CNN-IBN’s Talking Point@9 debate started with recounting Delhi Commissioner of Police BS Bassi’s goof-ups, contradictions, responses to fake Twitter handles etc, but it soon turned into a roast of BJP and RSS ideology.
While calling Bassi a puppet who takes instructions from his political masters, columnist Vir Sanghvi added that following actions blindly was not new for officers aspiring to greater political powers.
Talking about the Rohith Act, Osmanian University spokesperson Krishnank Menon, said that the act was to save students from the RSS. The BJP and RSS want every institute to obey their agenda, he added.
The country is experiencing 2002 events nationally.AAP spokesperson Ashutosh
Sanghvi added that the BJP is branding everyone with the same tag, as anti-nationals, if they go against their Hindutva ideology. Kanhaiya, who is an AISF leader, has a leftist inclination while Rohith Vemula, an Ambedkar Student’s Association member, supported dalit students. Currently, both of them have been branded anti-nationals. He asked why the BJP, which is already seen as a “Suit-Boot Ki Sarkar”, is trying to suppress students from unprivileged sections of society.
Umar Khaled was the topic of discussion on the primetime debate on Times Now.
Umar Khaled who organised the ‘cultural’ event held on February 9 to mark the death anniversary of Afzal Guru was charged with sedition.
He had gone underground following the arrest of JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar. When he resurfaced two days back, he, along with fellow-accused Anirban Bhattacharya, filed a petition seeking permission to surrender before the HC alleging that there was a “threat to life and limb”.
The atmosphere of the primetime debate on Times Now continued to be dominated by moderator Arnab Goswami’s view on whether or not Umar Khaled’s petition was rightfully filed.
Goswami was of the opinion that Umar Khaled sought special treatment from the law which was unacceptable.
Jawaharlal Nehru University is not a separate country. It is not the Vatican.Arnab Goswami
BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra also pointed out that Khaled who was a fellow panelist on the Times Now debate after the Centre’s crackdown on JNU, claimed that “a handful of judges cannot decide who is a terrorist and who is not”.
JDU spokesperson Ajay Alok accused the BJP of not following the constitution and the law while filmmaker Anindita Sarbadhikari said that the Delhi police was incapable of providing security to the students.
Arnab reprimanded them saying:
Where is your logic? In your hurry to take sides, have you forgotten the law, logic and reason? Do we have to send a helicopter to airlift JNU students?
Sambit Patra added that the same JNU students who criticised the lawyers who assaulted protestors at Patiala House Court “have gone to the lapse of the law to seek justice.”
While Sambit Patra and Ajay Alok accused each other of being in the wrong, Patra slipped in “Ishrat ke bhaijaan” while referring to Alok.
The debate was concluded with Arnab Goswami saying that Umar Khaled should follow the law and surrender without seeking any special treatments.
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