BJP leader defends Rajnath's remarks on JNU and Hafiz

New Delhi, Feb 14: With Home Minister Rajnath Singh's statement about Hafiz Saeed "supporting" the JNU protest attracting criticism from a few quarters, BJP leader Sudhanshu Trivedi today sought to defend the senior party leader, saying people should protest this in unison rather than questioning it.

"As per a political viewpoint, the Home Minister had appealed to people from different areas of society to come and unitedly protest against anti-national powers. But sadly, rather than protesting, why are you becoming advocate for a terrorist who has made a statement," Trivedi asked.

Singh today claimed that the JNU event in Delhi in memory of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru had received "support" from terror outfit LeT's founder Hafiz Saeed, a statement that sparked a political row with opposition parties asking him to provide evidence.

Reacting to Singh's claim, National Conference leader Omar Abdullah said it is a "very serious charge" to level against the students and that the evidence must be shared with all. CPI-M General Secretary Sitaram Yechury said the Home Minister has to come out and share the evidence he has with the country to back up his "serious allegation".

CPI leader D Raja also demanded that the evidence be made public. Dismissing the opposition charges, Trivedi said "This could not be a subject of public discourse.

The ways, timings and the medium that terrorist and anti-national activities use is a subject of consideration for intelligence and security agencies and cannot be a subject of public discourse." Describing the Opposition's reaction as "unfortunate", Trivedi said, "Despite this, to blame the government on a particular issue, without going into details is utterly wrong and unfortunate." Making a counter-attack on Congress, Trivedi said this is "very surprising in itself".

"I would like to say that those who talk about blaming are the same people who had said Hafiz Saeed as Hafiz Sahab. These are the same people who had merged their voices, while sitting in India, with Hafiz Saeed who was the sole person to oppose Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Pakistan tour in December last year."

Targeting former UPA Home Minister, he said, "All other people, whether in opposition or power had welcomed the Prime Minister. If ever, any Indian Home Minister has been patted at back by Hafiz Saeed, then it was in January 2013. The then Home Minister under UPA was appreciated by Saeed for the former's subject on Hindu Terrorism."

PTI