NEW DELHI ― Massive protests paralyzed one of India’s top universities Monday after the president of the student union was arrested on charges of sedition.
Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested Friday over a demonstration days earlier at Jawaharlal Nehru University to mark the anniversary of the 2013 execution of Afzal Guru, a Kashmiri man convicted of an attack on India’s Parliament.
A student faction linked to the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party filed a police complaint, and Kumar was arrested amid allegations that anti-India slogans were used at the demonstration.
On Monday, several student groups called for a strike on campus and very few students attended classes. Over the weekend thousands of students and teachers from several universities and colleges across India held protest rallies.
Later Monday afternoon ugly scenes broke out outside a New Delhi courtroom where Kumar was expected to be produced as several dozen lawyers and BJP supporters attacked students and reporters.
A visibly shaken female correspondent from Indian broadcaster NDTV reported that several journalists and students were beaten and she was threatened with physical assault as she attempted to record the violence on her phone.
The BJP supporters chanted slogans calling the reporters and students anti-nationals and demanding that they leave India and go to Pakistan, the country’s archrival and Muslim-majority neighbor.
