'Jan Swabhiman Abhiyan': BJP to launch nationwide campaign over JNU incident

New Delhi: With several political parties coming together to oppose the government action concerning JNU, the BJP has decided to launch a nationwide "Jan Swabhiman Abhiyan" from Thursday to expose attempts by the parties to "mislead the country in the name of freedom of expression".

A party release said the campaign will be carried out between February 18 and 20 and party workers will organise many programmes at zonal, district and state levels.

"The campaign is against attempts by some political parties to mislead the country by linking separatist voices with freedom of expression over incidents at the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University," the release said.

It said sit-ins, signature campaigns, singing of patriotic songs and meetings will be among programmes to be held by party workers.

JNU has been on the boil over the arrest of student leader Kanhaiya Kumar. The controversy began when some students organised a meet on February 9 to mark the anniversaries of executions of parliament attack convict Afzal Guru and Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front co-founder Maqbool Bhat. Anti-India slogans were reportedly raised at the gathering.

Kanhaiya Kumar, arrested for sedition, was on Wednesday sent to judicial custody till March 2.