The Centre on Tuesday said “masked” men involved in the JNU attack will be exposed soon as the Home Ministry has ordered an enquiry into the incident even as it slammed a few “selective “anarchists” raising placard reading “Free Kashmir” in Mumbai.
Talking to reporters on the sidelines of an event, Information & Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar said misunderstandings are deliberately being spread in JNU and others parts of the country to incite violence. He hit out at New York Times (NYT) for a report in which the leading US daily claimed that the attackers at JNU had raised chants of “Jai Shri Ram”.
“I feel that the Home Minister has ordered an enquiry and the masked men involved in the JNU attack will soon be unmasked. Also, misunderstandings are deliberately being spread in JNU and in others parts of the country to incite violence, which will also be exposed,” said Javadekar.
On Sunday, a mob of masked men stormed the JNU campus in south Delhi and systematically targeted students in three hostels, unleashing mayhem with sticks, stones and iron rods, hitting inmates and breaking windows, furniture and personal belongings. They also attacked a women’s hostel.
In a dig at the NYT, Javadekar said it seems the NYT consists of the most “ardent bhakts” of Lord Ram as they seem to find him everywhere. He also said he was waiting to read the newspaper’s report on last week’s violence at a historic Sikh shrine in Pakistan.
The Union Minister’s criticism of the US daily came a day after he hit out at British daily Financial Times for referring to the masked mob that attacked JNU students and teachers as “nationalists”, asking it to stop predicting India’s disintegration at every opportunity.
Tagging screenshots of the NYT report, Javadekar said on Twitter, “It seems @nytimes consists of the most ardent bhakts of Lord Ram as they seem to find him everywhere. On a serious note, waiting to read @nytimes ground reporting of the violence and religious persecution from Shri Nankana Sahib. Which slogans did they hear there?”
In a series of tweets on Monday slamming the British daily, Javadekar had said, “I know it’s a bit too much for you to understand India, but here’s an effort: Stop predicting the breaking apart of India at every possible chance you get. India is a diverse democracy and it has always assimilated all differences to emerge stronger.”
Maintaining that peace has been prevailing and the region is making progress since Article 370 of the Constitution was repealed, Javadekar said, “The entire country is supporting the move... Few selective anarchists are raising such kind of slogans. Nobody even inside Kashmir raised such slogans. Now if someone outside the region gives such slogan that makes no sense.”
For his part senior BJP leader and Union Minority Affairs minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said the ongoing protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act were driven by “pirated propaganda” as the legislation is for providing citizenship and not take it away.
The conspiracy by some people to disturb the secular fabric and unity of the country through the philosophy of “Jhuthmev Jayate (lie will prevail)” will be defeated, Naqvi told reporters here.
Naqvi said the protests influenced by “pirated propaganda” are going on over the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the truth is that the Act will provide citizenship and not to take it away from any person.
Appealing to students and the youth, he said they should not get influenced by “evils of misinformation” and must become a part of the effort to strengthen communal harmony and unity of the country. The constitutional, religious and social rights of every Indian are absolutely safe, he said.