'JNU attack couldn't happen without political support'

'The Delhi police played the most shameful role, they were mute spectators.'

Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Brinda Karat met the injured Jawaharlal Nehru University students who were admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, following violence on the campus, on Sunday night.

"They want to establish the silence of the graveyard in university campuses across India. They cannot bear any questioning or dissent. They want subordination and obedience. And that is not going to happen," Karat tells Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com.

The violence we witnessed in JNU on Sunday night was frightening. Does this kind of violence threaten our democracy?

It was a planned attack. Obviously, this could happen because the assailants had political patronage by those in government and the police.

Something like this can never happen. This attack was not a spontaneous one as the BJP and ABVP (Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad) are trying to make it seem to the public. This is 100 per cent a lie.

The JNU attack was well-planned and they went for the teachers and students. They targeted Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union President Aishe Ghosh.

I was with the students and teachers at the AIIMS trauma centre last night. Each and every of them related how they were attacked. And the stories have a pattern of a planned fascist attack on the campus of JNU by the ABVP and the Sangh Parivar.

ABVP students blame the Left-backed students union for the attack. They were also injured in the attack.

When I was at the AIIMS trauma centre and met some of the students they showed me their injuries. Of course, it is for doctors to say one of them had slight scratches on their arm and other one on the nail.

Clearly, the injury they are talking about at least at that time (last night) was not at all visible.

ABVP General Secretary Nidhi Tripathi told me that the Left unions didn't want students to appear for the exams after the fee hike and therefore, they attacked the students. What do you have to say?

This is nothing but a diversionary argument.

The attack on students and roaming around with lathis, iron rods and bricks happened when the teachers were taking out a peaceful procession.

The students had gone there to show their solidarity. It was a peaceful procession which was attacked by the ABVP.

This is a manufactured story and the blame game situation which does not exist at all.

But videos are being circulated which show the Left-backed student union leaders blocking the server room at JNU to ensure that nobody could appear for the exams, which eventually led to the violence.

I am saying that last evening's attack on the students and the violence on students happened during a peaceful procession. All what you are talking is a manufactured story by the ABVP trying to confuse the issue of violence and attack.

But...

The JNU attack could not happen without political patronage.

And the Delhi police played the most shameful role in this attack. They were mute spectators watching the attacks when ambulances were being smashed outside the gates of JNU.

Is it not true that Delhi police is not allowed to enter the JNU campus?

The police cannot enter without permission of the vice-chancellor. But the police was already there when the procession was going on. JNU security was also present. They did not intervene or tried to prevent the attack.

I don't know whether they were scared or whether they had instructions from the administration, so I cannot answer that question.

What will the ABVP achieve by such an attack?

They want to establish the silence of the graveyard in university campuses across India. They cannot bear any questioning or dissent. They want subordination and obedience. And that is not going to happen.

Students are there to question. Campuses are there to debate, discuss and question.

That is the culture of campuses and you cannot smash that with an iron rod.

The BJP says JNU students are not obedient and not thinking of their careers, but opting for political activity and violence.

The BJP's culture is that instead of giving pens to students they are giving iron rods.

Instead of providing computers, they are providing lathis to smash the heads of those who try to dissent.

They have gone so far that they are attacking women faculty members of JNU. Her head was smashed by so-called guru-shishya culture wallahs.