Students stage protests via postcards, cartoons

To express their dissent and anger against the administration, students are using postcards, cartoons and art installations outside the Jawaharlal Nehru University administrative block. Hundreds of postcards for “the jailed” students have been put on display along with cartoon exhibition.

“From under the rubble, let’s sing a rebel song,” read an anonymous postcard written in support of three students who were arrested in connection with the February 9 event in which “anti-national” slogans were allegedly raised. Postcards addressed to “the jailed, with love” hung from a tree outside the administrative block on Tuesday.

Another postcard addressed to Umar Khalid, one of the key organisers of the controversial event, read, “Keeps a smile and shawl around your neck, suits you.”

In solidarity with the three students arrested on charges of sedition, a cartoonist has exhibited his ‘censored” work, taking a dig at the Narendra Modi-led Union government. Cartoonist Gopal Shoonya, who earlier worked for a Hindi newspaper in Patna, has exhibited the cartoons drawn over the last two years.

“As far as I know, JNU liberal space encourages artistic freedom. Nothing happens here that undermines the Constitution. I think there is a rage surrounding patriotism in the country. But can we become patriotic only by chanting ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ ” questioned Mr Shoonya.

The students have been protesting on the campus ever since JNU Students’ Union president Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested in a sedition case.