New Delhi: JNU teachers today joined students in boycotting classes to protest the arrest of its student union leader in a sedition case and said they would take classes on ‘nationalism’ in the varsity lawns.
The students had yesterday gone on an indefinite strike till JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar is released and the sedition case against him dropped.
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After 10 teachers and a group of students were attacked yesterday in Patiala House court complex where Kanhaiya was produced, the teachers’ association decided to join the students in boycotting classes.
"The administration is not only acting against students but also teachers and we are being openly attacked while the Vice Chancellor stays mum over it. The entire world is now referring to JNU as a hub of anti-nationals on the basis of propaganda of a few people in power. It is time we teach our students what nationalism is," said Rohith Azad, a faculty member, who was among those who were attacked yesterday.
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The one-and-half-hour long lecture on ‘nationalism’ will be held every evening at 5 in front of the administration block.
JNU students’ union president Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested last week in connection with a case of sedition and criminal conspiracy registered over holding an event at the varsity during which anti-India slogans were raised.
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His arrest has triggered widespread outrage among students and teachers and drawn severe criticism from non-BJP political parties.
The university teachers had earlier rallied behind protesting students and questioned the administration's decision to allow the police crackdown on the campus even as they appealed to the public not to ‘brand’ the institution as ‘anti-national’ but they had not joined the strike earlier.
Teachers' bodies of 40 central universities and Pune-based FTII had also come out in support of the agitating students, saying it was an issue of ‘indiscipline’ and not ‘sedition’. Over 400 academicians from international varsities, including Columbia, Yale, Harvard, Cambridge, Oxford, SOAS, University of Toronto, McGill, King's College, University of California, Berkeley and New York University have also expressed solidarity with JNU students condemning the ‘illegal’ detention and ‘autocratic’ suspension of students.
Read: No NIA probe in JNU sedition charge, Delhi HC refuses to interfere
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.
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"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.
JNU students union president Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested last week in connection with a case of sedition and criminal conspiracy registered over holding of the event against hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru at the varsity during which anti-India slogans were alleged to have been raised.
His arrest has triggered widespread outrage among students and teachers and drawn severe criticism from non-BJP political parties.
The university teachers have also rallied behind its protesting students and questioned the administration's decision to allow the police crackdown on the campus even as they appealed to the public not to "brand" the institution as "anti-national".
Yesterday, violence broke out in the Patiala House court complex when groups of lawyers thrashed journalists and students and teachers of JNU while the political slugfest over the arrest of Kanhaiya snowballed with BJP chief Amit Shah targeting Rahul and Sonia Gandhi on the issue.
