Nitish flays Centre for booking JNUSU chief on sedition charge

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today attacked the Centre on the arrest of JNU Students' Union president on sedition charge saying it was "too much of a design" to impose the ideology of ABVP, the student wing of the RSS, on the nation.
He claimed it was "like imposing Emergency" in the country.
"It's too much of a design to impose ideology of ABVP, which is the student wing of RSS in educational institutions," Kumar told reporters after 'Janata Ke Darbar Mein Mukhya Mantri' programme.
The senior JD(U) leader joined the Left parties and Congress in asking Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to show evidence of JNUSU president raising anti-India slogans to justify booking him on sedition charges and that Lashkar-e- Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed supported the JNU stir.

Kumar said JNU has its own distinct culture where students practise varied ideologies.
"The BJP-led NDA government is unnecessarily trying to change the identity of JNU by imposing its own brand of thinking," he said.

"For them the ideology of RSS is nationalism and those who do not believe in that, are anti-nationals," he said.
The Chief Minister said he had met JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar, who hails from Bihar's Begusarai district, in the past and that he has a strong belief in the Left ideology, "but can't be an anti-national."
Attacking the BJP, Kumar said "The saffron party should explain if attending ceremony on Nathuram Godse, killer of Mahatma Gandhi, by BJP leaders is example of nationalism?"

"Or BJP general secretary Ram Madhav meeting an Independent MLA in Jammu and Kashmir (Engineer Rashid) who organised many events in memory of Afzal Guru, is a display of nationalism?" he asked.
Kumar alleged the BJP was trying to impose its own ideology on the nation by "gagging ideological freedom of others" as the Union Government has failed on the economic front and has nothing to show to the country.
"People who voted for BJP have seen their performance and will pack them out of power in the 2019 elections," Kumar added.