We strongly believe that the charge of sedition against Kanhaiya Kumar follows spurious claims. This arrest is an excuse for the state to root out dissenting voices on JNU campus, a move towards converting educational institutions like JNU into an arm of the authoritarian state. Attempts of a similar nature have been witnessed recently at other Indian educational institutions such as Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) and Hyderabad University. The growing threat to academic freedom posed by the current political climate is transnational, and extends beyond India to other parts of the world – it is a threat we face here in the United States, too.

For any word or action to qualify as being “seditious” under Indian law, it has to directly issue a call to violence. This was not the nature of the protest held by a group of JNU students against the judiciary’s decision regarding Afzal Guru, who was convicted of an attack on the Indian parliament. The peaceful protest held on February 9 on campus was not unlike other protests convened at the university over the last several decades. Dissent is an essential part of a healthy democracy. We therefore strongly condemn the Indian government’s response to the students’ protests and demand that the state refrain from authoritarian behaviour. In this spirit, we urge the vice chancellor of JNU to protect members of the university community and safeguard their democratic rights.
 

1. Natasha S.K., Social Science, Syracuse University
2. Taveeshi Singh, Social Science, Syracuse University
3. Mitul Baruah, Geography, Syracuse University
4. Sean Wang, Geography, Syracuse University
5. Miguel Contreras, Geography, Syracuse University
6. Manuela Ruiz Reyes, Geography, Syracuse University
7. Carolina Arango-Vargas, Anthropology, Syracuse University
8. Tina Catania, Geography, Syracuse University
9. Linh Khanh Nguyen, Anthropology, Syracuse University
10. Jon Erickson, Geography, Syracuse University
11. Tom Perreault, Geography, Syracuse University
12. Jessie Speer, Geography, Syracuse University
13. Sravani Biswas, History, Syracuse University
14. Don Mitchell, Geography, Syracuse University
15. Tod Rutherford, Geography, Syracuse University
16. Jacquelyn MicieliVoutsinas, Geography, Syracuse University
17. Sturdy Knight, Information Studies, Syracuse University
18. Jenna Sikka, Sociology, Syracuse University
19. Jaisang Sun, Social Science, Syracuse University
20. Madhura Lohokare, Anthropology, Syracuse University
21. Brian Dobreski, Information Studies, Syracuse University
22. Sujata Bajracharya, Religion, Syracuse University
23. Chandra TalpadeMohanty, Women’s and Gender Studies, Syracuse University
24. Alisa Weinstein, Anthropology, Syracuse University
25. Li Chen, Mass Communications, Syracuse University
26. Taapsi Ramchandani, Anthropology, Syracuse University
27. Laura Jaffee, Cultural Foundations of Education, Syracuse University
28. Tula Goenka, Television-Radio-Film, Syracuse University
29. Romita Ray, Art and Music Histories, Syracuse University
30. Dorothy Kou, Sociology, Syracuse University
31. Kriangsak Terrakowitkajom, Geography, Syracuse University
32. Susan S. Wadley, Anthropology, Syracuse University
33. Emily Mitchell-Eaton, Geography, Syracuse University
34. Scarlett Rebman, History, Syracuse University
35. Matt Huber, Geography, Syracuse University
36. Brian Hennigan, Geography, Syracuse University
37. Parvathy Binoy, Geography, Syracuse University
38. Liz Mount, Sociology, Syracuse University
39. Himika Bhattacharya, Women’s & Gender Studies, Syracuse University
40. John Western, Geography, Syracuse University
41. Vani Kannan, Composition and Cultural Rhetoric, Syracuse University
42. Ani Maitra, Film and Media Studies, Colgate University
43. Diane Swords, Cultural Foundations of Education, Syracuse University
44. Alejandro Camargo, Geography, Syracuse University
45. Cecilia Van Hollen, Anthropology, Syracuse University
46. Alexandra Jebbia, Documentary Film & History, Syracuse University
47. David Gustavsen, English, Syracuse University
48. Michael Gill, Cultural Foundations of Education, Syracuse University
49. Tiago Teixeira, Geography, Syracuse University
50. Nimanthi Rajasingham, English, Colgate University
51. Kimberly E. Powell, Women’s & Gender Studies, Syracuse University
52. Sharon Moran, Environmental Studies, SUNY-ESF
53. Adam Fix, Environmental Studies, SUNY-ESF
54. Alvaro A. Salas, Public Administration, Syracuse University
55. Diane R. Wiener, Division of Student Affairs – Disability Cultural Center, Syracuse University
56. Brett Keegan, Composition and Cultural Rhetoric, Syracuse University
57. Jyoti G. Balachandran, History, Colgate University
58. Barbara L. Regenspan, Educational Studies, Colgate University
59. Deborah J. Knuth Klenck, English, Colgate University
60. Suzanne B. Spring, Writing & Rhetoric, Colgate University
61. Cristina Serna, Women’s Studies, Colgate University
62. Joel Bordeaux, Religion, Colgate University
63. Mark Stern, Educational Studies, Colgate University
64. Susan Thomson, Peace and Conflict Studies, Colgate University
65. Kapil Mandrekar, Environmental and Forest Biology, SUNY-ESF.
66. Jackie Orr, Sociology, Syracuse University.

