Sanjay Manjrekar backs protests against JNU violence, Yogeshwar responds

Sanjay Manjrekar (IANS)

New Delhi, Jan 7:  The recent attack on students at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has drawn condemnation from all walks of life throughout the country and even the sports fraternity seemed to be affected by the horrific incident.

As soon as former India cricketer-turned-commentator Sanjay Manjrekar expressed his support for the ongoing protests in Mumbai which were organized for showing solidarity with the JNU students, Olympic bronze medallist Yogeshwar Dutt also joined the debate.

"Well done Mumbai!," Manjrekar had retweeted a post which showed images from the protest organised at the Gateway of India.

In response, Dutt quoted a photograph from the same protest which showed a girl holding a 'Free Kashmir' placard and questioned Manjrekar: "This is also the truth of the same procession. Sanjay Manjrekar what do you have to say about such people?"

The image of the girl has gone viral across social media platforms and a number of people have raised strongly objected to it.

Earlier, India captain Virat Kohli had insisted that he doesn't want to be irresponsible while speaking on the sensitive Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) which has radical opinions on both sides.

"On the issue, I do not want to be irresponsible and speak on something that has, you know, radical opinions both sides. I need to have total information, total knowledge of what it means and what is going on and then be responsible to give my opinion on it," Kohli had said on Saturday.

Widespread protests have been witnessed across the country over the CAA which provides a path to Indian citizenship for Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian religious minorities that had fled persecution in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan before December 2014 but leaves out Muslims from its ambit.