DIMAPUR, FEBRUARY 23 (MExN): The Naga Scholars Association (NSA) has condemned what it termed as “institutional bashing of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), a premier institution of higher learning as anti-national by different state machineries.”
In a press statement, NSA noted that all university campuses are supposed to be liberal spaces to allow and promote ‘opinions’ and not one ‘opinion.’ However, the recent JNU arrest of a student leader has shown the other side of an academic institution- It is all more “un-academic and pitiable that all of this is pushed in the garb of nationalism,” the scholars’ association maintained.
Asserting that president of JNU Students’ Union, Kanhaiya Kumar, who was recently arrested, is the latest victim of an aggressive chauvinist political ideology, NSA said he is being targeted not because he said something unconstitutional but for raising questions that “our contemporary society encounters on a daily basis just like any other university student.”
This, the NSA said had led to students, teachers and citizens across India protesting against the “mishandling” of the issue by the university administration and questioned the decision to allow the police “crackdown” on the JNU campus.
Pointing out that this has also generated a global outrage, the scholars’ association said even noted linguist and thinker Prof Noam Chomsky led by other leading university professors (thought leaders) have raised questions about the role of police in the university campus and the gross mishandling of the whole episode, including the use of a false video to frame up nationalistic emotions.
The NSA also termed it all the more strange to hear that when the whole world is expressing solidarity with JNU, “another JNU alumni who happens to be the general secretary of Nagaland BJP party organized a completely political protest march without having any understanding of the facts and circumstances.”
While expressing solidarity with the JNU students, the NSA said it also condemns any protest such as the one by Nagaland BJP to distract the common people.