Kafila.org

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We believe that these actions by the Indian state and its associated groups and institutions are part of a larger campaign to stifle dissenting voices in the country, especially on university campuses which have persistently resisted the capitalist, Brahmanical hegemony of the current government. This was clearly evident in the institutional murder of Rohith Vemula, a Dalit PhD student at Hyderabad Central University (HCU) last month. The similarity of the modus operandi in Hyderabad and Delhi is striking: Rohith and his comrades had been accused of ‘anti-national’ activities for their condemnation of the hanging of Yakub Memon, and suspended from their academic positions on these undemocratic grounds. Similar charges have been framed against the students of JNU for organizing an event in solidarity with the struggle of Kashmiri people for their right to self-determination. To make matters murkier, it is now certain that at the event, which also marked the third anniversary of the execution of Afzal Guru, the ABVP was involved in raising the controversial slogans that are being cited to justify the sedition charge. We are of the firm opinion that protesting against state violence is a fundamental right that must not become vulnerable to arbitrary violation by governments, police and university administrations.

We believe that the colonial-era laws of sedition — already diluted and read down by the Supreme Court — are an embarrassment to India’s democratic principles. The criminalization of dissent in this case reveals how India’s current political leadership has been unable to respect diversity and guarantee the full legal rights of its people. Its political program imagines the citizen as upper caste, heterosexual, male, Hindu; its economic program necessitates a blind faith in neoliberalism; and its social program continually imagines an enemy – the Muslim, the Dalit, the Left. It is not surprising that a government so debilitated and blinkered by its ideological narrowness has invoked the charge of sedition and sent police forces into the JNU campus, an action reminiscent of the worst years of Emergency.

We are also distressed by views expressed in certain sections of the Indian media regarding the legitimacy of political activism in public universities. This argument claims that since central and state governments subsidize education in public institutions, it is the responsibility of beneficiaries to refrain from critiquing state policies and to solely prioritize their studies. We firmly reject this cost-benefit understanding of education as shallow, apolitical, and deeply reactionary. As the saying goes, ‘education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire’. The current administration and sections of the media would prefer students to remain uncritical of the violence of Brahmanism, communalism, and neoliberal capitalism. But the Rohiths of the world will keep lighting a fire and keep burning down bigotry. We believe that both public education and free speech are fundamental rights enshrined in the Indian Constitution, rights that have been earned through long struggle and rights that we will keep fighting for in India and elsewhere as we face systematic neoliberal onslaughts on dissent and education.

To our friends, colleagues and comrades in JNU, HCU, FTII and elsewhere, we stand with you in your resistance against state sponsored violence, which curbs any form of dissent on the one hand, and on the other, condones hate speech by Hindu nationalists. We believe that scholarship and the concomitant development of our critical faculties should be used in dreaming of and implementing a better, pluralistic and just society.

