After two JNU students surrendered before the police in connection with a sedition case, uneasy calm prevailed in the varsity campus amid confusion whether three more students will adopt the same appr
After two JNU students surrendered before the police in connection with a sedition case, uneasy calm prevailed in the varsity campus amid confusion whether three more students will adopt the same approach.
The five students — Umar Khalid, Anirban Bhattacharya, JNUSU general secretary Rama Naga, Ashutosh Kumar and Anant Prakash — had gone missing from the campus since February 12 after JNU Students’ Union president Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested on sedition charges for allegedly raising anti-India slogans during a controversial event. While Mr Khalid and Mr Bhattacharya had surrendered before the police late on Tuesday night, the remaining three students maintained that they will not surrender.
The JNUSU office-bearers met on Wednesday to decide on their strategy and a group of students went to India Gate to participate in a candlelight vigil in solidarity with the Hyderabad varsity students who are in Delhi demanding justice for Rohith Vemula.
“We have been hoping that Kanhaiya will be granted bail and will join us in protest against this branding of the university as anti-national, but unfortunately that has not happened so far,” said JNUSU vice-president Shehla Rashid Shora.
Hours after the two students surrendered before the police, Army veteran Major General G.D. Bakshi (Retd.) on Wednesday said JNU students are not allowed to inflict terrorism in the name of debate.
Gen. Bakshi (Retd.) was speaking at a function organised by the ABVP in the JNU campus to pay homage to soldiers who killed in Pampore. Before the arrival of the Army veterans, the event ran into trouble as its faced protests by some students.
Urging protesting students to allow the ABVP to host the event, Ms Shora said, “We doubt their (ABVP) intentions, they want a confrontation and any confrontation will give ruling class a chance to extract sympathy from people. Is it possible to show magnanimity and be the big brother We can sit in protest and hold placards.”
Gen. Bakshi (Retd.) told students gathered to hear him near the university’s administrative block: “I want to talk about nationalism. What is a nation: the people and the territory! I am an India because I was born in this territory; Hindu, Muslim, Christian, it doesn’t matter.”
“If we are asked to separate Kashmir, Manipur tomorrow, what will happen When you chop off any part of the body, be it the left or right hand, blood will ooze out,” he said.
He also criticised US ambassador to India Richard Verma for his comment on allowing free speech on campuses in India. “I want to ask him if any university in the US would allow slogans in support of Osama bin Laden.”
