On 9 February 2016, some students of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) held a protest on their campus against the capital punishment meted out to the 2001 Indian Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, and Kashmiri separatist Maqbool Bhat.
[4] Four days after the event, the then-President of the JNU Students' Union, Kanhaiya Kumar, was arrested by the Delhi Police and charged with sedition.
[15] The Delhi High Court suspended the enactment of the university sanctions till their appeals were decided by an appellate authority within six weeks of hearing the students on the condition that they end their strike.
[23] Afzal Guru was a Kashmiri separatist convicted of participating in the 2001 Parliament attack: his execution in 2013 had drawn criticism for being carried out in secret.
[23] Posters advertising the event had invited people to attend a protest march against the "judicial killing of Afzal Guru and Maqbool Bhatt.
[23] Members of the Hindu nationalist student union, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) protested the event, and wrote a letter to the vice chancellor of the university, asking him to prevent it.
[23] After filing a complaint with the JNU administration, the ABVP leader, Saurabh Kumar Sharma, invited two television channels to cover the event.
"[40] On 10 February, the Members of the JNU branch of the ABVP, protested at the university, demanding the expulsion of the students who had organized the previous day's event.
[1] A day later the ABVP filed an official complaint with the JNU administration, the Ministry of Human Resource Development, and the Delhi Police.
[44] Four days after the initial event, the Delhi Police arrested JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar on charges of sedition and criminal conspiracy,[28] under section 124 of the Indian Penal Code dating back to 1860.
[6] On 14 February 2016, students of the university issued a "shutdown call", and stated that they would not allow further classes to take place until Kumar was released.
"[22] Indian National Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi said "It seems only the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh have the licence to say who is a traitor and who is a patriot".
[48] The general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Sitaram Yechury, tweeted "There can be no bigger farce than (Nathuram) Godse-worshippers putting out certificates on nationalism.
"[54] Along with the Communist Party of India secretary D. Raja and Janata Dal (United) representative K. C. Tyagi and Sitaram Yechury asked Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal to order a probe into the actions of the police.
"[55] Forty senior journalists from around the country, alumni of JNU, condemned the arrests stating that every university should protect dissenting members however unpalatable they may be to the mainstream opinion.
"[28] In contrast, an article published by Mohandas Pai argued that university students needed to focus on their academic studies rather than politics.
"[64][65][8] In a separate statement, over 130 well-known scholars, including Noam Chomsky, Orhan Pamuk, Akeel Bilgrami and Sheldon Pollock called it a "shameful act of the Indian government" to invoke sedition laws formulated during colonial times to silence criticism.
On 12 February, four days after the initial event, Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested and charged with sedition and criminal conspiracy,[28] under section 124 of the Indian Penal Code.
[75] BJP MLA On 16 February 2016, the Supreme Court of India agreed to hear a plea seeking "free and fair access to justice" to Kanhaiya Kumar, following the acts of violence against journalists, JNU students and lecturers.
[79] On 22 February 2016, news outlet India Today broadcast a video in which three lawyers of the Patiala House court claimed that they beat Kanhaiya Kumar while he was in police custody.
[13] In releasing them, the judge cited the bail previously granted to Kanhaiya Kumar, as well as the fact that both students were educated individuals, with the two being ordered not to leave the city.
[92][91] On 23 August, the appellate authority of JNU, which heard the students' appeal against their sanctions, upheld the ruling of the investigative committee, although a few of the fines were reduced.
[99] India Today stated that in the original video, Kumar was asking for the end of social evils such as caste and communalism, and was not raising any anti-national slogans.
[100][101] On 14 February 2016, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh alleged that the JNU incident has the support of the Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed.
[103] During the controversy at JNU, a parallel event commemorating Afzal Guru was organized by the Committee for Release of Political Prisoners at the Press Club of India.
[41] A few days later, Geelani was arrested and charged with sedition by the Delhi police, and fellow professor Ali Javed, also named as an organizer of the event, was questioned.
[105] A complaint was filed by lawyer Sunkari Janardhan Goud against "Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal[,] Communist Party of India (Marxist) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury [...] Congress leaders Anand Sharma and Ajay Maken, Communist Party of India leader D. Raja, and Janata Dal (United) spokesperson KC Tyagi.
"[106] According to Goud, "Gandhi and other leaders visited Jawaharlal Nehru University despite knowing that Kumar had been charged with sedition and supported protesting JNU students.
The Central University of Jharkhand cancelled the visit of former JNU professor M. N. Panini, invited to speak at the Vallabhbhai Patel birth anniversary, alleging that he was a mentor of Kanhaiya Kumar and other student activists.
The Vice-Chancellor said that he was flooded with "emails, SMS-es and calls" demanding the cancellation as well as objections raised by the State Governor Draupadi Murmu.