PM Narendra Modi addresses students and staff of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi Thursday called for not making ideology come in the way of national interest during his address to Jawaharlal Nehru University after unveiling a statue of Swami Vivekananda on the campus in south Delhi.
"Everybody is proud of their ideology and this is natural. But our ideology should be seen standing with the nation and not against it in matters of national interest," PM Modi said in a video address.
He spoke of the struggle for Independence and the fight against the Emergency to highlight how people with different ideological thinking came together for "national interest" but without compromising their ideologies.
"When the question is about national integrity and interest, then taking a decision under the burden of one's ideology harms the nation," PM Modi said. "It is wrong to believe that one will think and act in a certain framework in matters of national interest solely because this is what one's ideology says," he said.
Left-backed student parties have been traditionally strong in JNU. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's student's wing ABVP has also been trying to gain influence in JNU's student body.
Small fights between student groups have been reported from time to time on the campus, but the most serious incident happened in January this year when masked goons, armed with sticks and stones, barged into the campus and beat up students and teachers, spreading chaos and terror.
Left-backed JNU Students' Union president Aishe Ghosh was injured in the attack. The ABVP had also said their members were brutally attacked by those affiliated to leftist student organisations such as Students' Federation of India, All India Students' Association, and the Democratic Students Federation.
"Swami Vivekananda wanted that education in the country should be such that it provides self-confidence to individuals and makes them atmanirbhar (self-reliant) in every way. The new National Education Policy is on the same lines and has inclusion at its core," PM Modi said.