Early Times Report
JAMMU, May 1: The BJP has, it seems, decided to play with the career of non-local students of NIT Srinagar by not conceding any of their demands, including shifting of NIT Srinagar to Jammu or any other place in the country. Sources close to the Congress MPs, who met with HRD Minister Smriti Irani recently to discuss the NIT issue with her, revealed that "the BJP has asked actor-cum-social activist Anupam Kher to hold himself aloof from the NIT controversy as his Srinagar visit in the second week April had created difficulties for the authorities". What the sources close to the Congress MPs revealed is highly disturbing and it exposes the BJP and its brand of nationalism.
Anupam Kher wanted to visit the NIT campus in Srinagar to express solidarity with the non-local students and hand over a national tri-colur to them so that they could hoist it, but he was detained at the Srinagar Airport and sent back to Delhi the same day. Kher was accompanied by film-maker Ashok Pandit. Kher expressed his unhappiness over the manner in which he was deported from the Srinagar Airport. He regretted that he was not allowed a visit to his relations in Srinagar.
Sources also revealed that "Smriti Irani told the Congress MPs' delegation that "what the non-local students did on the NIT campus between March 31 and April 11 was a part of a conspiracy that they hatched to get themselves migrated to other institutes" and that "the non-local students rejected her suggestion that their papers will be examined outside the state". "I got surprised when the non-local students rejected her suggestion", she, according to sources, told the Congress MPs' delegation.
That she, according to sources, told the Congress MPs' delegation what she told only establishes that the vested interests, who represent the view of the anti-nationals in Kashmir, have managed the HRD Ministry, nay the Delhi Darbar, to the extent that they, like the J&K Police and the Kashmiri Magistrate, who inquired into the whole NIT episode, have held the non-local students responsible for the trouble on the campus. This is very unfortunate. |
