From Nirmala Sitharaman to Kanhaiya Kumar: How JNU alumni reacted to masked mob attacks

After January 5, masked mob attacks inside the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus, several former students of the institute, including two cabinet ministers, spoke out against the horror that had unleashed.

Several students were grievously injured in the violence, including Aishe Ghosh, the president of the Left-run JNU Student’s Union.

Condemning the incident, both External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the government abhors the violence “unequivocally” and wants educational institutes to be “safe space for all students”.
Reacting to their response, Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi asked the two union ministers to consider stepping down since it is alleged that RSS student wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) incited the violence.

“Would you kindly consider resigning before articulating such noble sentiments?” he said.

Actor Swara Bhasker, a JNU alumnus, whose parents live on campus, broke down while urging the public to gather near JNU’s gate and pressure Delhi Police to control the situation.
Her social media post was retweeted by Nepal’s former prime minister and fellow alumnus Baburam Bhattarai.

In a series of tweets, former JNUSU president and CPI-M leader Kanhaiya Kumar said that the government is trying to keep poor students from educating themselves at premiere institutes by hiking the fees.
Sitaram Yechury, leader of left-wing party CPI-M, who is also an ex-student of JNU, claimed the attacks to be premediated “by those in power, who are afraid of the resistance provided by JNU to its Hindutva agenda”.
The BJP has, however, has blamed the “forces of anarchy” of “creating unrest to shore up their shrinking political footprint”. They also condemned the campus violence.