BJP had won the "ideological war" in the Jawaharlal Nehru University row in which some of its students are charged with sedition for allegedly raising anti-national slogans, Union finance minister Arun Jaitley said on Sunday.

 

"We have won. Those who were once shouting slogans for dividing the country are now raising slogans of Jai Hind and waving the Tricolour after their release from jail," Jaitley said in his address at the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha national convention, calling JNU students' union president Kanhaiya Kumar's speech following his release on bail a "victory for us".

 

Taking on Congress, Jaitley said, "Some people want to hold an event to commemorate Yakub Memon and some to commemorate Afzal Guru.Slogans were raised for brea king up the country and it was the country's misfortune that a leader of Congress, which has been in the mainstream so far, went there to express sympathies for those who did so. Calling Congress's sup port for JNU students accused of sedition "ideological hollowness", Union finance minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday said those commemorating Yakub Memon and Afzal Guru "used to comprise a small section of jihadists and a big group of Maoists."

 

Accusing the Left parties of being "anti-democracy", he said, "Historically , they have always raised slogans of independence to disrupt democratic set-ups through use of violence." Recalling B R Ambedkar's speech in Parliament on November 25, 1949, Jaitley said, "Even Dr Ambedkar stated that this Constitution would be acceptable to all political parties, except the Communists, as the very basis of this document is democracy ."

 

He also said that historically , despite ideological differences, all major political parties in the country , except the Left, were connected through the common ideology of nationalism.

 

Jaitley's comments came a day after BJP chief Amit Shah said at the same conclave in Vrindavan that the Congress should be ashamed by its vice president Rahul Gandhi's visit to JNU.

 

BJP's massive victory in 2014, Jaitley said, was a vote for a decisive and clear leadership, and against UPA's cor rupt and Congress's dynastic rule. "We have three main responsibilities to fulfil -freedom from dynastic rule, freedom from corruption and freedom from poverty and hunger," he said. Addressing the party youth, BJP MP Anurag Thakur said the youth wing members would spread across the country carrying the national flag to spread the message of nationalism.