On The Sidelines of JNU, Delhi University Professors Harassed By Police

NEW DELHI: As media headlines are dominated by the government’s crackdown on Jawaharlal Nehru University and the arrest of JNU Student Union President Kanhaiya Kumar on the charges of sedition, another matter relating to the shouting of ‘anti-national’ slogans at a meeting held at the Press Club went on to the backburner.

Three senior professors of Delhi University Dr. Ali Javed, Prof Nirmalangshu Mukharji and Dr. Vijay Singh were summoned by the police because of their participation in the meeting, with Dr. Javed being expelled from the Press Club.

Javed then implicated S.A.R Geelani, also a professor at Delhi University, who has since been booked on sedition charges. There is no proof as yet that Geelani was involved in seditious activity in the Press Club case.

There have been messages of support for Javed and others that have escaped media attention because of the primacy being accorded to the controversy over the arrest of Kanhaiya on the same charges of sedition.

A statement signed by several academics, scholars and civil society leaders reads:

“STOP HARASSMENT OF DELHI UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS”

“We the undersigned condemn the ongoing harassment of senior professors of Delhi University Dr. Ali Javed, Prof Nirmalangshu Mukharji and Dr. Vijay Singh in the name of questioning over a seminar which is construed as an anti national event. These professors were kept in the police station till 3 am at night and have been subjected to questioning for nearly 12 hours a day. Dr. Tripta Wahi was also called for questioning on Monday but allowed to leave in the evening.

All this is related to a meeting held at the press club in which Dr. Ali Javed, Prof. Nirmalangshu Mukharji,Dr. Vijay Singh and Tripta Wahi had participated and spoken.It seems a case is being tried to be made that it was an anti-national meeting and these four academics who are involved in it.

Dr. Ali Javed has made it very clear in his letter to the press club and in his statement to the police that he was not the organiser of the event. His role was confined to get venue for Dr. S. A. R. Geelani booked at his request. All four of them had spoken very clear in the meeting that for them the Indian constitution was supreme. All problems including that of Kashmir needs to be resolved in the frame work of the constitution. They had also made it abundantly clear that they did not regard Afzal Guru as martyr.

We also want to emphasize that India has a long tradition of various types of anti-establishment campaigns which have only strengthened the Indian democracy and made it more robust and resilient.State alone does not represent India. It is the people,of different shades and hues, of differing ideas of democracy which make India.India has witnessed protests in MIzoram, Nagaland, Bodoland,Manipur,Gorkhaland and other places. To criminalize expression of dissent and protest would subvert the very idea of a free and democratic India.

Indian state cannot be allowed to turn into a police state which believes in only one kind of 'nationalist' ideology. Expression of frustration and even anger by people who have a feeling of being wronged by the state cannot be termed seditious.

Kashmiri people,as Indian citizens, have a right to express themselves,however disagreeable their protest might be to some of us as long as it is not a violent act.

The atmosphere of fear and intimidation that has been built in the last week bodes ill for Indian democracy. The capitulation of the press club before the police, its alacrity in lodging a complaint against the organisers of the above mentioned event and its act of termination of the membership of Ali Javed shows that autonomy of institutions is under severe stress.

For the last four days the four academics are being harassed by keeping them at the police station long hours.It's very distressing and disturbing that all this is happening in the capital of India and involves four well know academics who have all their life fought for democratic and secular values of india who are being subjected to constant harassment.

We demand that the Delhi Police stop subjecting these senior academics to needless harassment and indignity.”