Kejriwal, Owaisi, Tharoor: Who said what on Jamia clashes

In the evening, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal took to Twitter to ask people not to indulge in violence.

“No one should indulge in violence. Any kind of violence is unacceptable. Protests should remain peaceful,” Kejriwal said in a tweet.

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The chief minister then urged Governor Anil Baijal to take all steps to restore normalcy in the area. “We are also doing everything possible at our end. Real miscreants who caused violence should be identified and punished,” he said.

Spoke to Hon’ble LG and urged him to take all steps to restore normalcy and peace. We are also doing everything possible at our end. Real miscreants who caused violence shud be identified and punished.

— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) December 15, 2019

Violence erupted on Delhi’s Mathura Road during protests against the amended Citizenship Act, with four buses set on fire. Jamia has maintained that its students were not involved in the violence.

Two buses were set on fire by protesters south Delhi. (Express photo: Gajendra Yadav)

The BJP blamed the Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party for the violence and demanded that it stop “provoking people”, a charge denied by AAP.

BJP Delhi chief Manoj Tiwari, in a tweet, said that an AAP MLA was “provoking” the public and called Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal a “traitor”.

•@ArvindKejriwal ?? ????? ?? ?? ?? ?????? ???? ?? ????? ??? ??
???? ?? ??????? ???? ?? ??? ??, ??? ???? ???????? ?? ????? ??? ??? ???? ????? ????? ?? ?????? ??? ????
?????? ?? ???? AAP ???????? ?? ???? ???????
Aap ?? ??? ????? ? ??? ?? pic.twitter.com/HUARsjqItT

— Manoj Tiwari (@ManojTiwariMP) December 15, 2019

“An AAP MLA is provoking people at the behest of Arvind Kejriwal. The Muslims of the country are with India and are not going to be influenced by traitors like you. Stop provoking people. The people of Delhi will teach AAP traitors a lesson. The sin of AAP is being exposed,” he tweeted in Hindi.

The charge was denied by Okhla MLA Amanatullah Khan. “Some TV channels have run the news that protesters under my leadership have torched buses, which is wrong. I protested near Shaheen Bagh where nothing untoward happened,” he was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

BJP leader Kapil Mishra also accused the AAP government and likened the violence to the Godhra attacks.

Delhi Congress said the “CAB fire that was being spread by the BJP has now reached Delhi”, and condemned the “brutal lathicharge” on students. Subhash Chopra, president, Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee, said Kejriwal too should intervene in the matter and ensure “innocent students are not targetted”.

Apart from Jamia, students were lathicharged in Aligarh Muslim University too.

Thiruvananthpuram MP and Congress leader Shashi Tharoor tweeted: “This is horrifying. For india’s sake stop this brutality. Students represent the best of India’s future. I can’t believe that any Indian government will do this to its own youth. Appealing to Amit Shah to order the police to be humane.”

Reacting to reports of police entering the Jamia campus, CPM leader Sitaram Yechury tweeted: “Police entry here is illegal. Bursting into the library, teargassing, using force and marching students out with hands raised is simply not done. We strongly condemn this.”

AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi demanded a judicial enquiry into the incident. “In solidarity with Jamia Milia right now. Delhi Police should release all the students in police custody & tell us the number of students injured due to police brutality An independent judicial inquiry should be set up to investigate into the incident,” he tweeted.

RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav extended his support to the Jamia students, saying they had kept their “protests non-violent and Constitutional, but there had been an organised attempt to defame their movement.”

DMK leader MK Stalin said “every drop of blood spilled will need to be answered for in the days to come. “Shocked to see visuals of brutal attacks on students in Jamia Milia and Aligarh Muslim University. Every drop of blood spilled will need to be answered for in the days to come. BJP Govt must reconsider CAA 2019 in the face of widespread, continuous protests,” he tweeted.