BJP goes on offensive, to demand debate in House

The ruling BJP has decided to fire up the nationalism debate in the forthcoming Budget Session of Parliament, with the party top brass asking party parliamentarians to seek for a debate on the JNU incident as well as Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley’s recent testimony to a special Mumbai court. The BJP has made it clear that freedom of speech does not include anti-India voices.

Already facing flak from the Opposition over the arrest of JNU student union president and “trying” to use the JNU incident to start a “nationalist vs anti-national debate” in the country, the BJP wants to pre-empt any attempt by the Opposition to corner the BJP-led NDA government over the JNU issue and therefore, has asked its MPs to take up the issue aggressively. The Opposition has also lined up other issues, including Rohith Vemula suicide, political instability in Arunachal Pradesh, Pathankot airbase attack, to corner the NDA government in Parliament.

The BJP had used Headley’s testimony to attack the Congress for “whitewashing” facts to target Prime Minister Narendra Modi, then Gujarat chief minister, over the alleged fake encounter of Ishrat Jahan.

On the JNU issue, the BJP top brass believes that there is no reason for the party to be “defensive” about the development and also there is support for its stand on the issue among the masses. BJP president Amit Shah had also attacked Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi over the latter’s visit to JNU where he had favoured free speech and attacked the Modi government.

To keep up the momentum, the party is also launching a three-day “Jan Swabhimaan Abhiyaan (campaign for peoples’ self-pride)” from Thursday, in which BJP leaders and workers will try to build up public opinion over issues, including the alleged anti-national activities in the Central varsity and in support of action against people involved in it.

Meanwhile, the Sangh Parivar affiliate VHP has described the JNU row a result of “unholy nexus between the jihadists and the Leftists” and hailed the government for taking “strong action” against those involved in seditious activities. It also appealed to political parties “not to convert the politics of opposition to politics of national destruction”.

Lashing out at Mr Rahul Gandhi for his visit to JNU in support of “traitors”, senior VHP leader Surendra Jain said the party that had fought for the country’s freedom under Mahatma Gandhi is now fighting for “seditious characters”. He also criticised the Left for its stand, saying it was behind the “killing” of many political opponents in Kerala and West Bengal.