Imphal, Feb. 27: The ripples of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student leader Kanhaiya Kumar's arrest and subsequent "anti-national" sloganeering row in Bengal's Jadavpur University (JU) touched Imphal today with a public discourse.

Intellectuals, rights activists and representatives of citizen organisations attended the discussion "Public discourse on Central Universities Crisis" that was organised by United People's Administrative Council (UPACO), a citizen organisation, and expressed their solidarity with the ongoing students' movements across the country.

UPACO secretary Basanta Yumnam said: "The people of Manipur, where an armed conflict is existing, need to be well aware of the development in JNU and JU. Therefore, we are organising the discourse today."

Speakers at the programme blamed the BJP for its "Hinduisation" campaign and attempts to control student unions through the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).

The meeting witnessed discussions on the JNU episode, the JU row and also the suicide by Hyderabad University's Dalit student Rohith Vemula.

The speakers suggested that students and teachers of Manipur University should discuss these issues.

"The BJP and its associates' Hindu agenda is posing a serious threat to smaller groups that have different identities like Manipuris. We should support the campaign against fundamentalism," Babloo Loitongbam, executive director of Human Rights Alert Manipur, said. A democratic country should allow free thinking and all educational institutions should be free from violence and intimidation, he added.

Associate professor of Manipur University's economics department Chinglen Meisnam called for extending support to the movement by JNU and JU students.

"Arguing a policy or decision of the government is being labelled as 'anti-national'. We should oppose this because this is nothing but fundamentalism. This is an assault on reasoning," Meisnam said.

Irengbam Arun, editor of an Imphal-based vernacular daily, the moderator, said the ABVP's campaign to control the country's student organisations had been causing commotion in universities across the country.

"BJP and its associates' interference in other communities' food habits and culture is very dangerous. The people of Manipur should be wary of the BJP's agenda," Arun said.