Finance Minister Arun Jaitley called for a debate on free speech at an event in London on Saturday, weighing in on the ongoing free-speech conundrum in Delhi University.
According to a report in The Hindu, Jaitley was responding to questions by students at the London School of Economics. The Union Minister was of the view that freedom of speech does not entail “assaulting a nation’s sovereignty”. Taking the argument further, Jaitley said that universities in India were home to an “alliance of subversion” between the ultra-left and the separatists.
“I don’t think there should be any space for violence,” he was quoted as saying, but added that there needed to be a debate on the limits of free speech when it starts endangering the sovereignty of a nation. Jaitley is also said to have opined that “If you believe you have free speech then you have to be ready to concede free speech to counter your view.”
Advertisement
The Cabinet Minister’s statements come in the background of violence between students of the left and right wings and police personnel at Delhi University’s Ramjas College. It happened following the cancelling of invites to JNU’s Umar Khalid and Shehla Rashid, who were penciled in to speak at an event.
The matter has since hit national headlines after Gurmehar Kaur, the daughter of a Kargil martyr, put up a status on social media in defiance of the violence by members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad.
Jaitley’s comments also come at a time when MoS Kiren Rijiju took to social media to ‘school’ the 20-year-old Kaur, saying that her mind had been ‘polluted’.
