Ramjas violence triggers heated debate in Delhi assembly

The violence at Ramjas College reverberated in the Delhi assembly on Tuesday, with the ruling AAP and opposition BJP legislators getting into a heated debate over "supporting anti-nationals".

The rape threats issued to Delhi University student Gurmehar Kaur were denounced by Delhi Tourism Minister Kapil Mishra.

Chandni Chowk legislator Alka Lamba started the discussion in the assembly and played the video of Gurmehar Kaur, in which she holds placards against the violence in the Delhi University, including the one saying: "Pakistan did not kill my father, but war did."

Kaur had launched a social media campaign against the RSS's students wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).

The opposition lawmakers loudly objected to playing the video in the assembly.

While the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members accused the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) of supporting Kaur and JNU students Umar Khalid and Kanhaiya Kumar -- both accused of sedition -- the AAP in turn accused the BJP of instigating violence in universities by having ABVP activists raise anti-national slogans.

Delhi Tourism and Culture Minister Kapil Mishra, raising the issue of Gurmehar Kaur, said that the "morale of soldiers protecting the borders goes down when the daughter of a martyr gets rape threats".

Mishra also said that the morale of soldiers is lowered when a trooper demanding implementation of the One Rank-One Pension (OROP) scheme has to commit suicide and another has to post a video on social media for getting a proper meal.

"The politics of finding traitors within the nation should be ended," Mishra said.

He also asked why the people who had raised anti-national slogans in the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) were not yet arrested despite the central government having all powers and agencies at its command.

"They (BJP and ABVP) sent their own people to raise anti-national slogans and fled the scene. They are never going to be caught," Mishra said.

Lamba, while addressing the house on the issue, said that such incidents were vitiating the atmosphere in the university and college campuses.

"Such incidents indicate that a big conspiracy of spreading hatred and dirty politics on the campuses is being hatched," she added.

Reacting to Lamba's speech, Leader of Opposition Vijender Gupta said "anti-national slogans were raised in Ramjas College by a group of students from JNU" after the college administration denied permission to a seminar where Khalid was to speak.

"Whenever such anti-national slogans are raised in the country, moral of the soldier guarding the nation's borders goes down," Gupta said.

"Gurmehar is a kid. She should have been made to realise that it was Pakistan which unleashed war on India," Gupta said.

--IANS

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