Defending the Government on the recent incidents at JNU and Hyderabad University, BJP member in Rajya Sabha Bhupendra Yadav on Thursday argued that the JNU incident reflected “freedom of speech” or “speech for freedom.”
“Anti-national activities cannot be allowed on the JNU campus in the name of freedom of speech. Universities form future generation...We cannot allow anyone to plant seeds to divide the nation there,” he said while waving the pamphlets allegedly distributed in JNU campus which mentioned Afzal Guru and Maqbool Butt as martyrs and quoted certain speeches by students that had mentions of Kashmir. This prompted Congress members Anand Sharma and left leader Sitaram Yechury questioning the authenticity of the allegations based on pamphlets. The agitated members were pacified by leader of the House Arun Jaitley who intervened to say that Yadav will authenticate these.
However, Yadav went on to say: “The Indian culture showed respect and was tolerant towards all whether it was Rishi Charvak or Jainism. But if a cultural event aimed at dividing the nation is organised in JNU, the administration has every right to interfere.”