JNU row: Irani condemns protest, student leader held

Denouncing the protest march in the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani on Friday said that the nation will never tolerate "insult" to Mother India.

"I only want to say that today is the day of worship of Goddess Saraswati. Saraswati blesses every family that whatever they speak is for progress and strengthening the nation. Let Mother India be praised. The nation will never tolerate insult to Mother India," she told reporters when asked to comment on the incident at the JNU.

In her speech earlier at an event organised by an RSS-linked body working in the field of education, Irani made a veiled reference to the protests at JNU, saying that when she heard 'Vande Mataram' and "prayers to the mother" being recited by students, she experienced a sense of satisfaction.

"I felt satisfied that there are teachers who teach children to pray for the nation and not anti-India slogans," she said.

Her comments come against the backdrop of a controversy at the JNU, which erupted earlier this week when some students had pasted posters across the campus inviting people to a protest march against what they claimed was "judicial killing of Afzal Guru and Maqbool Bhatt" and in solidarity with "struggle of Kashmiri people for their democratic right to self-determination" at the varsity's Sabarmati dhaba.

Members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad objected to the event and wrote to the vice chancellor that such kind of protest should not be held on the campus of an educational institution, prompting the university administration to order cancellation of the march as they "feared" it might "disrupt" peace.

Jagdeesh Kumar, the Vice Chancellor of JNU, on Friday said that the varsity is not a platform for activities that violate the Constitution even as it barred the entry of outsiders into the campus in view of the ongoing protests.

"While the JNU community upholds the right to free debate on campus, the university strongly condemns its use as a platform for activities that violate the Constitution and the laws of the land. However, there could be aberrations where fringe sections misuse the freedom provided," said Kumar.

The vice chancellor also appealed the students to go beyond this incident and help the campus return to "normalcy".

"The university takes serious note of the incidents on campus on the evening of February 9. A high-level inquiry committee has been constituted to investigate the matter and take appropriate action as necessary," he said.

Protests in the university continued to rock the campus for the third day on Friday with the students demanding university's intervention into the manner in which police picked up students for questioning.

The JNU students union president Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested Friday afternoon after police had picked him for questioning.

On Thursday, the Delhi police had registered a case of sedition against "unknown persons" in connection with the event, following complaints by Bharatiya Janata Party MP Maheish Girri and the ABVP.