BJP, allies to be aggressive on JNU, Hyderabad varsity issues in Parliament

New Delhi: BJP and its allies on Tuesday decided to aggressively counter Congress and the Left in Parliament over the JNU row and the Hyderabad university controversy, setting the stage for a confrontation as a debate on these issues will be taken up in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.

BJP chief Amit Shah took the lead in briefing members of the parliamentary party executive and those of the NDA about the details of the JNU case, backing the party's nationalist pitch.

The briefing included how the NDA members should rake up incidents, including the alleged assault in JNU on Army officials following the Kargil war, to buttress their arguments.

Sources said Shah, who had accused Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi of "supporting traitors" in the JNU row, gave a sequence of events on the campus and how the accused students tried to present themselves as innocents by shooting another video on a different day.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, sources said, defended the case of sedition and noted that a Supreme Court judgement had said that slogans calling for disintegration of India amounted to such a charge.

He made these remarks in the meeting of BJP parliamentary party executive which was held before the NDA meet.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi also attended the meeting and told the leaders of his party and allies about the government's clear stand on the issues, resulting in it agreeing to debate them in the House as demanded by the opposition.

Signalling the likely aggressive stand of the treasury benches, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who attended the BJP meet, told reporters that he would ask Rahul Gandhi about slogans raised in support of Parliament terror attack convict Afzal Guru who, he noted, was hanged during UPA rule.

NDA speakers will also highlight the previous instances of Congress acting against "this union of Marxists and secessionists" on the campus and how they have come together now merely to corner the Modi governemnt, sources said.

Anandrao Adsul (Shiv Sena), who attended the meet, said his party totally supported the government on these issues.

A presentation was also made about the "achievements" of the government so that it could be highlighted during various debates in the session.

The boost given to infrastructure, like power and roads in 2015 compared to previous years and high growth of the economy was also highlighted, sources said.