Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union President Kanhaiya Kumar on Tuesday said that students want Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani to resign. Kumar told NDTV that they also want no interference in the university’s autonomy, as well as a law against caste politics in colleges. Kumar was speaking to reporters before the “march for democracy” organised in Delhi by students to demand the release of student activists Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya.
Before the march, the JNUSU president said they want the sedition charges against them revoked. Khalid and Bhattacharya's judicial custody was extended 14 days on Tuesday. Khalid filed a bail plea in a lower court.
Kumar added that the show-cause notice he had received from JNU on Monday did not mention rustication. A report on Monday said that an internal inquiry panel had recommended that Kumar, Khalid and Bhattacharya be rusticated. It had also said that 21 students were guilty of violating college norms during the Afzal Guru protests, following which the university issued show-cause notices to all these students, including Kumar. JNU students on Tuesday alleged that the charges against them were unclear and that the committee was set up merely to punish them. Teachers and students want the inquiry report to be made public.
The Delhi High Court on Tuesday dismissed a petition that sought an investigation by the Intelligence Bureau against the allegedly seditious remarks made by Kumar.
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