Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday appealed to political parties to unitedly oppose incidents where anti-national slogans are raised."I want to appeal to all parties, whenever there is an incident where anti-national slogans are raised, we must oppose it with one voice. There should not be attempts to get political gains from such incidents," he said.On Saturday, the Congress, CPI-M, CPI and JD-U protested against the arrest of Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union president Kanhaiya Kumar on sedition charges."What happened in JNU also got support from Lashkar chief Hafiz Saeed. The nation must also accept the reality," the home minister said.
While Rajnath Singh did not give any reference for his comment, a tweet recently surfaced from the Twitter handle @HafeezSaeedJUD with the hashtag #PakStandWithJNU that asked Pakistanis to trend the hashtag #SupportJNU for "pro-Pakistani JNUites brothers".The Twitter handle, however, was not a verified one and it appeared that the tweet was later deleted.The home minister said anti-national activities would not be tolerated, but added that he has given instructions that the "innocent must be protected"."Whoever raises anti-national slogans and questions the unity of India will not be spared. I have given the necessary instructions, I have also instructed that those who are innocent should not be harassed," he said.On the night of February 9, some JNU students organised a meet to mourn the hanging of parliament attack convict Afzal Guru and Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front co-founder Maqbool Bhat. Anti-India slogans were allegedly raised at the gathering.Delhi Police registered a sedition case on Thursday and arrested Kanhaiya Kumar. He was sent to three days' police custody on Friday although he denied raising anti-India slogans.