Practise your ideology, don't be anti-India: Kiren Rijiju to JNU students

He said that one can criticise the government but should not speak against the nation

A day after Kiren Rijiju credited the victory of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad in the Delhi University Students Union polls to the 'fresh minded' students of the varsity and the win of Left candidates in Jawaharlal Nehru University due to students who are 'romanticised by a discarded ideology, the Minister of State for Home on Monday said he wants students to practice their ideologies, but not be anti-India.

"Be it JNU or DU...they have their own ideology. There is nothing wrong in it. I just said that that there should not be campaign against the nation. Tell your ideology to the people...there is nothing wrong in that but one should not say anything against the nation," Rijiju told media here.

Rijiju said one can say as much as one wants to against the government and the leaders, but one should not speak against the nation.

"No one will like it if someone speaks against the nation. The Central Government does not put charges of sedition...police does that. The maximum number of sedition charges is found in Bihar, Karnataka and Kerala. Where are sedition charges in the BJP-ruled states?" he added.

Rijiju's comments came while reacting to results of the two premier educational institutions in the national capital where results of the students union elections were declared on Saturday.

In Delhi University, the posts of president, vice president and secretary were won by ABVP candidates and the fourth post of Joint Secretary was won by the candidate of NSUI, the student wing of Congress Party. All four key posts in JNU were won by Left Unity candidates.