student activism, and the plurality of political beliefs. It is this critical imagination that the current establishment seeks to destroy. And we know that this is not a problem for India alone”.

“Similar attacks on critical dissent and university spaces are being attempted and resisted across the world. An open, tolerant, and democratic society is inextricably linked to critical thought and expression cultivated by universities in India and abroad.

“As teachers, students, and scholars across the world, we are watching with extreme concern the situation unfolding at JNU and refuse to remain silent as our colleagues (students, staff, and faculty) resist the illegal detention and autocratic suspension of students,” said the academicians, some of which are JNU alumni.

JNU students union president Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested last week in connection with a case of sedition and criminal conspiracy registered over holding of the event against hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru at the varsity during which anti-India slogans were alleged to have been raised.

His arrest has triggered widespread outrage among students and teachers and drawn severe criticism from non-BJP political parties.

The university teachers have also rallied behind its protesting students and questioned the administration’s decision to allow the police crackdown on the campus even as they appealed to the public not to “brand” the institution as “anti-national”.

Yesterday, violence broke out in the Patiala House court complex when groups of lawyers thrashed journalists and students and teachers of JNU while the political slugfest over the arrest of Kanhaiya snowballed with BJP chief Amit Shah targeting Rahul and Sonia Gandhi on the issue.

(Agencies)

JuD chief Hafiz Saeed denies tweets inciting JNU protesters

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Hafiz Saeed

New Delhi: Hafiz Saeed, has released a video saying that he has nothing to do with the JNU protest. According to ANI, he said in a video: “I felt very odd when I heard that the Indian home minister had said that I or my tweet was behind the JNU slogans. This is a fake twitter account. I have not said anything via a tweet.”

Home Minister Rajnath Singh had brought in Hafiz Saeed into the public debate on the ‘anti-India’ JNU protests, suggesting that those speaking in support of the JNU students were on the same side as Saeed.

“The incident at JNU has received support from Hafiz Saeed . This is a truth that the nation needs to understand,” Singh told reporters in Allahabad on Sunday. The home minister’s comments had come days after a tweet, on a fake twitter handle, appeared under a hashtag asking Pakistanis to support the JNU protests.

The opposition reacted sharply to the home minister’s remarks.

The Congress and the Left parties slammed the home minister and asked him to provide proof of what he had claimed. The CPM’s top leader, Sitaram Yechury, accused the government of “scaring us off” and crushing dissent, after protesters attacked the CPM party office.

(Agencies)

A trustworthy investigation, from HCU to JNU is the way out to save the country from the constitutional crisis: Adv. Sharfuddin Ahmad, SDPI

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Adv-Sharfuddin-SDPI

New Delhi: SDPI has presented a Memorandum to the President of India demanding a thorough investigation into the reigning controversy branding the HCU and JNU as Centers of anti-national activities and targeting the students having dissenting voice in false cases of sedition to divert the attention of the country from real issues.

SDPI took strong offence against the statement made in a hurry by the Home Minister Rajnath Singh casting aspersions upon the integrity and patriotism of the students of JNU, who have been fighting in a democratic way against the denial of justice. SDPI demands that after the opinion expressed by the Home Minister, it is incumbent that the issue must be thoroughly investigated either by a joint parliamentary committee or a judicial commission headed by sitting judge of Hon’ble Supreme Court, so that the country may be saved from the constitutional crisis.

Adv Sharfuddin Ahmad said, Home Minister Rajnath Singh teaching the country ‘to understand the reality’ connecting the democratic agitation as anti-national and at the instance of the enemies of the country in JNU on the basis of an alleged tweet on behalf of Hafiz Saeed justifying the arrest of the President of JNUSU Kanhaiya Kumar, is of grave concern and need further investigation. It has been reported that the tweet on which the statement of Home Minister is based is fake and manufactured with ill-intention to support the charge under which drastic and unproportionate action was taken by the police at the instance of Home Minister curtailing the civil rights and suppressing the civil liberties, guaranteed under the Constitution of India.

Since the formation of the NDA Govt., the country has been facing fake controversies based on manufactured issues to subjugate the democratic attitude and ethos. The leaders of RSS, VHP & BJP have been drumming up false issues as love Jihad, Ghar Wapsi, etc. to widen the communal cleavage and promote the mindset of hatred and intolerance. HRD Minister Smriti Irani called a press conference to impress the country that Rohit Vemula was not a Dalit and whole of the intelligence machinery was deployed to make the untruth true. It is to be noted that the Home Minister Rajnath Singh made a statement in hurry on the basis of a fake tweet connecting the activities of JNU with Hafiz Saeed of Pakistan only to convince the country that the arrest and the filing of the cases against the students of JNU are acts of unpatriotic and anti-nationalistic. The genesis of statement of the Home Minister has been exposed by media investigation and this also requires a deep investigation of the whole issue (from the charges thrust upon HCU to JNU). The charge of the treason and sedition have been imposed with a view of character-assassination of the students who have a deep democratic understanding and sense of duties in a democratic polity. The students’ leaders and political activists who have been vanguard against the RSS ideology are being targeted illegally by invoking the laws pertaining to sedition.

The NDA Govt. has been sensationalizing the country by concocting issues and now a constitutional crisis is being developed. There is a high increase in communal mindset. The caste terror is being promoted where the children of Dalits are being set afire. The statement of Home Minister in such a situation is only a symptom of the dangerous mindset as well as an indication of the future, the country is heading to face where the democracy of the country is itself at stake.

So, the scale of the challenge demands that all the secular forces should come together to fight out and save the secularism and democracy of the country by formulating united actions.

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