By TCN News,
New Delhi: Members and affiliates of the American University of Beirut (AUB) have issued statement in support of students and faculty at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).
On Tuesday over 130 faculties, students, staff, and affiliates of the American University of Beirut (AUB) have joined thousands of academics and concerned individuals around the world who have already signed solidarity statements condemning the recent alleged repressive actions of Indian authorities at JNU.
The AUB solidarity statement asserted: “We condemn the police action at JNU, the arrest of the JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar on the charge of sedition, the unwarranted harassment of students and activists, the targeting of Umar Khalid, and the profiling of Kashmiri and Muslim students on campus. We denounce the repressive charges against Kumar and others, the violence against faculty and students, as well as police complicity in the beating of Kumar at the Patiala Courthouse.”
The statement also mentions arrest of SAR Geelani and suicide of Rohith Vemula at Hyderabad University. It reads, “The actions against students at JNU, in tandem with the sedition charges against former Delhi University professor SAR Geelani and the recent targeting of Dalit student activists at Hyderabad University, reveal a troubling pattern emerging at Indian universities that stifles critical thinking, dissent, scholarship, and debate.”
Extending the solidarity it further says, “From Lebanon, we stand alongside international scholars who have drafted and signed numerous solidarity statements, shoulder-to-shoulder with the students, faculty and staff of JNU.”
Dr. Rania Masri, Associate Director for the Asfari Institute for Civil Society and Citizenship at AUB, weighed in on the issue: “Universities are places where thought must be free to develop, where students can learn without fear of being arrested for sedition, where teachers can teach critical, challenging histories, and where parents can send their children without fear that they will be victimized for questioning historical injustices.”
Professor Tariq Mehmood, one the co-authors of the statement, echoed Masri: “When we initially sent our statement to the AUB community, we did not imagine that just a few hours later, over 100 people would sign in solidarity. This shows that people in Lebanon we care about what is happening in India.”