Hundreds of teachers at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) went on strike yesterday to protest at the arrest of a student on a controversial sedition charge that has sparked mass protests.
Student union leader Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested on Friday for allegedly shouting anti-India slogans at a rally called to protest against a Kashmiri separatist’s execution three years ago - a charge he denies.
His arrest has reignited a row over freedom of expression in India, where some rights campaigners say the Bharatiya Janata Party government is using the British-era sedition law to clamp down on dissent.
Violence broke out on Monday at the court where Kumar, head of the student union at the prestigious university, was remanded in custody.
The opposition Congress Party accused supporters of the ruling BJP of being behind attacks on students, academics and journalists who had gone to the court for the hearing. It condemned police for failing to protect them.
“Indian National Congress strongly condemns the barbaric and inhuman attack in Patiala House Court yesterday on journalists, young students and teachers by BJP goons,” said Kapil Sibal, a senior party leader.
“Delhi police remained a mute spectator as young students, teachers and journalists were assaulted and thrashed with impunity, inside the court rooms, in the court complex and outside it.”
Gulshan Sachdeva, a professor at the JNU’s Centre for European Studies who joined yesterday’s strike, said the controversy had “brought a bad name to the university”.
“People are talking without understanding what the real issue is,” he said.
“At the JNU, there is a kind of open space where all kinds of people are free to come and speak what they feel like.”
Om Prasad of the All India Students Association said the teachers had been angered by attempts to “defame” the university, which has a long history of leftwing activism.
Yesterday a small group of rightwing Hindu nationalists burnt an effigy outside the university premises and called JNU students “traitors”.
“We will not allow any anti-national activity,” said Kuldeep Kumar Sharma, 55, who works at a drug company. “The students are hiding behind those four walls. They should come out and face the nation.”
Many students at JNU have said they will boycott classes until Kumar is released, after staging major protests against his arrest at the weekend.
Kumar denies he was among those chanting anti-India slogans at last Tuesday’s rally to mark the 2013 hanging of separatist Mohamed Afzal Guru over a deadly 2001 attack on the Indian parliament.
Protests against Guru’s execution have regularly been held in Kashmir, where many believe he was not given a fair trial. Guru always denied plotting the attack, which was carried out by Kashmiri militants.  
Police have also registered sedition cases against another five students whom they say attended the rally, but have been unable to track them down.
Meanwhile S A R Geelani, a former Delhi University lecturer, was arrested early yesterday on the same charge in connection with another event marking Guru’s death.
Sedition, which carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment, has been used in the past against supporters of independence for the Kashmir.