Troubles at JNU worry Indian expats

RIYADH: Indian community organizations in the Kingdom expressed their solidarity with the students of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) who are facing an onslaught of sedition charges.
They also denounced attack on historic minority character of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) and Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI).
Representatives from community organizations gathered on Friday evening for a symposium collectively organized by the India Islamic Cultural Center (IICC), Tanzeem Hum Hindustani (THH), Milli Council, BISWAS and AIRS to discuss the growing interference in the university’s affairs by the federal government in order to impose its ideology.
Addressing the gathering, IICC convener Murshid Kamal supported JNU students, saying that concocted videos cannot be the basis of sedition charge.
“It is not only contrary to what we are guaranteed by our constitution, including freedom of thought, expression and belief, free and fair trials and equal justice, but also an assault on academic autonomy,” he said.
“We are here to support the JNU students and teachers who were beaten; so much of violence was committed against them just for speaking their minds. Are we living in a totalitarian regime?” asked BISWAS General Secretary Akhtar-ul-Islam Siddiqui.
“Certainly, this is a part of a larger witch-hunt against intellectual freedom, academic autonomy and professional excellence, to target and eliminate individuals whom this regime has declared enemies for reasons only known to them,” said Siddiqui.
“If this is the way the students and faculty are treated then the government has willfully chosen to dump the fundamental ethics of our constitution and the dignity of the teaching community,” said JMI Alumni Association President Anis Ahmad.
Misbahul Arefin, president of AIRS, said all prestigious institutions of higher learning in the country are facing unwarranted interference by the BJP government.
Salim Zubaidi, president Al-Hira Educational Society, said Hyderabad Central University (HCU), Allahabad University, the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) and several other institutions are facing a “saffron onslaught” that took the life of Rohith Vemula, a Dalit scholar at the HCU.
THH President Mohammed Quaiser said: “It is a hostile attitude from the government as Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested for making comments against the government, even though he was not actually saying anything against the government. This regime is imposing its ideology on universities to ‘saffronize’ education.”
Khalid Noor Mohammed, Milli Council convener, explained the policy of “saffronization,” saying it is an attempt by the BJP government to promote Hindu culture by introducing Hindu mythology into the school syllabus.