Horrifying violence unleashed on India’s young by goons with active abetment of ruling Modi govt: Sonia Gandhi

The Congress President Sonia Gandhi in a statement condemned the brutal attack on the students and teachers of the Jaharalal Nehru University (JNU) and said that this attack shows that “the voice of India’s youth and students is being muzzled every day.”

On Sunday, January 5, 50-odd goons entered the JNU campus around 6.30 p.m. and beat up students and professors, leaving at least 37 injured.

The scale of the attack was so intense that according to a DCP-level officer, "more than 100 calls were made to the police control room on Sunday evening, in which people begged for their life as the attackers went on the rampage."

The JNU Students Union president Aishe Ghosh was also received serious injuries on the head. Condemning this gruesome attack the Congress president said: “everyday campuses and colleges are raided across India, either by the police or lumpen elements with the support of the BJP government.”

She said that the youth want affordable education, a job and promising future along with the right to participate in building up our democratic country but instead the Modi government is trying to “suffocate and restrain” their voices and aspirations.

Sonia Gandhi emphasised that the Congress party firmly stands in solidarity with India’s youth and students.

Here is the full text of her statement:

“The voice of India’s youth & students is being muzzled every day. The horrifying and unprecedented violence unleashed on India’s young by goons with active abetment of the ruling Modi Govt is deplorable and unacceptable.

Everyday campuses and colleges are raided across India, either by the police or lumpen elements with the support of the BJP government.

Yesterday’s bone-chilling attack on students and teachers in JNU, Delhi is a grim reminder of the extent the Govt will go to stifle and subjugate every voice of dissent.

Students and youth need affordable education, a deserving job, a promising future and a right to participate in our thriving democracy. Sadly, Modi Govt seeks to suffocate and restrain each one of these aspirations.

The entire Congress Party stands in solidarity with India’s youth and students. We strongly deprecate the sponsored violence in JNU yesterday and demand an independent judicial inquiry.”