No government interference in police action in JNU row: Rajnath

Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday denied the charges that government was interfering in police functioning over the JNU row while assuring the house that no innocent student will be harassed into the matter.

"We don't consider JNU as a centre of anti-nationals and there was no interference of the government in police functioning. Police is working in an impartial manner," Singh said in the Lok Sabha while replying to a debate on the situation arising out of recent incidents in institutions of Higher education with reference to JNU and Hyderabad University.

"We will not allow any student to be harassed," he added.

The home minister, however, also said freedom of speech and expression is not unbridled and anybody who breaches the limit will not be spared.

"In his life as student if someone opposes atrocities, it is freedom of speech and expression and no one should have objection to it but if anyone breaches the limit, he will not be spared," Singh said.

Singh said sedition case against Jawaharlal Nehru Student Union President Kanhaiya Kumar was not a topic of debate in parliament and will be decided by court only.

He also condemned the violence in Patiala House Court in Delhi during hearing of sedition case against Kanhaiya Kumar, stating those indulged in violence in the court would not be spared.

Singh also justified his earlier statement in connection with the event organised at JNU campus on February 9 in which anti-India slogans were raised.

"What I had said in the matter was based on facts," he said.