Don''t dub JNU a terrorist centre, Kejri tells Modi

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 16

Urging Prime Minister Narendra Modi not to use nationalism to create fear psychosis, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said today that it was wrong to dub Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) as ‘a terrorist centre’.

In an open letter, Kejriwal urged the Prime Minister to act against ‘lumpen and anarchist elements’ like Delhi BJP legislator OP Sharma, who was filmed attacking a CPI activist outside a court on Monday.

He demanded immediate action against Sharma. The incident was caught on camera. Kejriwal urged the Prime Minister to intervene in the matter, saying that the nation was waiting for him to break his silence on the issue. 

Kejriwal said he denounced the reported anti-India slogans raised at the JNU campus, and added that, “It is not correct to convert nationalism into a device for creating a fear psychosis by using constitutional institutions to run them according to whims and fancies.”

He said it was dangerous that the JNU incident was being portrayed as a terrorist centre.

“The JNU and its students have achieved fame at international level due to its high academic standards and hard work of its students. It is wrong to brand a prestigious institution as a centre of terrorists,” he added.

Kejriwal wrote to the Prime Minister following the arrest of Kanhaiya Kumar, president of 

the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union, on February 12. He was arrested on sedition charges.

On Monday, before Kanhaiya was to be produced at the Patiala House Court, some lawyers attacked journalists and JNU students in the complex. 

OP Sharma, one of the three BJP legislators in Delhi, was filmed chasing and attacking a CPI activist on a road near the court.

He also demanded immediate release of innocents arrested form the JNU and to end political interference in academic institutions. 

Kejriwal also met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and requested him to make efforts to end the JNU standoff.