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We, the former students of Jawaharlal Nehru University write to protest against the arrest of the JNU Students' Union President Kanhaiya Kumar and the continued police presence and action in JNU. We unequivocally condemn the charges of sedition – using a colonial-era British law – against Kanhaiya Kumar.
The voicing of an opinion, point of view or demand does not constitute sedition unless accompanied by a specific exhortation to, or act of, violence. In the past year we have witnessed the shrinking of space available for public discussion about important issues faced by our society.
JNU has, over the years, nurtured and promoted a culture of open discussion. It has allowed people from varying political persuasions to debate ideas and dissent. This is what a university should do. We condemn the curbing of this culture of debate and discussion.
JNU is not the first institution of higher education to be so targeted. The banning of the Ambedkar-Periyar Study Circle at Indian Institute of Technology Madras, the branding of Rohith Vemula and Ambedkar Students' Association as anti-national and the present arrest of Kanhaiya Kumar are among recent incidents. These represent a systematic effort to weaken the public university in India--an institution that provides an affordable education to Indian citizens and remains the wellspring of a democratic society. Thousands of JNU students have taken this ethos back with them to their respective fields of work, as teachers, journalists, activists, bureaucrats, policymakers and advisors. The accusations of 'anti-nationalism' and 'sedition', appear to us as attempts to discredit the university at a time when funds available to public institutions are being withdrawn.
We demand the immediate release of Kanhaiya Kumar, quashing of all charges against the students of JNU and the withdrawal of the police from the campus.
Malavika Kasturi
Department of History
University of Toronto
Aparna Vaidik
Associate Professor
Ashoka University
Dhiraj Nite
Assistant Professor
School of Liberal Studies
Ambedkar University, Delhi
Deborah Sutton
Lancaster University
Nandini Bhattacharya
Lecturer in History
School of Humanities
University of Dundee
Fergus Thomas
Humanitarian Advisor
DFID, UK
Swati Shrestha
Global Forest Coalition
Aniket Alam
Executive Editor
EPW
Aparna Balachandran
Assistant Professor
University of Delhi
Samira Sheikh
Associate Professor
Vanderbilt University
Bavani Raman
Associate Professor
University of Toronto
Tanuja Kothiyal
Assistant Professor
School of Liberal Studies
Ambedkar University, Delhi
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