Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Monday demanded the identification and arrest of perpetrators of violence at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) within 24 hours and be brought to justice.

Chidambaram, on behalf of the Congress party, also demanded that accountability on officers be fixed and action taken immediately.

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“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 Central government, Home Minister, LG and Police Commissioner,” the former Finance Minister said at a press briefing.

Chidambaram further termed the hooliganism at JNU as the “gravest act of impunity that the country has seen in recent times”.

“Nothing can be more shocking and shameful,” he said.

Unprecedented violence was witnessed in the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on Sunday as several masked individuals, both male and female, thrashed students, including girls, and teachers inside the campus with wooden and metal rods, injuring at least 34 people.

Further speaking on the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the Congress leader said that the answer to the problem of refugees is not CAA but a humane and non-discriminatory law for refugees.

Speaking on the National Population Register, Chidambaram said that there is a world of difference between NPR 2010 and NPR 2020.

The Congress leader claimed that “NPR 2020 will be conducted all over the country in the background of the disastrous experience of Assam NRC and the discriminatory CAA and the form used will have many additional fields”.

Under the NPR, a census will be conducted from house to house across the country from April 1, 2020, to September 30, 2020, in all the states/union territories, except Assam.

Its aim is to create a database of the comprehensive identity of common residents of the country. This data will also contain biometric information along with demographics.

The NPR is a list of “usual residents” of the country. A “usual resident” is defined for the purposes of NPR as a person who has resided in a local area for the past six months or more or a person who intends to reside in that area for the next six months or more.