Sayantan Saha Roy, PhD student, Anthropology
Ahona Panda, PhD student, South Asian Languages and Civilizations
Harini Kumar, PhD student, Anthropology
Tanima, PhD student, Anthropology
Sneha Annavarapu, PhD student, Sociology
Abhishek Bhattacharyya, Phd Student, South Asian Languages and Civilizations and Anthropology
Tejas Parasher, PhD student, Political Science
Jenisha Borah, PhD student, Cinema and Media Studies.
Suchismita Das, PhD student, Anthropology
Vidura Jang Bahadur, MFA student, Visual Art
Mannat Johal, PhD student, Anthropology
Shefali Jha, PhD student, Anthropology
Sanjukta Poddar, PhD student, South Asian Languages and Civilizations
Aditi Das, PhD student, Social Service Administration
Joya John, PhD student, South Asian Languages and Civilizations
Marc Kelly, PhD student, Anthropology
Eleonore Rimbault, PhD student, Anthropology
Eric Powell, PhD student, English
Patrick Lewis, PhD student, Anthropology
Romit Chakraborty, PhD student, Chemistry
Gautham Reddy, PhD student, South Asian Languages and Civilizations
Amanda Shubert, PhD student, English
Peter McDonald, PhD student, English
Hannah Chazin, PhD student, Anthropology
Jahnabi Barooah, PhD student, Divinity
Margherita Trento, PhD student, South Asian Languages and Civilizations
Peter Malonis, PhD student, Neuroscience
Zoya Sameen, PhD student, History
Sharvari Sastry, PhD student, South Asian Languages and Civilizations
Andrew Messamore, MA student, Social Sciences Division
Thomas Newbold, PhD student, South Asian Languages and Civilizations
Eduardo L. Acosta, PhD student, South Asian Languages and Civilizations
Uday Jain, PhD student, Committee on Social Thought
 

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DSA Pakistan Letter of Solidarity
 

We reject the charges of sedition, subversion and treason that are used to silence, suppress and smother voices that do not resonate with state-sanctioned truths and resonate beyond state-imposed parameters of intellectual, political, cultural and social thought and action.
We, the members of the Democratic Students Alliance, know well the struggle and cost of challenging state narratives. We strive for the revival of student unions in Pakistan and admire their existence in India, for we believe students of this region are forces that can salvage the future of our countries from the archaic but potent forces of myopia, hate and coercion that have held out countries hostage.

It is in the spirit of these ideas that we strongly condemn the arrest of Kanhaiya Kumar (JNUSU), the attack on JNU and extend our solidarity and lend our entire support to the brave students standing against this injustice.

Across the border, we stand in unity and solidarity.

More power to you, more power to students.

17th February, 2016

Democratic Students’ Alliance, Pakistan
 

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The post All India Lawyers Union writes to Delhi HC chief justice for action against errant lawyers and police at Patiala court appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Support came in from Hyderabad University’s Joint Action Committee for Social Justice, which itself is fighting for justice for Rohith Vemula.

“Joint Action Committee for Social Justice (UoH) strongly condemns the attack on students all over the country, the planned attack on JNU students by the State, the arrest of JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar, police brutality and militarisation of campuses, the attack on university autonomy and constant state intervention in universities,” it said in a statement.

Expressing solidarity with the JNU teachers and students, Nandita Narain, president of Federation of Central University Teachers Association (FEDCUTA), asserted that the opposition raised by the students was “anti-establishment and not anti-national”.

“The event could be in bad taste but was not seditious. Whatever opposition the students have is against the present government and not against the Constitution. This kind of police action against the students on the pretext of national security is uncalled for,” she said.

Students of Pune-based Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), who were supported by JNU students in their protest against the appointment of Gajendra Chauhan as the institute’s chairman, expressed solidarity with the agitators and accused the government of harassing and threatening those who dare to oppose its ideology.

In a letter to the JNU Teachers’ Association (JNUTA) Harishankar Nachimuthu, the president of the Students’ Association, FTII said, “We express our solidarity with the JNU students and condemn the random arrest of JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar on charges of sedition and criminal conspiracy and demand his immediate release. The current government has not learnt anything from the tragic death of Rohith Vemula and is continuing with the vilification, harassment and threat to those who dare to oppose its ideology.”

A faculty of Ambedkar University said, “Today it is JNU, tomorrow it could be any other university. Any voice of dissent being branded as anti-national is dangerous for any educational institution or community at large. No university should allow such indiscriminate raids on student hostels.”

