Nation will not tolerate insult to mother India: Smriti Irani

Maheish Girri, the BJP Lok Sabha member from East Delhi, on Thursday said he has lodged an FIR against “anti-national” students of Jawaharlal Nehru University who opposed the death penalty to parliament attack convict Afzal Guru. While the act, is largely being seen as an anti-national activity, sparked student resentment on the campus yesterday following which members of Akhila Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) took out a protest rally.

“If anyone raises anti-India slogans, tries to raise questions on country’s unity and integrity, they will not be spared”. Union Minister for Human Resource and Development (HRD) Smriti Irani also echoed similar sentiments, saying that academic institutions have the responsibility of following principles and thereby it should be kept in mind that institutions are respected.

JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar said that the event was not an anti-social activity. ABVP leader Saurav Sharma, JNUSU joint secretary, said his organisation had demanded the “expulsion of everybody who took part in the anti-India march”. “We are demanding expulsion of those who organised it”. Students of this group supposedly raised slogans praising “Shaeed Afzal Guru” and along with this, they also shouted anti-India slogans.

Press Club of India reverberated with pro-Kashmir and anti-slogans in New Delhi on Wednesday when a Delhi University Professor was expressing his views on Kashmir problem, Indian media reported. If that had been mentioned, we would not have allowed it. We were misled.

Earlier today, Home Minister Rajnath Singh asserted that strict action will be taken against the demonstrators and said that “anti-national” elements will not be tolerated. While the administration claimed the “organisers had couched (the event) as a cultural one”, the denial led to clashes between ABVP and Left organisations that supported the organisers. “When I got to know that it is a protest, we chose to cancel the programme as it is administration’s responsibility to ensure peace and calm on campus”.

Meanwhile, police officials said that a complaint in this regard has been received from the agitating students and the matter is being looked into.