New Delhi, March 26

Both Hyderabad Central University (HCU) and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) events were ultra-Left movements that also saw a small section of jihadis involved, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Sunday.

He claimed the “seditious” event at JNU on February 9 involved the ultra-Left, with a smattering of “jihadists”, leading to “antinational” activities witnessed on campus.

BR Ambedkar’s name was unfairly used at the events witnessed on the HCU campus after Dalit research scholar Rohith Vemula’s suicide, Jaitley claimed at an interview with PTI.

"The moderate Left and the Congress had got trapped into what was otherwise a movement of the ultra-Left," the minister said.

The union minister’s said the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) won the first round of what he dubbed an “ideological challenge”.

"This was an ideological positioning and we have made our point. On this battle I don't think we can lose."

"I think there is a section in this country that does not find the nationalism discourse very fascinating. So it wants to divert the issue. It is not compulsory in this country to raise a patriotic slogan. But it becomes an issue only when somebody says ‘I take objection and I will not say it’," he said in an apparent reference to a declaration made by Majlis MP Asaduddin Owaisi.

The finance minister however dodged a question on whether the provision on sedition was being abused, only saying: “It is a legal issue and I would not like to get into it. That is a matter of individual culpability. Whether Kanhaiya Kumar is technically liable, what sections should he be prosecuted for and whether he should be prosecuted or not. … I do not want to prejudice trial”.

"There are slogans being raised that this country will be broken up by 'jung' (war). We will break up this country by jung. And an individual goes and participates in this unlawful assembly where this resolve is being made. So whether he is legally liable or not, is a question which courts will have to look into," he said.

He also criticised “mainstream parties” such as the Congress for joining what he dubbed an “unlawful assembly”.

"In Parliament, I had said there are two types of people — ones who think first and then act and the other who act first and then think. Congress leaders took the latter course. They went, joined and preached that this 'break up of this country' slogan was free speech and that they were defending the right to free speech,” he said.

The minister also said although he wasn’t against university students “flirting” with “radical” ideas, they must know when to stop.

"You can give that a licence But I think having said that somehow to speak in terms of 'desh ki barbadi, desh ke tukde, tukde', I think this crossed all limits," he said.

The remarks came a day after he claimed the BJP taught some people the meaning of nationalism.

Vemulu — a student leader of Ambedkar Students’ Association — was one of the five students suspended by HCU from university hostels for allegations of having beaten a student leader of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). Vemulu was found hanging in a hostel room on January 17. Students blamed his death on the university vice-chancellor and two union ministers, Bandaru Dattareya and Smriti Irani.

Kanhaiya Kumar was one of the five students who faced sedition charges for “antinational” activities for an event organised to mark Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru’s third death anniversary. He and two other students arrested after him have been released on bail.

The two events sent ripples across the nation and divided public opinion. — Agencies