(The Hindu)
 

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Registering a strong protest against the ongoing rift in Jawaharlal Nehru University, three office bearers of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) resigned from their respective posts on Wednesday, 17 February. Pradeep, Rahul Yadav and Ankit Hans posted an open letter on Facebook spelling out the main reasons for their joint resignation: crackdown at JNU, ABVP’s Manuwaad and ‘Rohith Vimula’ incident.

Here is the complete post:

Dear friends,

We, Pradeep, joint secretary, ABVP JNU unit, Rahul Yadav, president SSS ABVP Unit and Ankit Hans, secretary SSS ABVP unit [are] resigning from ABVP and disassociating ourselves from any further activity of ABVP as per our difference of opinion due to the following reasons:

1. Current JNU incident.

2. Long standing difference of opinion with party on MANUSMIRITI and Rohith Vermula incident.

Anti-national slogans on Feb. 9 in university campus were very unfortunate and heart breaking. Whosoever responsible for that act must be punished as per the law but the way NDA government tackling the whole issue, the oppression on Professors, repeated lawyer attacks on Media and Kanhaiya kumar in court premises is unjustifiable and we think there is a difference between interrogation and crushing ideology and branding entire left as Anti-national.

People are circulating #ShutDownJNU but I think they must circulate #ShutDownZeeNews which has demeaned this world class institution, this biased ZEE news media generalize and related the act done by few people to the whole student community of JNU. JNU is considered as one of the progressive and democratic institution where we can see intermingling of people from lower to upper income strata of the society, notion of equality.

We can't be mouthpiece of such a govt. which has unleashed oppression on student community, legislature like O P Sharma, govt. which has legitimized the action of right wing fascist forces either in Patiala house court or in front of JNU north gate. Every day we see people assemble at front gate with Indian Flag to beat JNU student, well this is hooliganism not nationalism, you can't do anything in the name of nation, there is a difference between nationalism and hooliganism.

Anti-India slogans can't be tolerated in campus or any part of country, JNUSU& some left organization are saying that nothing has happened in the campus but here we want to stress that veiled persons in the event organized by former DSU persons shouted slogans BHARAT TERE TUKADDE HONGE of which there is concrete evidence in videos, so we demand any person responsible for the slogans should be punished as per the law, and in this whole process we also condemn media trial which has culminated in Anti-JNU sentiments throughout the country.

Today we all must stand together to save JNU which has given us identity, we need to come across party lines to save reputation of this institution, to save future of JNUites as more than 80% of students don't belong to any political party so let's unite to save this JNU culture.

|VANDE MATRAM |

| JAI BHIM |

| JAI BHARAT |
 
 

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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.

Outlook
 

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Eminent academicians, scientists and writers from across the world, including Noam Chomsky and Orhan Pamuk, have recorded their condemnation of the arrest of JNU student Kanhaiya Kumar in a strongly-worded statement that says it is "evidence of the present government's deeply authoritarian nature, intolerant of any dissent".

A statement signed by 86 academicians from renowned universities also condemns "the culture of authoritarian menace that the present government in India has generated".
The statement says: "We have learnt of the shameful act of the Indian government which, invoking sedition laws formulated by India's colonial rulers, ordered the police to enter the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus and unlawfully arrest a student leader, Mr. Kanhaiya Kumar, on charges of inciting violence – without any proof whatever of such wrongdoing on his part."

Expressing solidarity with protesting JNU students and faculty, who have boycotted classes to press for Kumar's release, the statement says: "Mr. Kumar, whose speech (widely available on a video) cannot in any way be connected with the slogans uttered on the previous day, was nonetheless arrested for 'anti-national' behaviour and for violating the sedition laws against the incitement to violence. Since there is no evidence to establish these charges, we can only conclude that this arrest is further evidence of the present government's deeply authoritarian nature, intolerant of any dissent, setting aside India's longstanding commitment to toleration and plurality of opinion, replicating the dark times of an oppressive colonial period and briefly of the Emergency in the mid-1970s. "

The action of the police had brought "great dishonor" to the government, the signatories assert, and urge "all those genuinely concerned about the future of India and Indian universities to protest in wide mobilisation against it."
 
(NDTV).

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