Violence unleashed with abetment of Modi govt: Sonia

Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Monday hit out at the BJP over the attack on students and teachers at the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus on Sunday evening, describing the incident as “bone-chilling” and a “grim reminder of the extent the government will go to stifle and subjugate every voice of dissent”.

“We strongly deprecate the sponsored violence in JNU yesterday and demand an independent judicial inquiry,” Gandhi said in a statement here.

Former Home Minister P Chidambaram said that the JNU attack was “the most clinching evidence” of India rapidly sinking into anarchy and demanded that the Commissioner of Delhi Police should be held accountable.

“The Commissioner of Police must be held accountable...The buck starts with the Delhi Police Commissioner and stops with Union Home Minister Amit Shah,” he said.

Gandhi said everyday campuses and colleges were raided across India, either by the police or lumpen elements with the support of the BJP government.

“The voice of India’s youth & students is being muzzled every day. The horrifying and unprecedented violence unleashed on India’s young by goons with active abetment of the ruling Modi Government is deplorable and unacceptable,” she said.

“Yesterday’s bone-chilling attack on students and teachers in JNU, Delhi is a grim reminder of the extent the Govt will go to stifle and subjugate every voice of dissent,” she said.

Gandhi noted that students and youth need affordable education, a deserving job, a promising future and a right to participate in our thriving democracy.

“Sadly, Modi Govt seeks to suffocate and restrain each one of these aspirations,” she said.

Gandhi said the entire Congress Party stands in solidarity with India’s youth and students.

On Home Minister and BJP President Amit Shah accusing Congress for the violence, Chidambaram said, “the Home minister is obsessed with the Congress. Even the ABVP has named the Left and not the Congress party for the violence.”