Hindutva Patriotism: Lawyers, BJP MLA attack students, JNU teachers and media at Patiala House court

New Delhi: As per media reports [t]eachers and students of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) were threatened, attached and thrashed by a group of lawyers at Patiala House court in Delhi today as dozens of policemen watched. Some media-personnel were also manhandled.

Sources said that the violence erupted just before a JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar was to be produced before a magistrate. Kanhaiya Kumar, a leader of a left-wing students organisation, was arrested on charges of sedition by the Delhi police.

On camera, a large group of lawyers in black jackets is seen manhandling people while slogans of “Long Live India, Down With JNU” are heard in the background. The policemen did nothing to stop the unruly group, notes a report by NDTV.

Media reports show that a BJP MLA, OP Sharma, was also seen attacking a person believed to be a student of JNU outside the court.

“BJP MLA OP Sharma beats up an unidentified man outside Delhi’s Patiala House court” tweeted news agency ANI.

“Seven faculty members including five women including me were manhandled and pushed in court,” said JNU professor Ayesha Kidwai.

“The murderous mob was baying for blood and the cops just stood and watched. The attackers were men in lawyers’ clothes but they were clearly on the wrong side of the law,” she alleged.

Journalists were also beaten severely, threatened and their mobiles were snatched.

Notably students of JNU have refused to attend classes at the university campus over the arrest. Around five hundred teachers have also decided to go on strike against arrests of JNU students under alleged sedition charges.

The charges of sedition are registered by the Delhi police on the complaint of a local BJP MP, who had alleged that JNU students had committed sedition by holding a demonstration at JNU to mark death anniversary of Afzal Guru on Feb. 09. Afzal Guru was a Kashmiri national who was hanged by the Indian state on Feb. 09, 2013 for his alleged role in attack on Indian Parliament in 2001. A large section of civil society in India have been terming Afzal Guru’s hanging as “judicial murder”.