The BJP on Saturday hit out at the Congress for its role in changing the affidavit in Ishrat Jahan case and its vice-president Rahul Gandhi who had visited JNU in support of a student leader arrested on charges of sedition and asked the Opposition party whether anti-national slogans can be dubbed freedom of speech.
In Vrindavan, BJP chief Amit Shah attacked Congress over the JNU row, saying it should be “ashamed” of Rahul Gandhi’s visit to the campus. Addressing a meeting of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, BJP’s youth wing, he said the JNU row was about the party’s core issue of nationalism and invoked its Ram Janambhumi campaign to buttress his point.
“A strange atmosphere has been created. Anti-national slogans are being projected as freedom of expression... Congress should be ashamed that its vice president goes to the campus and says these (slogans) should be heard as there is freedom of expression. “If these slogans are freedom of expression, then what is treasonIJ” he said seeking Congress chief Sonia Gandhi’s views on whether she agrees with her son on this.
Shah asked party workers to work hard to ensure that it remains in power at the Centre for 25 years so that India could become the ‘vishwaguru’ as it was not possible in five years. For his part, Union Minister VK Singh targeted JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar for calling Rohith Vemula his inspiration, alleging that the Dalit scholar had organised a meeting in support of Mumbai blasts convict Yakub Memon.
“I read in newspapers today that a JNU student leader says that he does not draw inspiration from Afzal Guru but Rohith Vemula. I told myself that Rohith Vemula too had organised a meeting for Yakub Memon. Are we with those people who encourage terrorism and who abuse IndiaIJ” he told the BJYM convention.
Singh called upon the youth workers to spread nationalism and tell people how to take the country ahead when “fissiparous forces” are at work. In New Delhi, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar took a swipe at Rahul asking him to answer why his party changed the affidavit in Ishrat Jahan case and also where the “beneficiaries” of spectrum and coal scams have hidden their black money.
“The entire country is asking the question to Rahul Gandhi, which he has not answered. Firstly, why did his party change affidavit in Ishrat Jahan case and the person who was a terrorist in the first month, how did she become innocent in the second month,” he said.
Accusing Gandhi of tearing papers related to decisions taken by the Union Cabinet when his party was in power, Javadekar wondered why the Congress leader “did not tear papers related to spectrum and coal allocations”.
“He (Rahul) tore apart many decisions of the Cabinet. Why did he not tear (decisions on) spectrum and coal allocationIJ He is asking about blackmoney. First he has to give information where the beneficiaries of the coal and spectrum scam have stashed away their money,” Javadekar said.