Union Home minister 'stopped' our interactions at private university: Rahul Gandhi

Guwahati: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday claimed that he was "prevented" from interacting with students of a private university in Meghalaya as part of Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra at the "instructions" of the Union Home minister.

The directive to the varsity authorities was conveyed by the Union minister through the Assam chief minister's office, he claimed.

"I wanted to come to your university and address you, listen to you. But what happened is that the Home minister of India called up the Chief Minister of Assam and the CMO called up the leadership of the university and said that Rahul Gandhi must not be allowed to speak to the students," Gandhi said, addressing students and others from atop his Yatra bus in the Assam-Meghalaya border.

Gandhi was scheduled to hold separate interactions with students, civil society members and party leaders at the University of Science and Technology, Meghalaya, (USTM) in Meghalaya's Ri Bhoi district, bordering Assam, on Tuesday morning.

The programmes at the private varsity were announced by the Congress on Monday afternoon but were re-scheduled to a hotel, also in Ri Bhoi district, later after the university withdrew the permission.

"It is not important if Rahul Gandhi comes or not. What is important is that you are allowed to listen to anybody you want. You must be allowed to live the life as you want and not as somebody else wants," he said.

"They want to turn you into slaves but I know that nobody, no power in the universe can do it," Gandhi asserted, while attacking the BJP.

He also maintained that "this is happening not only in Assam but in every school, college, university of India", where the students are "being not allowed to have their own imagination".