Arrests of student activists by Delhi Police in connection with the north-east Delhi riots was decried as a “witch-hunt” and a conspiracy to suppress dissent, said current and former students leaders at a online press conference on Tuesday.
At a joint conference held by a representative of the Jamia Millia Islamia, student Ayesh Renna, AISA president N. Balaji, CPI leader Kanhaiya Kumar, Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mewani, Umar Khalid, Fawaz Shahen and Umar Faruk, hit out at the police and the BJP, arguing that it was manipulating the lockdown to target individuals who were raising their voice against the government. It was an attempt to send a message to student activists, to stop their activism, they said.
Ms. Renna and others questioned why BJP leaders such as Kapil Mishra and Union Minister Anurag Thakur, who many have accused of inciting violence by vitiating the environment during and after the Delhi elections and the protests at Jafrabad, have not been arrested.
There was an attempt to create a new narrative by whitewashing responsibility, she said.
Pre-scripted reactions
Mr. Balaji and others accused that the police was working “according to a script”. He pinned the blame on the Rashtriya Swamsevak Sangh (RSS) claiming that a report targeting groups such as Pinjra Tod, AISA and others had been first prepared by a set of people associated with the RSS, after which the police started making related arrests.
Mr. Kanhaiya demanded to know the hurry in which the arrests were made, when the country is in the middle of a pandemic. He argued that these were attempts to divert focus from the government’s poor handling of the crisis and ‘take revenge’ by targeting activists.
Centre’s conspiracy
Mr. Mewani called it a conspiracy of the Central government and Delhi Police, alleging that instead of investigating a conspiracy, the authorities were creating a conspiracy themselves. He drew parallels with the Bhima Koregaon incident and said that the current appeal was also in support of jailed activists Anand Teltumble, Sudha Bhardwaj and others.
Mr. Khalid questioned the integrity of Delhi Police, stating that it had become difficult to trust the organisation given its allegedly selective investigating and asked the agency to “come clean” on political pressures on them.