New Delhi: Kiren Rijiju, Federal Minister of State for Home Affairs, is fast emerging as India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJPs) mascot for the Northeast and a bridge for the party’s expansion beyond the Hindi heartland.
An alumnus of Delhi University’s Ramjas College, Rijiju recently hit headlines when he took cudgels with a young student, daughter of a Kargil war martyr, and received flak for his habit of shooting from the mouth, something that he picked up during his days as social activist and student leader during his college days.
This saw him being named the ‘Best Young Parliamentarian’ by the media.
The recent incident began at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), when students affiliated to the Left were accused of raising anti-India slogans, and also at the Ramjas College of Delhi University, where disagreements between the two sides over the choice of invitees for a lecture spilt into violence.
It gained further prominence as a political slugfest erupted after the martyr’s daughter Gurmehar Kaur, a 20-year-old student at Lady Shri Ram College, started a campaign against the Akhil Bharatiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (ABVP).
The junior home minister insisted his remarks were not aimed at Gurmehar and that he had targeted the Leftists who were polluting the minds of young students in colleges and universities.
Reiterating his government’s stand he maintained that criticism of the government was healthy in a democracy because it brought in accountability. But a line has to be drawn that clearly says don’t do things against the nation.
“Freedom of expression does not mean freedom to abuse the nation,” he stressed.
He speaks to Gulf News:
Why is there so much unrest at Delhi University and Jawaharlal Nehru University? Why were anti-India slogans raised?
It is not unrest; it is a protest by a handful of students with liberal Leftist ideology. And since they are [aligned] with intellectuals in terms of their ideology, they occupy good space on television and in newspapers. Romanticising with the idea of liberal thoughts and following a discarded ideology, they neither have strong presence on the ground, nor any kind of support from the masses, so they are confined to only a few institutions.
But why is there a conflict?
In India, everyone has the right to propagate any ideology and has the absolute right to counter others’ beliefs. For instance, I am a nationalist and believe in nationalism and the Leftists have every right to counter my political ideology. We take it as an ideological battle. Without any violence and without any physical harm we must fight it out, because that is the spirit of a democratic set-up. But when someone propagates an issue that harms the interest of the country, then it is not acceptable to us and I strongly object to it. The conflict starts there.
So, you found what was propagated unacceptable?
Yes. And that’s why I reacted. Otherwise, as a minister, I would not react to any incident happening in a university or college, as every educational institution has its own regulatory mechanism. The government has no business to interfere in the incidents. But the police will certainly intervene if there is a law and order situation. In this instance, students from JNU organised an event to mark the death anniversary of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, who was hanged in 2013. Posters were pasted across the campus protesting against the hanging and terming it a ‘judicial killing.’ I commented when anti-India slogans were raised that harm the unity and integrity of the country.
Should politics stay out of ‘institutions of learning’, and should politicians stop polluting young minds?
In a democracy, there can be a clash of ideas. The problem arises when there is involvement of outsiders.
Outsiders meaning?
If there is a protest at JNU, leaders from both the Congress Party and the Left Front join the protest. They should not get involved in campus politics. This time too Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi, Left leader Sitaram Yechury and some other politicians did that.
So how does this get sorted out?
There is a lot of confusion in the media. The Left have their students’ wing in the campus and so does the Congress. BJP has a youth wing in the party, but we don’t have a student’s wing in the campus. Akhil Bharatiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (ABVP) is not a part of BJP; it is an independent organisation, which shares BJP’s ideology of nationalism. So, even though we support them ideologically, we never go to the campus joining protests. Other political parties should refrain from doing so.
The bullying of Gurmehar Kaur has sent wrong signals about intolerance in a democracy. Don’t you feel it could have been handled better?
Yes, you are right. The young girl is not mature enough. But it is a section of the Indian media in India, who try to generate controversies. A young girl puts up a big statement on social media saying, ‘Pakistan did not kill my dad, war killed him.’ But there was no war, as we fought the last war with Pakistan in 1971. Terrorists killed her father during peace time. So, it’s a misplaced argument put up by some people. On the one hand they say don’t troll her, don’t comment on her post, as she is a young girl, but on the other hand they claim she is grown up and has the capacity to think. All I want to clear is that when you put up something on social media, it is not for personal consumption. People are bound to react. So, one should not become so intolerant as to say that no one should react. Secondly, those who are using this girl should first remove their own confusion and decide if she is mature enough or not.
Don’t you think a non-issue was unnecessarily blown-out-of proportion?
That’s true. It’s not an issue for us. But the Leftists try to create controversies through media and social media. We are focused on our government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set an agenda for the nation. All the ministers are assigned jobs and we will not deviate from our work.
But Congress leader Manish Tiwari has said the debate on nationalism that your government keeps provoking is an attempt to deflect attention from its governance failures?
He is saying complete opposite of the ground reality. The JNU incident was not our creation. Who told the students to raise slogan on Afzal Guru? We did not arrange the Ramjas College event. We are, and will remain focused on good governance.
