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Over 400 academicians from international varsities, including Columbia, Yale, Harvard and Cambridge, have come out in support of JNU students agitating against a row over an event on the campus.
A joint statement signed by 455 academicians from global universities, said, "JNU stands for a vital imagination of the space of the university an imagination that embraces critical thinking, democratic dissent, student activism, and the plurality of political beliefs. It is this critical imagination that the current establishment seeks to destroy.
“And we know that this is not a problem for India alone".
"Similar attacks on critical dissent and university spaces are being attempted and resisted across the world. An open, tolerant, and democratic society is inextricably linked to critical thought and expression cultivated by universities in India and abroad.
"As teachers, students, and scholars across the world, we are watching with extreme concern the situation unfolding at JNU and refuse to remain silent as our colleagues (students, staff, and faculty) resist the illegal detention and autocratic suspension of students," said the academicians, some of which are JNU alumni.