NEW DELHI: Flags and banners were put up by a right-wing outfit near the campus of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), with a warning message of “stringent steps” if there was an “insult to saffron”.
The police swiftly moved into action to remove the flags and posters and arrested three the Hindu Sena leaders in connection with the incident that took place a week after a scuffle between the Left backed outfits and the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) inside the JNU campus on the occasion of Ram Navami.
Hindu Sena national president Vishnu Gupta admitted that he along with his leaders had put up the flags across the road leading up to JNU. In a video circulated on WhatsApp, Gupta is purportedly heard saying in Hindi, that saffron is being insulted in the JNU campus on a regular basis.
‘‘We want to warn those who are doing this. Mend your ways. We won’t tolerate this. We respect your ideology and every religion. But insult to saffron will not be tolerated and we might take stringent steps,”
he said. Gupta also regretted that the police removed all the flags as if his outfit had committed a crime. Three of our leaders were unnecessarily arrested, he claimed.
A fringe outfit, the Hindu Sena was in the news last month when it carried out a march in Connaught Place in support of Russia. Earlier, its followers had put up posters on a statue announcing its support for Moscow’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.