Universities should not become spaces for ideological conflict: Amit Shah

NEW DELHI: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday said universities should not become wrestling grounds for ideological battles. Addressing students at an event in Delhi University, he said "Universities should become platform for exchange of views and not become spaces for ideological conflict".

Shah also spoke about India's defence policy and said the country did not have a defence policy before Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power and even if it existed, it was a "shadow" of the foreign policy. Referring to the surgical strikes and air strikes carried out by the country, he said India showed what is the meaning of defence policy with them.

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"Before Prime Minister Modi, India did not have a defence policy. Even if it existed, it was a shadow of the foreign policy. Earlier, terrorists would be sent to attack us and there were similar attempts to do so with the Uri and Pulwama attacks. But with the surgical strikes and air strikes, we showed what the defence policy meant," he said.

Shah also said that not even 100 universities were there when DU was set up but now there are hundreds of universities and Delhi University is the leader among them. Indians accept whatever is good in other countries and are willing to implement them but that doesn’t mean we have no relevance of our own, he said.

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The University of Delhi’s Department of Political Science is hosting a three-day international seminar on 'Revisiting The Ideas of India From Swaraj to New India' starting from today, May 19. Home Minister Amit Shah is the chief guest at the programme and Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan also attended the seminar.