Delhi police should be held accountable for JNU attacks: Congress

Condemning the attack on students and faculty members of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on Sunday (January 5), the Congress has demanded that Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik be held accountable for the incident and perpetrators be identified within 24 hours and brought to justice.

Strongly condemning the attacks, Congress leader P Chidambaram, at a press conference, said the buck starts with the Delhi Police Commissioner and stops with Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

The former home minister described the JNU violence as descent into fascism and said he is sure there were intelligence inputs on Sunday’s attacks.

“Where is the Delhi Police commissioner, why didn’t he rush to JNU when students were being attacked and shown on TV,” he said, adding that Patnaik must be held accountable for the violence.

Earlier, Congress president Sonia Gandhi in a statement issued through the party’s Twitter handle said the “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.”

“Students and youth need affordable education, a deserving job, a promising future and a right to participate in our thriving democracy. Sadly, Modi government seeks to suffocate and restrain each one of these aspirations,” the post said.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot have accused fascist forces of attempting to muffle the voices of brave students.

“The brutal attack on JNU students and teachers by masked thugs that has left many seriously injured, is shocking. The fascists in control of our nation, are afraid of the voices of our brave students. The violence in JNU is a reflection of that fear,” Gehlot said in a tweet on Sunday night.  He condemned the attack on students saying, students, teachers were beaten, hostels were vandalised but there was no police inside the campus to stop it.

“It is shocking, why police is not doing anything to protect students? BJP’s divisive politics is ruining the universities,” he charged. Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot described the attack as shameful and cowardly.  “I strongly condemn the violence and vandalism at the JNU campus in Delhi causing injury to students and damaging property. Such acts are shameful and cowardly, strict action must be taken against the culprits,” Pilot said in a tweet.

(With inputs from agencies)