Will it happen for us, asks JNU VC on SC granting relief to Setalvad on a Saturday night
Mumbai (PTI): Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) Vice-Chancellor Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit on Sunday wondered whether the Supreme Court would treat "us" equally the way it did to grant relief to activist Teesta Setalvad on a Saturday night.
The JNU VC was referring to the SC granting interim protection on July 1 to Setalvad from arrest in connection with a case of alleged fabrication of evidence to frame innocent people in 2002 post-Godhra riot cases.
"The Leftist ecosystem still exists. You know, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court opened the court on a Saturday night to give Teesta Setalvad bail. Will it happen for us," she asked while speaking at the launch of Marathi book Jagala Pokharnari Davi Walvi' (World-weakening Leftist Termites) in Pune.
Pandit had served as a professor in the Political Science department at the Savitribai Phule Pune University in Maharashtra.
"To retain political power, you need (to have) narrative power. We need to have it. Unless we attain it, we will be like a directionless ship," she said.
She recalled her childhood association with RSS-affiliated organisations. She said, "I was a Bal Sevika' in my childhood. I got my sanskars (values) from the RSS only. I am proud to say that I belong to the Sangh (RSS) and I am proud to say that I am a Hindu. I do not hesitate at all."
"Garv se kehti hu main Hindu hoon," she repeated, with the audience shouting Jai Shri Ram'.
"Left and RSS are individual ideologies. There has been a major paradigm shift post-2014 in the conflict between these two ideologies," she said.
Pandit, who was appointed as the JNU VC in February last year, said some people opposed her decision to put the national flag and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's photo on the varsity premises.
Pandit said she told them that they were enjoying free meals on the campus with taxpayers' money and they should bow before the national flag and PM Modi's photo.
"Until I went to JNU, there was no photo of PM Modi, the President of India or the national flag. Many people told me not to bring (them) on the campus. I told them you enjoy free meals here with taxpayers' money, bow before them."
She said, "He is the prime minister of the country. He does not belong to any party. More than a year has passed and nobody has protested against it," she said.
Referring to the upcoming Nalanda University in Bihar, she said, "I recently visited the Nalanda University at Bakhtiyarpur. We should change that Bakhtiyarpur name. What kind of name is that."
On the country's ancient civilisation, she said, "Our Bharatiya civilisation is superior, feminist and greatest in the world. Draupadi is the first feminist and not one Simone De Beauvoir (French philosopher). Our civilisation is nature-centric."
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BJP wants to end reservation, change Constitution: Kejriwal
Lucknow (PTI): AAP leader and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday said the BJP wants to get more than 400 seats in the Lok Sabha polls as it wants to end reservation.
Kejriwal also reiterated his claim that Home Minister Amit Shah will be made the next prime minister and Yogi Adiyanath will be removed as Uttar Pradesh chief minister if the BJP returns to power.
"The people of BJP have always been against reservation. They will change the Constitution and end reservation of SC/ST/OBC after coming to power," he said at a joint press conference along with Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav here.
Kejriwal claimed Prime Minister Narendra Modi had made a rule that anyone over 75 years of age will not be given any post in the government and the organisation and will be retired.
L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi were retired as per this rule and several BJP leaders, as per this rule, were removed or not given ticket.
"PM Modi is going to cross the age of 75 next year and has decided to make Amit Shah the prime minister of the country," Kejriwal said.
He claimed that Modi has been working to ensure the same.
The leaders who could have caused an hindrance were sidelined. Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Vasundhra Raje, Raman Singh, Devendra Fadnvis and Manohar Lal Khattar have been finished, he asserted.
Kejriwal said Adityanath will be removed as Uttar Pradesh chief minister if the BJP again comes to power.
"There is only one person who could prove to be a thorn in the way of Amit Shah and that is Adityanath. They have now decided to remove Yogi Adityanath within two months if their government is formed," Kejriwal said.
"They say the BJP is going to do something big after coming to power. The big thing they want to do is to end reservation. We know their ecosystem -- RSS, BJP -- has been against reservation. I want to alert that they want more than 400 seats because they want to destroy the reservation made by B R Ambedkar," he claimed.
Kejriwal said trends coming from across the country show that the BJP is getting less than 220 seats. The seats of BJP in Haryana, Delhi, Karanataka, UP, Maharastra, West Bengal, Bihar and Jahrkhand are reducing and the party is not winning a single seat in Punjab, he claimed.
The SP chief claimed that BJP will win only 143 of the total 543 Lok Sabha seats.
"The BJP has been defeated in the first four phases. It was giving the slogan of wining 400 seats but is winning only 143 of the total 543 seats," the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said.
