Congress must be ashamed of Rahul Gandhi's visit to JNU: Amit Shah

Vrindavan: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah on Saturday attacked Congress over the JNU row, saying it should be "ashamed" of Rahul Gandhi's visit to the campus and questioned whether "anti-national slogans" can be called freedom of speech.

Addressing a meeting of Bhartiya Janata Yuva Morcha, BJP's youth wing, he said the JNU row was about the party's core issue of nationalism and invoked its Ram Janambhumi campaign to buttress his point besides its role in Goa and Hyderabad liberation movement.

"A strange atmosphere has been created. Anti-national slogans are being projected as freedom of expression... Congress should be ashamed that its vice president goes to the campus and says these (slogans) should be heard as there is freedom of expression.

"If these slogans are freedom of expression, then what is treason?" he said seeking Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's views on whether she agrees with her son on this.

Shah asked party workers to work hard to ensure that it remains in power at the Centre for 25 years so that India could become the 'vishwaguru' as it was not possible in five years.

"In five years there could be development and high growth rate and borders could be made safe but if India has to be 'vishwaguru', then it is a must that BJP is in government for 25 years," he said.

Underlining party's Hindutva credentials, he said Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended Ganga aarti with pride and went to Pashupati Nath temple in Nepal to seek blessing.

The party wants India to have top IT and MBA professionals, who also seek their "inspiration" from Swami Vivekananda, he said.

The BJP chief also made fun of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to attack Congress and hail Modi's leadership, saying Singh visited more countries than Modi but his tours made little impact.

"He would read from two pages he carried with him which were written in English. At times, he would read the speech meant for Thailand in Malaysia and the one for Malaysia in Thailand... Modiji spoke in Hindi in the UN and the whole country felt proud," Shah said.

The biggest work the Modi government has done is to make the country's borders safe, he claimed. Invoking a number of Centre's schemes aimed at welfare of youth and farmers, he said the government has made a beginning for "miraculous" change in the country.