By TCN News,
New Delhi: The students of South Asian University, New Delhi has issued a statement in solidarity with the student and faculty community of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in their collective struggle against the ongoing police intervention by slapping the charges of sedition on many students, including the arrest of JNUSU President – Kanhaiya Kumar.
A group of students of South Asian University comprising students from eight SAARC nations – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have written that collective nationalism stands responsible only to the interests of our people and our land, and not to the divisive forces which have had and are still trying to create boundaries between people.
The statement also says, “We cherish the common cultural and social heritage of the South Asian region, and shall not let any kind of jingoist nationalism being endorsed by any religious group, political party or state hinder our shared solidarity”.
““We strongly oppose the idea that one’s nationalism be defined in terms of hatred towards another nation”, says students’ statement.
“However”, the students observed, “in recent times, such groups and establishments have unleashed an attack on democratic and critical voices in our universities across the South Asian region, masked under religious conformity, state intervention or sometimes in the form of an act of terrorism”.
Earlier, the teachers of South Asian University also issued similar statement in solidarity with the Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers Association (JNUTA) and protested against the arrest of students and their leader.