Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi accused the Modi Government and RSS of crushing voices of dissent of college and university students across the country and pitched for a law to protect them from “discrimination” and “suppression”.
While the party criticised President Pranab Mukherjee’s address in Parliament and termed it a “big disappointment”, Rahul slammed the Government for not including difficulties being faced by students of universities in the President’s address.
lending his support to hundreds of students, who took out a march demanding justice for Hyderabad University research scholar Rohith Vemula and Kanhaiya Kumar, the JNU student arrested on charges of sedition, Rahul said the country need a law to ensure that students in colleges and universities do not face discrimination and their voice is not stifled.
Accusing the Centre of muzzling the voice of students across universities in the country if they differ with ideology of RSS, Rahul said the Congress will fight for bringing a law to check such “suppression”. He alleged that the Government was trying to suppress not only the youths but also the Adivasis, Dalits and other weaker sections.
“We don’t want an India where an ideology is imposed upon us. We are fighting for it. RSS people want India to have one ideology, but we want an India of multiple voices and multiple ideologies,” said Rahul.
“This is RSS’ ideology. They keep speaking about what happened in the past. They don’t talk about the future. Rohith was talking about the present and the future. I heard President’s address in Parliament. He spoke about Government’s achievement but nothing on Rohith issue, what’s happening in the universities,” said Rahul. The protesters included students from various universities including Hyderabad University.
The Congress said the President’s address in Parliament was a “big disappointment” and there was “nothing new” to offer to the public. “There was nothing new in the speech. It was full of slogans like ‘sabka saath, sabka vikas’. There was nothing which will give any relief to the people. The atmosphere is tense in the country. There was nothing on this and also no mention of tension with neighbouring countries,” Rajya Sabha member Rajiv Shukla said outside Parliament.
“Everything is cliche, same thing we are hearing again and again. It is a big disappointment. There are other problems like price rise, problems with neighbouring countries. There was nothing on these issues,” he said.
On Swachchh and Swasth Bharat campaigns, Shukla said, “We are hearing this for the last one year and 10 months. Even Swachchh cess has been collected but nothing is visible on the ground. You will find filth in every nook and corner.”