JNU row: Govt, Oppn slugfest turns ugly

Targeting Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, Shah said that there was no confusion that the slogans raised in JNU were anti-national and unfortunate. 

“BJP condemns anti-national slogans that were raised. I want to ask Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi that if this is not anti-national then what is. I want to ask Congress and Rahul Gandhi if they support sedition in the name of freedom of expression.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party chief Amit Shah met on Monday to take stock of the situation following the police action on the JNU campus. Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj met Modi at his residence, though party sources said that the leaders discussed issues other than JNU also.

“Are you not encouraging traitors by protesting in support of these anti-nationals? Does he want another division of India by giving a free run to separatists in the name of freedom of expression?,” Shah wrote in his blog.

Rahul rebutted the charges while speaking in Assam during a party meeting saying, “The BJP and RSS want that everybody should follow their views. They are following an agenda of creating divide and hatred, as can be seen from the recent developments in JNU, by imposing their views forcibly on people. They find terrorism everywhere, even in universities and brand anybody who does not agree with their views as terrorists.”

Endorsing Congress president’s viewpoint, Former CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat accused the NDA government’s top machinery of “directing crisis” at JNU. He said universities across the country have been under siege and there have been constant attempts to “impose ideological hegemony” on universities. Karat, an ex-JNUSU president visited JNU campus to express solidarity with the protesting students.

Meanwhile, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday faced renewed calls from opposition parties to give proof for his claim that the Afzal Guru event at JNU campus received support from LeT founder Hafiz Saeed even as Delhi police said it has so far found “no evidence” in this regard. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar urged Rajnath Singh to show evidence to back up his claim that Saeed, the founder of the Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba(LeT), supported the event at the JNU campus to protest the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru on his third death anniversary on February 9.

On the other hand, terming JNU Students’ Union President Kanhaiya Kumar’s arrest on charges of sedition a “political conspiracy,” Bahaujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Monday accused the Narendra Modi government of misusing the law as a tool to target opponents and declaring them anti-national.

A Delhi Court on Monday extended Kanhaiya Kumar’s police custody by two days. The Delhi Court will on Tuesday hear the plea seeking National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe in the sedition case leveled against Kumar.

Violence broke out at the court earlier when JNU teachers, students and journalists were allegedly attacked by lawyers when a scuffle broke outside the court. JNU Vice Chancellor Jagadeesh Kumar appealed to protesting students to return to their classes and said an inquiry into the Afzal Guru event would be completed by February 25.