New Delhi/Hyderabad: Both the University of Hyderabad and JNU events were “ultra-Left movements” also involving a small section of “jihadis”, finance minister Arun Jaitley contended on Sunday.
In the case of JNU, the predominant section of those involved in the agitation was “ultra-Left” barring a small section of ”jehadis”, who had their faces masked, he said.
Read: Global scholars for recall of University of Hyderabad V-C Appa Rao Podile
Jaitley takes a dig at protests
The name of Dr B.R. Ambedkar was “unfairly used” in the case of UoH where protests erupted after the suicide by a research scholar Rohith Vemula, Jaitley said during an interaction with journalists here.
He drew satisfaction from the fact that religious and minority groups and their leaders across the country had not participated in the debate set off by the events in the two universities.
Read: Rohith’s suicide issue raised during UN rights meet
“The moderate Left and the Congress had got trapped into what was otherwise a movement of the ultra-Left,” the minister said, adding that the BJP had therefore taken it as an ideological challenge. The BJP had won the first round of this “ideological debate” in the sense that everybody had to come at least “close to the position we were taking”.
Asked if he expected more rounds in the debate, the BJP leader said that it was not a battle his party had started. “We are not raising the debate but if somebody starts it, then the debate will certainly carry on.”
