CAA Protests: HRD Minister Says Modi Govt 'Won't Tolerate Political Activities In Universities'

Amid massive protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act for the last two weeks, much of which has been led by students, Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal said on Sunday that the Narendra Modi government “won’t tolerate” universities turning into political hubs. 

“The Narendra Modi government is not going to tolerate this at any cost,” Pokhriyal said, adding that while anyone was free to engage in political activities, colleges and universities needed to stay out of it. 

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Pokhriyal’s comments come even as the Modi government has repeatedly claimed that the protests were caused by people from the Opposition parties. Pokhriyal too blamed the Congress for the protests. 

“It is the Congress, which is responsible for the countrys division on religious grounds, that is spreading misinformation about CAA,” he said.

Students in universities across the country have come out to protest against the CAA. The last two weeks have seen protests by the students of Jamia Millia Islamia University, Aligarh Muslim University, Jawaharlal Nehru University and  Jadavpur University. There were protests in IIMs and IITs across the country as well. 

This is not the first instance of the BJP’s gag orders on the protests. 

Last week, in an order to the employees of the education department , Assam’s BJP government had told its teachers and other employees that those posting “political comments” on social media such as Twitter, Facebook , WhatsApp and Instagram were violating “the provision of Assam Service (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 1964”. They had warned of action against them. 

The Centre had issued gag orders to TV channels as well over the coverage of the anti-CAA protests. On December 11 the I&B ministry, in a notice to TV channels, had said that they should not broadcast content that “promotes anti-national attitudes” or that affects “integrity of the nation”.

In yet another such notice last week, the ministry said, “It is observed that notwithstanding the above Advisory, some TV channels are telecasting content which do not appear to be in the spirit of the Programme Codes specified therein. It is accordingly, reiterated that all TV channels may abstain from showing content which is likely to instigate violence or contains anything against maintenance of law and order or which promotes anti-national attitudes, contains anything affecting the integrity of the nation, criticizes, maligns or slanders any individual in person or certain groups, segments of social public and moral life of the country.”

(With PTI inputs)