Nation will not tolerate insult to mother India: Smriti Irani

New Delhi: Denouncing the protest march in JNU against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, HRD Minister Smriti Irani today said the nation will never tolerate "insult" to mother India.

"I want to say this much, that today is the day of worship of Goddess Saraswati. Saraswati blesses every family that whatever they speak is for progress and strengthening the nation. Let mother India be praised. Nation will never tolerate insult to mother India," she told reporters when asked about the incident at JNU.

Smriti Irani

Earlier, while addressing the 'All India Principals Conference' where student recited Saraswati vandana, Irani said she felt satisfied that there are teachers who teach children to pray for the nation and "not anti-India slogans". The conference was organised by Vidya Bharati-Akhil Bhartiya Siksha Sansthan, an RSS-linked organisation working in the field of education.

The controversy at JNU erupted earlier this week when some students had pasted posters across the campus inviting people to a protest march against "judicial killing of Afzal Guru and Maqbool Bhatt" and in solidarity with "struggle of Kashmiri people for their democratic right to self-determination" at varsity's Sabarmati dhaba.

Members of ABVP objected to the event and wrote to the Vice Chancellor that such kind of protest should not be held on the campus of an educational institution, prompting the university administration to order cancellation of the march as they "feared" it might "disrupt" peace.

The JNU administration has already instituted a "disciplinary" inquiry as to how the event took place despite withdrawal of permission and said it will wait for the probe report before taking any further action.

Yesterday, Delhi Police had registered a case of sedition against "unknown persons" in connection with the event, following complaints by BJP MP Maheish Girri and BJP's student front ABVP.