Amit Shah: Congress should be ashamed of Rahul Gandhi's visit to JNU campus

BJP chief Amit Shah on Saturday attacked Congress over the JNU row, saying it should be "ashamed" of Rahul Gandhi's visit to the campus and questioned whether "anti-national slogans" can be called freedom of speech.

Addressing a meeting of Bhartiya Janata Yuva Morcha, BJP's youth wing, he said the JNU row was about the party's core issue of nationalism and invoked its Ram Janambhumi campaign to buttress his point besides its role in Goa and Hyderabad liberation movement.

"A strange atmosphere has been created. Anti-national slogans are being projected as freedom of expression... Congress should be ashamed that its vice-president goes to the campus and says these (slogans) should be heard as there is freedom of expression.

"If these slogans are freedom of expression, then what is treason?" he said seeking Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's views on whether she agrees with her son on this.

Shah asked party workers to work hard to ensure that it remains in power at the Centre for 25 years so that India could become the 'vishwaguru' as it was not possible in five years.

"In five years there could be development and high growth rate and borders could be made safe but if India has to be 'vishwaguru', then it is a must that BJP is in government for 25 years," he said.

Underlining party's Hindutva credentials, he said Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended Ganga aarti with pride and went to Pashupatinath temple in Nepal to seek blessing.

The party wants India to have top IT and MBA professionals, who also seek their "inspiration" from Swami Vivekananda, he said

The BJP chief also made fun of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to attack Congress and hail Modi's leadership, saying Singh visited more countries than Modi but his tours made little impact.

"He would read from two pages he carried with him which were written in English. At times, he would read the speech meant for Thailand in Malaysia and the one for Malaysia in Thailand... Modiji spoke in Hindi in the UN and the whole country felt proud," Shah said.

The biggest work the Modi government has done is to make the country's borders safe, he claimed.

Invoking a number of Centre's schemes aimed at welfare of youth and farmers, he said the government has made a beginning for "miraculous" change in the country.

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Umar, Anirban stayed at friend’s house in Delhi before surrendering

The police have identified more than 20 people who were seen in a video shouting slogans on the JNU campus on February 9. Police said they learnt about the names of the students from the joint interrogation of the three students — Umar Khalid, Anirban and Kanhaiya Kumar.

Video played over 12 times to identify those shouting slogans

Sources said the list of students had been prepared and they would be summoned to join the investigation. According to sources, the video was played over 12 times, even in slow motion, to clearly identify the persons who were seen shouting slogans. Sources said some of the persons who had covered their faces could not be identified.

Police said that it appears that the persons whose faces were covered were the “real conspirators”.

Umar, Anirban stayed a friend’s place in South Delhi before surrendering

Police sources revealed that Umar and Anirban had stayed at a friend’s house in south Delhi before surrendering to the police. The friend will also be called to join the probe. Police said they are looking into role of all persons who helped the accused remain in hiding after incident.

Khalid, Kanhaiya, Anirban gave contradictory versions

According to t he police, Khalid, Kanhaiya and Anirban have been changing their statements and gave contradictory versions on the sequence of events and slogans shouted at the February 9 event. “Both Khalid and Anirban have been kept in separate rooms and were asked to recall the entire sequence of events, including the nature of slogans that were shouted on February 9. While Anirban confidently said that no anti-national slogans were raised, Khalid said no slogans were shouted at all till he was present there,” police sources said.

”Their statement about when Kanhaiya joined the event, whether it was after, before or during the event also differs. While Khalid and Anirban claim that he was there during the event, Kanhaiya said he reached there later. We are examining the statements,” the investigators said.

Police said despite claims by Umar and Anirban that the decision to hold the event was collective and members of Democratic Students Union had contributed to it, it appears that it was them who were the main organisers and went ahead with the event despite cancellation of the permission by university administration. The duo also claimed that they had just ‘conceived’ the idea to hold the event and not actually organise it.

Police prepare the evidence file

Meanwhile, the police have started preparing the evidence file of the case. The file includes the raw version of the video clip obtained from a news channel on the basis of which the case was registered, the letters of communication between the police and the university authorities and the poster of the event.

Ashutosh, one of the three students who are yet to be arrested, has also been called to join the probe, sources said.

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Meet Gyandev Ahuja: An expert on cows, fleeing the law and JNU's condom usage statistics

It can be safely presumed from this video that Lankesh aka Gyandev Ahuja, the BJP legislator from Rajasthan, counts condoms, beer bottles, cigarette butts and leftovers in the JNU campus in his spare time.

Somebody should advise Ahuja to watch his own back and backyard instead of scouring the JNU dustbins. Here is why: In January 2015, a man named Bharat Singh robbed a cashier of Rs 18 lakh in Jaipur. Singh, who was employed by Ahuja's nephew as a driver and used his car for the crime, then hid the money in the MLAs house. In July, Singh used the same car for another robbery and then used the MLA as a shield to transfer the money to Alwar.

Later, when Singh was arrested for a murder in Alwar, with three other persons, including a former driver of the MLA, he told police that after the loot he travelled with Ahuja in the car used for the crime. The money was hidden in the boot of the car. Singh got off at Alwar and took the money with him.

But, his friends say, Ahuja pays attention only to his moustache.

In his youth, spent mostly in the local shakha, to stand out in a crowd, seek attention (trait that defines him) he grew a handlebar moustache that got him the role of Ahiravan (Ravan's brother who abducted Rama and Lakshmana and took them to the netherworld) in the local Ram Leela.

Even after he became an MLA in Rajasthan in 1998, Ahuja found it difficult to shake off his Ram Leela image, often behaving like a mythological character on the floor of the House. His rabble-rousing growls and brawls soon earned him the sobriquet of Lankesh from the then chief minister Ashok Gehlot. It was well deserved.

In the 1990s, while he was a member of the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh and the RSS, Ahuja allegedly slapped a cop on duty. He was booked by the police and a warrant was issued. But, Lankesh refused to appear before the police for almost a decade and remained on the list of people wanted by the cops.

While still wanted by the cops, Ahuja contested three elections, losing two (1993, 2003) and winning one (1998). In 2003, when the BJP came to power, Ahuja petitioned then home minister to ask the cops to drop the case against him.

But, the chief judicial magistrate of Alwar, RK Maheshwari, refused to oblige the government saying that it would be wrong to let a lawmaker get away easily after breaking the law.

So, Ahuja was forced to surrender and sent to judicial custody, where he immediately developed a pain in stomach and sought emergency admission to a hospital, where he bid his time waiting for bail.

This protector of law, like all BJP leaders from the Sangh, is also a self-proclaimed protector of protectors of cows. In his district, a group of villagers patrols state highways to check smuggling of cows. Ahuja says he funds and guides these vigilantes.

When interviewed by the BBC some time ago, he had boasted of his expertise on gau mata. A sample of his lessons: California is entirely electrified by cow dung fuel or bio-gas, cow milk contains traces of gold; and foreign experts say killing cows in India will "lead to volcanoes, earthquakes and drought".

In the evening, Ahuja is often found with a glass in hand. No, his favourite poison is not gau mutra.

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