The Congress on Monday demanded a judicial probe into the JNU violence, alleging the country would have no faith in any government report as the goons who carried out the attack had the tacit support of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home Minister Amit Shah.

Party president Sonia Gandhi said the “horrifying and unprecedented violence unleashed on India’s young by goons with active abetment of the ruling Narendra Modi government 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,” Sonia said in a statement.

Sonia said: “The voice of India’s youth & students is being muzzled every day. Every day campuses and colleges are raided across India, either by the police or lumpen elements with the support of the BJP government. Yesterday’s bone-chilling attack on students and teachers in JNU, Delhi, is a grim reminder of the extent the government will go to stifle and subjugate every voice of dissent. Students and youth need affordable education, a deserving job, a promising future and a right to participate in our thriving democracy. Sadly, the government seeks to suffocate and restrain each one of these aspirations.”

The Congress leadership believes that what happened on Sunday was unimaginable in a civilised society and would rob the government of all “credibility and moral authority”.

One leader said: “We aren’t going to hold back now. The recent events — from the removal of Article 370 to the citizenship law controversy — had already convinced the majority of Indians that the agenda to distort constitutional rule was being ruthlessly implemented. Yesterday’s brutal attack on JNU students is bound to create a moral crisis for this government.”

Former home minister P. Chidambaram said: “Masked men entered the JNU campus and assaulted students and teachers. It was shown live on TV. This incident is perhaps the most clinching evidence that we are rapidly descending into anarchy. It has taken place in the national capital in India’s foremost university, under the watch of the central government, the home minister, the LG and the commissioner of police. This is the gravest act of impunity that we have seen in recent times. Nothing can be more shocking and shameful.”

Chidambaram asked: “Didn’t the Delhi police have any intelligence on this planned assault? If they did not, their intelligence gathering was pathetic; if they did, it was an atrocious failure of responsibility. In either event, the commissioner of police must be held accountable.”

He questioned the theory that the delay in police action was due to the absence of permission to enter the campus and said: “When violence is happening, it is a cognisable offence. It is the duty of the police to intervene and stop the violence.”

The party’s communications chief, Randeep Surjewala, said: “The Modi-Shah regime has reminded the world of Hitler and Nazi Germany after 90 years. The torture of youth, the naked tandava of violence happened under police protection. Masked men were allowed to enter the campus and wreak mayhem; they beat up girls who were hiding in hostel rooms, toilets. Teachers were assaulted. Police remained a mute spectator despite over 150 emergency calls. If this is not fascism, what is it?”

Surjewala added: “India is no more a democracy. Our students are facing state-sponsored terrorism. Both the JNU administration and the police were complicit with the criminals who raided the campus. The goons were from the RSS’s student wing ABVP. They enjoyed the tacit support of the home minister. Modi and Shah are directly responsible; violence happened under the home minister’s guidance. Hence the nation will not trust any investigation conducted by government agencies. A judicial inquiry by a sitting Supreme Court judge is called for.”

Former MP Udit Raj, who was present outside the JNU gate for hours last night, said at a news conference: “We saw many RSS-BJP leaders along with an aggressive crowd at the JNU gate. The police warned me, saying you will be lynched. The slogans called for shooting and killing communists and traitors. There were around 300 policemen and 150 RSS-BJP people. They could have easily been removed from there but the police instead guided and helped them.”

Claiming video evidence to support his allegations, Udit Raj, who had defected to the Congress from the BJP last year, said: “BJP leader Manoj Sharma, ex-MLA Anil Sharma, former Mehrauli BJP chief Azad Singh, along with Jagmohan Mahlawat and Ravindra Singh, were present there with their supporters. They all were calling for shooting down traitors, inciting violence.”