Don't need mother like her: JNU students on Smriti Irani

NEW DELHI: HRD minister Smriti Irani should know that university students are "not her baccha" nor "do we need a mother like her", said Anant Prakash Narayan, one of the students charged with sedition for the controversial February 9 event.

Reacting to Irani's speech in the Lok Sabha on Thursday, the former JNU Students' Union vice-president said, "This is entirely a political issue and we're her political opponents. We're such a threat that she needs the state apparatus to battle us."

On Friday, JNUSU described Irani's speech as a "shocking bid to mislead Parliament about ministerial muscle-flexing and crackdown on students." The other students whose arrest is being sought by the police also emerged to refute the facts as stated by the minister.

"It's a hate speech because it insists on one religion," said Narayan. "The minister doesn't know that Ravana is worshipped by some communities. She didn't respect the dignity of Parliament."

He criticised Irani for yoking the identity of Rohith Vemula's mother to that of his father when she had fought all Brahminical structures to raise her children as a single mother.

Narayan added that despite being advised by their lawyers not to talk, the students being sought by the police will participate in all protests and perhaps even step out of the campus. They were all, like the JNU Teachers' Association, critical of registrar Bhupinder Zutshi and wanted him removed from his post.