Janhastakshep strongly condemns the attack on JNU students and faculty members and the media by a section of lawyers associated with the right wing extremist forces and BJP MLA OP Sharma at the Patiala House court today. It also condemns the police inaction during the incident, implying its complicity. Janhastakshep takes strong note of the attack on the CPI (M) office by the right wing extremist forces. It also condemns in no uncertain terms the continued harassment of Professor Ali Javed, Secretary, Progressive Writers Association.
In some of the TV reports, the right wing extremists are shown beating up, tearing off the clothes and snatching the phones in front of the judge and Police stood as the mute spectator, despite heavy deployment. After the institutional murder of Rohit Vemula, who was raising not only Dalit issues but also the issues of human rights in general including the death penalty, a reminiscence of medieval barbarism, left and the Ambedkarite forces, for the first time joined hands in protest. The right wing extremists, forced on back foot, in an attempt to divert the attention, resorted to attacking JNU, an eyesore to it since its inception. As it is clear from the videos that went viral on social media, the pro-Pakistan slogans were raised by the ABVP infiltrators and stopped by the JNUSU office bearers.
The attack on the teachers and students and the media seems the continuation of broad fascist design to ruin the educational institutions that breed the ideas and courage of dissent. The attack on JNU in the name of so-called anti-nationalism and the Brahmanical attack on Dalits in Hyderabad are interlinked incidents of the right wing extremists. The harassment of Prof Ali Javed, Secretary of the Progressive writers Association on the same ground as the JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar. In a meeting on Kashmir, someone shouted the slogans of Azadi and disappeared. According to the recently received news, some lawyers and ABVP activists created a ruckus at the Press Club of India, a direct attack on the freedom to expression.
Janhastakshep apprehends the long term fascist designs of the Modi government and RSS affiliates and calls upon all the democratic forces of India to get together in the alarming times to foil the dangerous communal designs of fascism.
We demand:

Repeal of draconian colonial law of sedition.
Immediate release of JNUSU President and withdrawal of all the concocted charges against him.
Withdrawal of police deployment in JNU campus.
Arrest of goons who vandalized the CPI (M) office.
Arrest of all those including OP Sharma involved in violence at the Patiala House and be dealt as per law.

-sd-
Ish Mishra
(Convener)
(Release)

Hastakshep