Goa: BJP leader defends Delhi cops for Jamia varsity action

Former South Goa BJP MP Narendra Sawaikar on Monday defended the action of Delhi Police to enter the Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) university campus on Sunday to quell protests against the new citizenship law.

Speaking to reporters, Sawaikar suggested that the students might have resorted to violence.

Following arson on roads in Delhi against new citizenship law, police had stormed into the JMI campus, where tension prevailed as several persons were detained for alleged involvement in the violence.

The police crackdown against the students has come under all-round flak.

"Police will not simply enter the campus of a varsity unless the situation demands their intervention. The situation was so much tensed that the police had to enter the (JMI) university campus. You cannot say that police resorted to violence, it may be the other way round," the BJP leader said.

Sawaikar said communal issues should not be raked up on campuses of educational institutes.

He accused the Congress and other Opposition parties of creating confusion and misleading people over the amended act, which grants citizenship to persecuted religious minorities who have come to India until December 31, 2014 from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, excluding Muslims.

"Besides working on development and good governance, the BJP-led government at the Centre is also correcting the historical wrongs done in the past," he said referring to the amended law.

He further said that laws on abolishing triple Talaq among Muslims and the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) are actually aimed at empowering people, especially minority communities.

Sawaikar demanded action against the Congress party, which he said was trying to divide people on "communal lines".