Slogans like “Bassi hai hai”, “Narendra Modi hosh mein aao” ,”Supreme court open your eyes” and “Long live press freedom” were ringing in the air as a large group of journalists marched protesting the assault by lawyers of the Patiala Court on Monday.
The attack on media persons and JNU students by lawyers outside and inside Patiala House court on Monday has been widely condemned by the journalist fraternity. A delegation of journalists that included journalists like Barkha Dutt, Rajdeep Sardesai, Siddharth Varadarajan, Ravish Kumar, Suhasini Haidar, Sankarshan Thakur and Sagarika Ghose on Tuesday took part in the march.
A memorandum was submitted to the Supreme Court by the media asking the court to punish those lawyers and others responsible for the violence.
The placard-wielding journalists shouted slogans against the incident in which they were manhandled.
On Monday, a group of lawyers, chanting ‘Bharat mata ki jai’ and ‘Vande mataram’ had attacked students, faculty and the media present at the court premises on Monday.
The protesters also demanded Police Commissioner B S Bassi's sacking due to alleged inaction by the security personnel at the Patiala House Courts.
A separate delegation of journalists met Home Minister Rajnath Singh demanding his intervention in ensuring "accountability of the Delhi Police who watched silently as the assault happened".
"We demand the intervention of the highest court of the land to take appropriate action against the advocates involved in the assault," the memorandum said, urging the court to direct the bar council to cancel the licences of the errant advocates.
No arrest has been made even 24 hours after the assault where Delhi BJP MLA OP Sharma was also seen beating up a CPI activist.
On Monday JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar was presented before the court after he was arrested and charged with sedition by the Delhi Police for allegedly raising anti-India slogans.
The opposition parties including Congress, AAP and the Left have condemned the arrest and termed the sedition charge excessive.
Students have refused to attend classes in protest while several teachers have also joined the strike.
The Chief Justice of India on Tuesday said that the Supreme Court will hear a PIL filed by the journalists on Monday’s incident where a bunch of lawyers assaulted journalists.