The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is hoping to reap political benefits from the JNU controversy. The party leadership has asked Cabinet ministers to prepare strategies to keep the issue alive.
The BJP has also decided to raise the JNU row “very aggressively” in Parliament as they believe that there is no reason for the party to be “defensive” about the development and there is support for its stand on the issue among the masses.
According to party insiders, the BJP strategy will be to project it as a movement to protect the country from anti-national forces. The party is also launching a three-day ‘Jan Swabhimaan Abhiyan’ (campaign for peoples’ self-pride) from Thursday in which party leaders and workers will try to build up public opinion against the alleged anti-national activities in the central varsity.
“It’s the part of the BJP’s game plan that top brass of the party have come out in open to counter the charges of opposition parties by making it a national versus anti-national issue,” a party insider said, adding that party is hoping for substantial gains in the upcoming assembly elections in Assam and West Bengal by raking up the anti-national issue.
Commenting on the issue, political commentator Arvind Mohan said, “There is no doubt that BJP got an edge when the party had released the video in which anti-India slogans were being raised by the JNU students or whosoever were present on that occasion. But it won’t translate into votes during assembly elections.”