AISF, SFI condemn anti-India slogans

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI: The All India Students' Federation (AISF) and the Students' Federation of India (SFI) today condemned the shouting of anti-India slogans at the JNU campus and demanded identification of the culprits to punish them.

In a joint statement issued to the press by the Assam State committees of the two students' bodies today, they said that they had not organized the semir at JNU. The two Left students' bodies, however, opposed the BJP-led Central government deploying police forces in the JNU campus. They also condemned the arrest of JNU Students' Union president Kaihah Kumar, and demanded his immediate release.

The two Left students' federations came down heavily on the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) for, what they said, trying to brand the Left-minded students' bodies as 'antitiol' by riding on the JNU incident. "The people of the country have nothing to learn from the RSS and the AVBP who have resorted to hero worship to thuram Godse," they said.

The AISF and the SFI held a protest meeting in the city and took out a procession.

Meanwhile, noted intellectual Hiren Gohain supported today's protest by the two Left students' organizations as a conscious citizen. He said in a statement: "The direction which incident is taking now has reminded us of the pre-independent Colonial situation in India. The right to form organizations and self-expression of the people and students is one of our virtues. Delhi Police and the Central Government have struck on the base of a democratic country by interfering on the issue. Who is antitiol? The government or the accused students? Nobody can support the anti-India slogans in India. The situation would have been much better had the Government at the Centre, instead of using police force, sent a letter to the JNU chancellor so as to bring the situation under control. The arrest of student leaders who were not involved in the incident, and demanding other students' organizations to control the Left-minded students' bodies can be called as the precursor of violation of people's rights. Our sacred duty now is to free the arrested students in order to keep the sanctity of democracy alive among the posterity."