Ramjas row: Motivated campaign blown out of proportion by Congress, says BJP

Verma said the Congress is trying to give a political tinge to a situation which was strictly about the internal matters of students.
Police detaining ABVP activists after their clash with AISA students at Delhi University. | PTI
Police detaining ABVP activists after their clash with AISA students at Delhi University. | PTI

BENGALURU: Coming down heavily on the Congress Party for blaming the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of suppressing the right to dissent in regard to the recent violent clashes in Ramjas College, the ruling dispensation on Wednesday accused the grand old party of blowing the situation out of proportion in view of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections and called it a “motivated campaign”.
 
In a veiled attack to the Congress Party, BJP leader S. Prakash told ANI that the parties which stood with Umar Khalid, Kanhaiya Kumar are now with the same forces in the Delhi University.
 
“After disturbing the peaceful atmosphere of JNU by the separatist elements now they have moved over to Delhi University to create confusion and mediate the atmosphere there. It is very unfortunate that
a student’s remark is creating a huge controversy and several political parties jumping into the fray in support of the people who have insulted the martyrs. A small incident is repeatedly blown out of
proportion in view of Uttar Pradesh election…earlier it was Bihar election. But this motivated campaign is sure to backfire,” he added.
 
Echoing similar sentiments, another BJP leader Sudesh Verma alleged that the Congress leaders have lost at the national level and are trying to make themselves relevant by trying to join the students.
 
“When they are protesting they should be allowed and there should be no political interference. The way things are going it seems that there is a wider political design to create trouble all across the
campuses in the country. The same way as they have created boggy out of India being intolerant and the award wapsi brigade has come out. This is the same pattern,” he said.
 
Verma said the Congress is trying to give a political tinge to a situation which was strictly about the internal matters of students.
 
“These people can always fight with us ideologically we are read and we have won the elections coz we have won the ideological fights. They are losing the narratives. But we will not tolerate when
anybody talks about disintegration of India. We are committed to the nationalist cause.   And our people will definitely oppose any such slogans raised anywhere in the country,” he added.
 
A war of words erupted between the BJP and the Congress-Left parties amidst hundreds of university students and teachers taking out a protest march against ABVP today as a row over free speech
gathered pace.
 
The BJP claimed that the Congress and the Communists were "disturbing" the atmosphere of varsities and "supporting anti-nationals".
 
The Congress and the CPI (M), however, alleged that it was the saffron party which was "curbing" the freedom of speech and "unreasonably" imposing their ideologies on others.
 
Hundreds of students and teachers hit the streets of Delhi University on Tuesday afternoon to protest against campus violence as more political leaders and sportspeople joined the swirling nationalism
row.
 
A crowd of about 2,000 -- comprising peoplr from several DU colleges and other city universities -- marched from SGTB Khalsa College to arts faculty, shouting slogans against the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) that allegedly thrashed several students last week.
 
The march gained further prominence as a political slugfest has erupted after Gurmehar Kaur, a student of Lady Shri Ram College, started a campaign against the ABVP.
 
Prominent among those who attended the march were CPI-M General Secretary Sitaram Yechury, CPI leader D Raja, JD (U) leader Thyagi and Swaraj India president Yogendra Yadav. In addition to students
and teachers from JNU, Jamia Milia Islamia, Ambedkar University and various others, former JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar and ex-vice president of JNUSU Shehla Rashid Shora attended the event.
 

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