BJP leader CT Ravi wants JNU be renamed after Swami Vivekananda

A week after Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled a statue of Swami Vivekananda in the campus of the prestigious Delhi-based Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), BJP national general secretary and former Karnataka minister CT Ravi demanded that the university be renamed after Swami Vivekanand.

In a social media post, the controversial leader, who is being promoted aggressively by the BJP high command, argued that Swami Vivekananda stood for the ‘idea of Bharat’.

“It is Swami Vivekananda who stood for the ‘idea of Bharat’. His philosophy and values signify the strength of Bharat. It is only right that Jawaharlal Nehru University be renamed as Swami Vivekananda University. Life of Bharat’s patriotic saint will inspire generations to come,” he said.

Hitting out at Ravi, JNUSU president Aishe Ghosh said, “Rather than re-naming, why doesn’t this government build new universities and name them after Swami Vivekanand? Because if you go back and trace the history of the past 6 years of the Modi government, they have only re-named and that is their success story in nutshell!”

Ravi, who has recently been appointed as in charge of the Tamil Nadu BJP, is notorious for inflammatory speeches. According to Tamil Nadu watchers, Ravi has been appointed to build up a “Hindu” vote bank for the party in the state.

He rose to prominence by organising “Datta Mala Abhiyana”, which was launched in the early 90s in Chikkamagaluru claiming that Bababudangiri, a syncretic shrine visited by Muslims and Hindus, was actually the abode of Guru Dattatreya.

He had recently suggested that “love jihad” should be criminalised in Karnataka.