•Condemns anti-dalit, anti-poor, anti-democratic agenda of RSS-BJP govt
•Demands immediate resignation of Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani
Delhi, March 15 (MExN): The North-East Forum For International Solidarity (NEFIS) today participated in a protest march from Mandi House to Parliament Street, in solidarity with JNU students and to demand justice for Dalit Scholar, Rohith Vemula. A press release from the forum also demanded the immediate resignation of HRD Minister Smriti Irani.
Terming it a “political witch-hunt” and a “vicious attack” on the University’s autonomy and democratic culture of debate, dialogue and dissent, NEFIS condemned the malicious slander campaign unleashed against JNU and its academic community.
The BJP government has shown its vile character by imposing false and baseless charges on JNU students, as it had earlier done with Rohith Vemula, “who was driven to suicide”, the forum maintained.
NEFIS also hit out Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh saying that the malafide intentions of the BJP government were revealed when Singh made “irresponsible comments” alleging connections of JNU students with terror outfits “without any evidence”.
Also hitting out at HRD Minister Smriti Irani, the Forum maintained that Irani “shamelessly defended” the “reprehensible role” MHRD played in the “institutional murder” of Rohith Vemula to the extent of resorting to “outright lying” in order to put the entire blame on the expelled students of HCU.
NEFIS also slammed Irani for quoting an internal and “interim” report of a “High Level Enquiry Committee” in JNU naming eight JNU students as prima facie “guilty”. “In naming eight students in the Parliament, Smriti Irani has misused her official position and power to give credence to this highly questionable report of JNU’s High Level Enquiry Committee,” the Forum stated. “These actions of the BJP government which reveal its agenda to stifle dissent in the country and to create fear that criticism of any kind would entail seditious charges, are much more than merely disturbing,” it added.
Noting that since the coming of the BJP government to power, it has actively promoted and patronized “casteist and communal forces” in the country, the forum maintained, “Such acts expose the true face of the fascist forces that are attacking the democratic rights of the students in JNU, HCU and of the citizen of this country.”
