Congress president Sonia Gandhi has demanded an independent judicial inquiry into the hours-long violence at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus on Sunday evening, saying it was "actively abetted" by the Modi government. JNU violence, the day after | Follow LIVE updates In a statement issued on Monday, Sonia said: “The voice of India’s youth and students is being muzzled everyday. The horrifying and unprecedented violence unleashed on India’s young by goons with active abetment of the ruling Modi Govt is deplorable and unacceptable." "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," the statement added. The Congress president said the "bone-chilling attack" on JNU students was "a grim reminder of the extent the Govt will go to stifle and subjugate every voice of dissent." "Everyday campuses and colleges are raided across India, either by the police or lumpen elements with support of the BJP government. 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," her statement said. Congress leader P Chidambaram too demanded that the perpetrators of the JNU violence be "identified and arrested within 24 hours". In a press conference on Monday, the former finance minister said: "This incident is perhaps the most clinching evidence that we are rapidly descending into anarchy. It happened in the national capital in India’s foremost university under the watch of the central government, the Home Minister, the L-G and the Police Commissioner. We demand that accountability on officers be fixed and action taken immediately."
