Government imposing RSS ideology on students: Rahul

New Delhi, Feb 18  Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said the Narendra Modi government was imposing right-wing RSS ideology on the student community in India.

"They (the government) are trying to impose the flawed RSS ideology on students... to crush their imagination, their dreams," Gandhi told reporters here after meeting President Pranab Mukherjee over the escalating student agitation in the national capital.

"The Congress won't allow it to happen," he vowed, taking the fight with the government to Rashtrapati Bhavan. 

The Congress leader was accompanied, among others, by Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad for the meeting with the president that came in the backdrop of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students protesting the arrest of their union leader Kanhaiya Kumar.

Kumar was arrested after some students organised a Kashmir meeting in the JNU campus last week to protest the execution of parliament attack convict separatist leader Afzal Guru three years ago.

Police allege that anti-India slogans were raised at the JNU event and the Left-leaning student leader made some "anti-national remarks", a charge Kumar has denied. He was later arrested on sedition charges.

The Congress leader strongly criticised the government for cracking down on students and accused it of maligning the image of India globally.

"It is not the government job to destroy institutions. This nation will prosper because of our students' imagination. Imposing an ideology on them will not benefit the nation," the Congress leader said.

"It has damaged India's global image," he said.

Gandhi last week visited JNU and met protesting students on the campus. He was strongly criticized by BJP president Amit Shah for siding with the "anti-national" elements.

Gandhi hit out at his detractors and said: "Nationalism runs in my blood. I have seen my family sacrifice for the nation again and again."

He, however, stressed that if anybody has said anything against the country, "they should be dealt with according to the law".