Silchar, April 6: The Cachar district unit of the National Students' Union of India (NSUI), the Congress's student wing, has challenged Hindu Samhati, saying it would make sure that Debopriya Shome, a student of Jadavpur University in Calcutta, reaches home safely whenever he decides.
On Tuesday, members of the right-wing group gheraoed Shome's residence here for allegedly raising pro- azadi slogans in the university recently.
The vice-president of the Cachar district unit of the NSUI, Raja Laskar, said: "If/whenever Shome comes to Silchar, the committee will make sure that he reaches home safely. We will see who stops us in doing that."
Criticising Hindu Samhati members for their "threatening act", Laskar said the members of the group, on finding Shome's grandmother alone at home, had threatened her and showed their "so-called courage".
"That was absolutely unacceptable," he said. "It is quite surprising that the district unit of the BJP is not controlling its organisations. The NSUI is not going to remain silent if their activities continue."
The All Barak Youth Students' Union (ABYSA), too termed Hindu Samhati's act "undemocratic".
Condemning the act, the chief convener of ABYSA central committee, Baharul Islam Barbhuiya, said threatening Shome's aged grandmother and their neighbours is unacceptable.
He said: "Silchar town is not owned by any organisation or any group. It belongs to everyone and nobody has the right to stop someone from coming to or going from here. India is a democratic country. Each and every citizen has constitutional rights and the freedom to have different political ideologies and opinions. Nobody can take the rights or the freedom from anyone."
Speaking to The Telegraph this evening, Sanjib Nath, a member of the Silchar unit of Hindu Samhati, said it is unfortunate that the NSUI and ABYSA have supported "anti-national" Shome. "This apparently shows that they are having anti-national mindsets too."
"People with such mindsets will not be tolerated in this country and we are not going to be silent. We will raise our voices whenever we come across such anti-national activities," Nath said.
On being asked about his reaction to Laskar's comment - "having a different political ideology is Shome's personal matter and nobody has the right to question it" - Nath said Hindu Samhati is not influenced by any political party and it is a group that believes in expressing itself in the "interest of the nation".
"By his act, Shome apparently showed his anti-national side. A similar incident took place in Delhi when Kanhaiya Kumar, a PhD student of JNU raised such slogans at JNU. The virus of anti-nationalism has travelled from Delhi to Calcutta now. If these are not stopped, the day is not very far when similar episodes will take place here in Silchar. But we will not let that happen," Nath said.
Asked if Debopriya's father Dipankar spoke to any of the Hindu Samhati members to resolve the matter (as claimed by Dipankar), Nath said there has been no talks about the issue so far. "We have also heard about this, however, this is a rumour. Till now, none of the members of our group has talked to Debopriya's father or to any other person from his family," he added.