Union human resources development minister Smriti Irani insisted on making a descriptive reference to a pamphlet — remarks which were considered derogatory by the Opposition benches — in the Rajya Sab
Union human resources development minister Smriti Irani insisted on making a descriptive reference to a pamphlet — remarks which were considered derogatory by the Opposition benches — in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday, saying it was imperative to counter the charge levelled against her. Responding to objections, deputy chairman P.J. Kurien said she had authenticated what she had said. “What can I do,” he said. With the Opposition remaining unrelenting, he adjourned the House till Friday.
Earlier, the HRD minister contended that the JNU row as well as Hyderabad university dalit scholar Rohith Vemula’s suicide were being projected wrongly to target her and quoted Macbeth, saying “fair is foul, foul is fair”. She also rejected the charge of saffronisation of education and, to buttress her point, she cited the case of the wife of a Left MP appointed by the NDA government as an ICHR member.
She hit back at the Congress, saying its government appointed a former NSUI president as the Haryana Central University V-C and also referred to other political appointments by the UPA regime.
To Congress’ criticism of her action against certain vice-chancellors, she said the Visvabharati University V-C was removed by the President after an inquiry indicted him on charges of sexual misconduct. She recalled that the TMC as well as Left members had written to her demanding action against him.
She also took a dig at Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M) over his attack on her on Rohith Vemula’s suicide in Hyderabad Central University. Ms Irani read from Vemula’s Facebook posts in which he criticised the Left for the absence of dalits in its leadership.
She also rejected the charge that the police had never entered JNU before the recent row, saying in 2009, during UPA rule, the police had entered the campus and lath-charged students. With regard to the row over anti-national slogans, she said a JNU report had named the accused students.
Earlier in the day, Union finance minister Arun Jaitley trained his guns at Mr Rahul Gandhi, suggesting that his visit to the campus in the aftermath of the controversial protest amounted to providing “respectability” to a movement whose charter was to break India. He also suggested in the Rajya Sabha that the Congress, jointly with the Left parties, had jumped into the issue “without giving it prior thought” in view of the upcoming Assembly elections in West Bengal.
Jaitley, a lawyer-turned-politician, defended the police entering JNU, arguing that the campus was not “sovereign territory” like some foreign embassy. Seeking to turn the tables on the Congress, he cited a Parliament question of 1983 in which the then Indira Gandhi government had justified the entry of police into JNU and the arrest of 350 students, including 50 girls, after the vice-chancellor was gheraoed.
He contended that the developments of February 9 in JNU were “much more serious” as he read out the pamphlets carrying anti-India material which were circulated on the campus. “The core question is, are we going to give respectability to those whose primary ideology is that they want to break this country,” Mr Jaitley said while intervening in the debate on “Situation Arising out of Recent Incidents in Institutions of Higher Education with Reference to JNU and University of Hyderabad”.
Referring to slogans which called for war, for the destruction of the country, and lauded terrorists who had been convicted by the highest judiciary, Mr Jaitley said: “Can hate speech be called free speech ” He noted that being a mainstream party, the Congress does not have a history of supporting the “fringe”.
Suggesting that Congress had done so in view of the West Bengal polls, he quipped, “The tragedy of Bengal is that there are three Congress parties — the Congress, the Trinamul Congress and Congress Marxist.” Trinamul leader Derek O’Brien took objection to this, reminding him that his party was separate since 1998.
Mr Jaitley asked the Opposition parties not to “camouflage” the offence at JNU, saying, “It’s a very serious offence... One is jihadist, the other is Maoist. It’s an alliance of the two. You have been in power for long, you should have thought before making a visit to the JNU campus.”
In an apparent reference to Mr Gandhi’s visit to the JNU campus, the finance minister said, “Some people think before they act, but this was an incident in which the Congress took their step first and thought about it later.”
Meanwhile, participating in the debate, Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad questioned whether action should not be taken against media organisations which had run videos which were apparently misleading. Asserting that his party was for punishing the guilty, he said it appeared that somebody had shouted slogans but the videos appeared to be implicating someone else. He said action should be taken, even if such a media organisation is close to a party, and a case of sedition filed against those who tried to create divisions, whether it was a channel or a person.
Referring to the reported resignation of a TV channel employee, Mr Azad asked whether such media organisations divide the country as per news which suits them. He also accused the BJP of shielding its MLA and lawyers affiliated with the party who allegedly indulged in violence in the Patiala House court complex. Mr Azad also claimed that the BJP was on a weak wicket vis-à-vis Congress on the issue of nationalism as his party has a long and illustrious history. “Those who live in glass houses don’t throw stones at others,” he said.
Asking the Narendra Modi government to stop interfering in universities set up under Central laws, CPI(M)’s Sitaram Yechury accused the government of trying to replace Indian history with Hindu mythology. Participating in the debate in the Rajya Sabha, Mr Yechury demanded that a House committee be set up to look into the JNU incidents and the suicide of Hyderabad university scholar Rohith Vemula. “Please do not castigate the entire student community and the institutions,” he said, adding, “Stop this tirade for advancing your brand of nationalism.” He termed the government’s “interference” in some universities was “illegal”.
