ANS reporter Amiya Kumar Kushwaha was slapped inside a courtroom while some other journalists were attacked on the court premises by lawyers shouting ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ slogans.
Indian Express reporter Alok Singh told IANS that he and a group of journalists were standing outside the courtroom when some lawyers began thrashing JNU students and media persons present there, including Amit Pandey of IBN7 and Manu Shankar of Kairali TV.
Journalists also saw OP Sharma, one of the three BJP legislators in the Delhi assembly, allegedly chasing and hitting a JNU student outside the court.
Earlier, scuffles broke out as lawyers shouting ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ ordered JNU students and journalists out of the courtroom as well as the court premises. No reasons were assigned.
Some JNU students said that lawyers shouting ‘Long Live India, Down with JNU’ physically forced them out of the court premises.
The violence took place despite a big police presence in the court complex in the heart of the capital.
Shah said Rahul Gandhi should apologise “to the nation for his support to forces inimical to India’s interests”.
“No citizen can accept that a terrorist is favoured and anti-India slogans raised at a prestigious university,” Shah said.
“But the kind of statements Rahul Gandhi and his party colleagues have delivered at the campus proves there is no place for national interest in their thinking.”
Shah said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had succeeded in controlling “anti-national sentiments in Kashmir” but the Congress “is igniting unfortunate anti-national activities at the JNU”.
Shah said Rahul Gandhi was not able to “differentiate between anti-national and pro-national activity”.
Surjewala said anyone who had committed a wrong at JNU should be punished, but “it’s not true at all that anyone who raises voice against the Modi government is anti-national”.
“Those who killed the thought process of Mahatma Gandhi and those who are inheritors of the thought process of Nathuram Godse (who assassinated Mahatma Gandhi) need not teach the nation and the Congress new definition of patriotism,” Surjewala told reporters.
He said the Congress has a stellar record in living and dying for the integrity of this country, both prior to Independence and in the years after Independence.
The government, he said, “should abandon the path of suppressing voices opposed to it” and focus on governance.