Even as the Jawaharlal Nehru University is reeling under a major controversy with clashes between students and the government, home minister Rajnath Singh stirred a hornet’s nest on Sunday when he claimed that the JNU event had the backing of Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
“I also want to make it clear that the JNU incident has the support of LeT chief Hafiz Saeed. We should also understand this reality that Hafiz Saeed has supported this incident and it is extremely unfortunate,” Singh told mediapersons.
The home minister’s remarks came two days after the Delhi Police posted a screenshot of a tweet by a handle purportedly belonging to Hafiz Saeed. The tweet called for people outside India to support JNU.
Pakistan’s newspaper The Dawn reported the Hafiz Saeed Twitter handle was fake, as his account had been suspended long ago.
Since the tweet wasn’t verified, many took to social media platforms to echo this:
1) fake handle of Hafiz Saeed Tweets.
2) @gauravcsawant Tweets.
A lot of backlash followed with many demanding Singh produce evidence for his claim, after which the home ministry ‘clarified’ saying Rajnath Singh’s comment were based on inputs from “different agencies“.
Here’s what political class has said about Singh’s comments:
General secretary of the CPIM Sitaram Yechury said:
Omar Abdullah in a series of tweets, slammed the remark: