Shotgun Sinha deviates from party stance, says not right to brand anyone 'anti-national'

A day after Union Minister Kiren Rijiju termed anyone who attempted to break the nation as 'anti-national', Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Shatrughan Sinha, known for his outspoken personality said that no one had the right to brand any citizen as such.

"If someone is not satisfied with our views, we must allow them to do so till the time they are moving on the path of development of the nation. We do not have the right to call anyone national or anti-national," Sinha told ANI.

Rijiju had tweeted, "Nobody has the absolute right to define nationalism but anyone who wants to break India, supports Afzal Guru and terrorists is anti-national."

Several other BJP leaders have also dubbed students of the University demanding freedom of speech and expression as anti-national and separatists, supporting separation of Kashmir and Bastar from India.

Sinha also expressed disappointment towards the manner in which the issue has been handled, and said that violence is not the correct approach for reaching a conclusion.

"One thing is to be understood that in a democracy, anyone who does not agree with you is not your enemy. Everyone has the right to put forward their views and ideas. If you do not agree with someone's views, there are procedures for reaching at a conclusion, but violence is not an answer," he said.

The above statements come in light of the unrest prevailing in the Delhi University following disruption of a cultural event at Ramjas College that featured student leader Umar Khalid as a speaker.

Khalid had been accused of raising anti-national slogans at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in February last year.