‘Unravelling true facts has not been cops’ intention’

Condemning destructive and divisive slogans that were allegedly raised during the controversial February 9 event, JNU Students’ Union council in its first meeting after the release of its president Kanhaiya Kumar on interim bail also questioned the role played by the Delhi police in the whole episode.

The JNUSU council said that from the beginning, unravelling the true facts of the matter has not been the intention of the Delhi police.

This council, in its meeting late on Monday night, demanded the resignation of JNU registrar Bhupinder Zutshi for his “collaborative role in targeting the university” along with the ABVP and the BJP. “The officiating registrar along with the vice-chancellor is responsible for giving the Delhi police blanket permission to enter the campus. He played a vital role in suspending eight students and has been spreading lies and rumours targeting the JNU and has been involved in witch-hunting of students. This partisan and politically-motivated role of the registrar is condemned,” said the JNUSU resolution.

In another resolution, the JNUSU council condemned the role played by the Delhi police in the whole episode. The resolution said that from the beginning, unravelling the true facts of the matter has not been the intention of the Delhi police. “Rather, they were merely interested in witch-hunting of students and to act as loyal foot soldiers of the RSS. They acted as mute spectators when a group of thug lawyers physically attacked JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar, JNU students and faculty and members of the media in Patiala court premises.”

“The then Delhi police commissioner B.S. Bassi had the shamelessness to claim that the students had the onus to prove that they were innocent. This statement made by him went against all accepted and practised judicial practices in the civilised world. By this outrageous statement, he inverted the most famous judicial dictum of an accused being innocent until proven guilty,” added the resolution.

The JNUSU council passed 17 resolutions, including demand for the immediate release of Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattcharya and mandated the JNUSU to fight against this onslaught and ensure that suspension of all JNU students is withdrawn and all criminal charges including sedition levied on them are withdrawn. “The JNUSU must also explore all possible means to get the sedition law scrapped from the IPC as this draconian colonial law has no place in a democratic society,” it added.

The council condemned the conduct of JNUSU joint secretary Saurabh Kumar Sharma, an ABVP member, in the entire episode.

The other resolutions were linked to the implementation of Rohith Act to curb caste discrimination in higher educational institutes, to file defamation suit against those who have maligned JNU as an institution or JNU students and faculty members, scrapping of AFSPA, and end of human rights violations against minorities, tribals and dalits.