Accusing JNU of providing “legitimacy to anti-India forces”, RSS organ Panchajanya said: “Jawaharlal Nehru promoted higher educational and research institutions as factories of socialist ideology whic
Accusing JNU of providing “legitimacy to anti-India forces”, RSS organ Panchajanya said: “Jawaharlal Nehru promoted higher educational and research institutions as factories of socialist ideology which could provide the intellectual input for his and later Indira Gandhi’s social and economic agenda.”
The RSS journal said JNU’s tendency of relying on the state for resources (JNU is a Central university funded by the government) “is nothing but capitalism masquerading as socialism and even Maoism”.
The JNU Students’ Union (JNUSU) took on the RSS over the attack on the university. “We condemn the highly regressive comments by the RSS made against JNU students at a time when students are at the forefront of a national movement against the government’s decision to scrap non-NET fellowships... The JNU’s composition reflects the character of our society, as women and students from marginalised sections and backward districts are duly represented. This goes against the way the RSS imagines Indian society, that is, as a ‘Hindu Rashtra’,” a JNUSU statement said.
Condemning Panchjanya’s comment, JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar said JNU was a place where people with different ideologies did critical thinking to get the different perspectives, but every one was a nationalist. “Seeing the thing differently does not mean an individual or an institution is anti national. If we are fighting for ‘equality to all’ ... which in RSS understanding is an anti-national activity ... so I want to say that yes, we are, and we don’t want any certificate of ‘nationalist’ from the agent of Britishers, Hitler, Mussolini and USA,” added Mr Kumar. He demanded an apology from Panchjanya’s editor on the matter.
Congress leader Manish Tewari came down heavily on the RSS organ, saying the university should sue it for defamation.
