After organising a two-day seminar in Delhi University for the first time on the communally sensitive issue of a Ram temple in Ayodhya, the Arundhati Vashishtha Anusandhan Peeth (AVAP) now plans to hold a similar conference in Left-dominated Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) to build opinion on the construction of a Ram temple.
AVAP chairman and BJP leader Subramanian Swamy on Tuesday said similar conferences would be held in JNU and in other parts of India. The announcement has divided opinion on campus along political lines. While the Left is opposed to the move and said it would be an attempt to pollute the secular environment, the Right welcomed the decision to hold a seminar on campus.
JNU Students Union president Kanhaiya Kumar said Mr Swamy is welcomed to attend or organise any seminar on campus but it should be on academic issues. “But what he (Mr Swamy) is now planning is nothing to do with academic issues. We oppose such a seminar and will not allow any attempt to communalise the JNU environment. We at JNU are open to debate or discussion and anyone can organise one, but it should not destroy the secular nature of JNU,” added Mr Kumar.
Welcoming Mr Swamy’s proposed conference, the right-wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (ABVP), which won the post of joint secretary on the central panel after 14 years in last year’s student union polls, said those opposing it even before the announcement of a date are showing their double-standards. “Our brothers in the Left always says that JNU democratic space provides for debate and discussion. Now why are they opposing it Ram temple is associated with the faith of 125 crore Indians and, being a prestigious university, we should discuss and deliberate the issue. Discussion and debate will help in building consensus for the construction of a temple at Lord Ram’s birthplace, as wished by the Hindus,” said JNUSU joint secretary Saurabh Kumar Sharma. On Saturday, amidst protests and allegations that it is an attempt to communalise the atmosphere on the Delhi University campus, a seminar on a Ram temple was held by the AVAP, a research organisation founded by late VHP leader Ashok Singhal.
