P Chidambaram slams AAP for approving prosecution of Kanhaiya Kumar

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P Chidambaram slams AAP for approving prosecution of Kanhaiya Kumar
P Chidambaram slams AAP for approving prosecution of Kanhaiya Kumar

New Delhi : Congress leader and former Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Friday slammed Aam Aadmi Party for approving Delhi Police to prosecute former Jawaharlal Nehru University students’ union president Kanhaiya Kumar and nine others in a sedition case of 2016.

"Delhi Government is no less ill-informed than the central government in its understanding of sedition law. I strongly disapprove of the sanction granted to prosecute Mr Kanhaiya Kumar and others for alleged offences under sections 124A and 120B of IPC," Chidambaram tweeted.

In 2019 election manifesto, the Congress had pitched to scrap the sedition law because it has been "misused and, in any event, become redundant".

BJP's tone, however, remained different as they supported AAP's decision and claimed that it was due to the public pressure why Delhi government has approved the prosecution.

"Under public pressure, finally the Delhi government was forced to give permission in the JNU case. For three years, Arvind Kejriwal kept postponing it but he was forced to bend in front of people," Union minister Prakash Javadekar said in a tweet.

On January 14, 2019, the Delhi Police had filed a charge sheet against Kanhaiya and others, including former JNU students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya. The police had said the accused led a protest march on February 9, 2016 to commemorate the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru cession and had supported seditious slogans allegedly raised in the JNU campus that day.