Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said the JNU row and the violence in Patiala House courts are a “blot” on India’s image and asserted that nationalism runs in his blood, a rebuke to BJP for its “anti-national” jibe at him.
Rahul led a delegation of Congress leaders and called on President Pranab Mukhejree and sought his intervention for immediate action to “check the state of lawlessness and subversion of democratic rights”. In his memorandum to the President, Rahul mentioned that RSS was trying to impose its “flawed” and “dead” ideology on the students of the country but his party will not allow it.
The Congress delegation told the President that it was a matter of concern that journalists, students and teachers are being physically assaulted inside and outside the court premises by a BJP legislator and workers “while the police look the other way and the government remains complacent and silent”.
Speaking to the media after submitting a memorandum to Mukherjee, the Congress vice-president also referred to the suicide by Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula in Hyderabad and accused the Hindutva organisation of “crushing” him. “It is not the Government’s job to destroy institutions .... Bad signals have been sent out in India and abroad. It is a blot on the country’s image,” he said.
Rahul also hit back on BJP chief Amit Shah who had called him “supporting traitors”. “Nationalism is in my blood. I have seen my family making sacrifices again and again for this country,” he said. A day earlier the party has termed a Jungle Raaj prevailing in the national Capital.
“It is not the Government’s job to destroy our educational institutions and crush expression of all students. Across the country, RSS is trying to impose a flawed ideology on the students of this country,” he said.
Besides the leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad, the delegation included leader of the party in lok Sabha Mallikarun Kharge, Deputy leader in Rajya Sabha Anand Sharma besides senior leaders Shiela Dixit, Randeep Surjewala Ajay Maken and Manish Tewari.
The Congress delegation told the President that despite a “direct order” from the Supreme Court to ensure adequate security outside Patiala House court, the Government has “refused” to prevent attacks on journalists and students. The Supreme Court-appointed panel to assess the situation was itself subjected to abuse and assault.
“Such lawlessness in defiance of a Supreme Court directive on two occasions by the same set of people, some of whom are identified with the ruling dispensation on various fora, cannot be but without the tacit support, encouragement or at best, the indifference of the ruling establishment”, said the memorandum.
Alleging that across the country, whether in JNU or Hyderabad Central University, in FTII and other places of learning, students are being “bullied and threatened”, the delegation told the President that “As the patron of Universities, we call upon you to protect their freedom and uphold the values that built our nation”.
The Congress heir apparent also referred to the suicide by Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula in Hyderabad and accused the Government of “crushing” him. Former Union Minister Salman Khurshid termed the decision of the Delhi Police to slap sedition charges on JNU students’ union president Kanhaiya Kumar a “clear case of over-reaction”.