BJP slams Rahul Gandhi for 'jumping into war without preparation'

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday accused Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi of directing his party's youth wing, the NSUI, to stage a protest outside Union Human Resource and Development (HRD) Minister Smriti Irani's residence.

"It is absolutely a sorry state of affair to see to it that Rahul Gandhi without much preparation jumps into a war and we have seen very recently as to how Rahul Gandhi directed the student wing of Congress (NSUI) to hold a protest outside the HRD Minister's home," BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra told ANI here.

"Despite the fact that the HRD Minister well within its ambit of functioning had only asked for the comments from the IIT director and IIT being an autonomous institute had taken a decision in keeping with the guidelines that are laid down in the IIT campus. What Rahul Gandhi did reeks of politics of revenge," he added.

The Congress vice-president had yesterday criticized the move to ban a student group in IIT-Madras for allegedly questioning Prime Minister Narendra Modi's policies and said that his party would fight any attempt to crush debate in the country.

The official twitter handle of Gandhi's office shared his thoughts.

"IIT student group banned for criticizing Modi Government. What next?" it posted.

"Free speech is our right. We will fight any attempt to crush dissent and debate," it added.

The Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, had on Friday justified its decision to ban a student group, clarifying that the body was merely 'temporarily derecognised' for violating guidelines of the institute.

IIT Madras had earlier de-recognised the Ambedkar-Periyar Study Circle over an anonymous complaint to the central government that it was trying to spread hatred towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi's policies by distributing provocative pamphlets and posters in the campus, igniting a massive controversy.

The acting director of the institute, Professor K. Ramamurthy, said the group had not been working according to the guidelines issued by the represented body.

Ramamurthy added that the Dean of the institute has asked the students' group to present their stand.