Maoist supporters decried for attempts at break-up of country

A group of right-wing activists on Friday slammmed Maoist supporters for attempting to "break up the country" and called for reclaiming the space in higher education from academics with Maoist/Leninist ideology.

They voiced their views at a seminar on 'Urban Naxals' at the Hansraj College of Delhi University by a body named 'Group of Intellectuals and Academics'.

"We all have gone through intellectual terrorism. First, in schools, where we are taught that Shaheed Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, Sukhdev were militants, were terrorists... then in university, where we get to study books from the likes of Wendy Doniger and A.K. Ramanujan, who wrote that Sita was born of (demon king) Ravana's sneeze.

"And then, when we oppose them, there are lawyers and journalists and Professors on TV who are ready to defend them... there's a method in how this ecosystem is maintained," Supreme Court lawyer Monica Arora said.

She said academics with Naxalite ideology have controlled the academia for long and they need to be exposed, while condemning leftist students' agitation "inspired and funded by Naxalites" in Hyderabad University, Jawaharlal Nehru University and Jadhavpur University in the past.

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh pracharak and Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad activist Sunil Ambekar said that the "nerve centre" of naxalism is not the tribal regions but Delhi, adding that it's a big web of "money, corruption, and weapons".

Documentary filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri, a journalist and a few academics also spoke on the issue.

There were allegations that two Hansraj College students were not allowed inside the venue.

"Two students from Hansraj College were asked to come out from the auditorium as the seminar began. They were not given any reason. When they approached the administration they were told that the organisers had booked the auditorium and that they have no say in the matter," a volunteer for student group Youth for Swaraj told IANS.

--IANS

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