Ready to hear 'alternative' JNU voice: Centre

As the controversy over JNU protests escalates, the government on Wednesday said it was "ready" to hear an "eloquent, powerful and constructive alternative voice" from the university.

"Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) is a premier institution of India. There is also a very eloquent, powerful & constructive alternative voice in JNU, (the) country is equally eager to hear that," union Communications and Information Technology minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told the media here.

The minister praised the varsity that has "produced outstanding civil servants, great academicians and public figures".

The university has been on the boil over the arrest of JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar after some students organised a meet to mark the anniversaries of executions of parliament attack convict Afzal Guru and Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front co-founder Maqbool Bhat. Anti-India slogans were raised at the gathering.

Delhi Police last Thursday registered a sedition case and arrested Kanhaiya Kumar. He, however, denied raising the anti-India slogans.

Earlier in the day, the senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader said his party legislator in Delhi O.P. Sharma "should not have taken law into his own hands and not resorted to violence" ahead of a court appearance of JNUSU students' union president Kanhaiya Kumar.

He said the law will take its own course against Sharma and that the party could not possibly condone his actions.

Speaking to India Today TV, Prasad justified the action taken by Delhi Police against the JNU students, saying the Narendra Modi government "will not tolerate anti-national activities of any kind on campus".

He also justified invoking of sedition charges against Kanhaiya Kumar.