Don't misuse freedom of speech: Yogi Adityanath to Kanhaiya

Condemning the 9 February event that took place at the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Yogi Adityanath on Saturday advised the JNU students' union president Kanhaiya Kumar to refrain from using freedom of speech and expression to hail terrorists like Afzal Guru, who attacked the Parliament in 2001.

"Whatever is happening inside the JNU is condemnable. What is more condemnable is the fact that the teachers of the university are also involved in these activities. It is very shameful," Adityanath said.

He also advised Kanhaiya, who has targeted the BJP-led NDA Government at the Centre, saying that he should not forget that he has been released on interim bail by the Delhi High Court and that too on conditions.

"The BJP is not against any individual. But the students should refrain from hailing people like Afzal Guru, who had targeted the Parliament, on the name of freedom of speech and expression," he said.

Speaking to the media a day after he was released from Tihar Jail after he was charged with sedition, Kanhaiya had yesterday thanked everyone who supported him and alleged that a conspiracy was afoot to malign the JNU campus and its students.

Asserting that the JNU students can never be anti-national, he added that he was part of the fight to not let those succeed who use the Constitution as a tool against those who raise their voices for nationalism.

Talking about Afzal Guru, he clearly stated that the Parliament attack convict was not his hero and his hero was Hyderabad University scholar Rohith Vemula.

"Afzal Guru was a citizen of this nation, he was from Jammu and Kashmir and the law punished him. He is not an icon for me, Rohith Vemula is. There will be a Rohith Vemula in every house," Kanhaiya said.