Rahul Gandhi: NDA suppressing students’ voice

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday accused the NDA government of “suppressing” the voice of students, saying, “They will not understand that in crushing you, they are making you stronger.”

Mr Gandhi visited the JNU campus to express solidarity with them a day after the arrest of JNU Students’ Union president Kanhaiya Kumar in a sedition case. Accompanied by Congress deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha Anand Sharma and Delhi PCC chief Ajay Maken, Mr Gandhi interacted with the agitating students and lauded the university for representing free voice.

Drawing parallels between the action against students in JNU and events leading to the suicide of dalit scholar Rohith Vemula at Hyderabad University, he said the question is why a student is “not allowed to say what he believes in”. Noting that India is progressing because more and more people are raising their voice, he said everybody has the right to disagree.

Making repeated references to Vemula’s suicide and targeting the government, especially HRD minister Smriti Irani on the issue, he said, “A youngster expresses his views and the government says he is anti-national. Later the minister turns around and says you are not even a dalit.”

In a speech marked by frequent disruptions, Mr Gandhi said he would be happy to see even people from the RSS and BJP express their opinion. “We respect voices that are raised in front of our voice. We also respect what is raised behind our back,” he said.

Training his guns on the government, he said, “They will not understand that in crushing you, they are making you stronger.”

Invoking Adolf Hitler, Mr Gandhi said the suppressing of the people’s voice by the Nazi dictator left Germany in rubble. “We do not have problems if RSS and BJP want to express their opinion. We just want to tell them if they will listen to us, they will be convinced by us... They are simply crushing voices,” Mr Gandhi said.

His visit was opposed by ABVP members who waved black flags when he spoke. Taking note of it, he said, “People who showed black flags in my face, I feel proud that in my country they have the right to show black flags.”

Meanwhile, under attack from the BJP in the JNU row, the Congress on Saturday hit back, accusing the Narendra Modi dispensation of being “anti-JNU”.

“This govt is anti-JNU and wants to shut down the Univ. They’re using this as a trigger to target Left-liberal & progressive forces,” Congress spokesman Manish Tewari tweeted. In an apparent reference to the arrest of JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar, Mr Tewari said, “Law of sedition is very clear & they’ll never be able to substantiate charges under the sedition law.” Mr Tiwari insisted that “freedom of speech and expression is circumscribed by reasonable restriction”.