Students and teachers of several international universities, such as University of California, Berkeley, and Yale University, came out in support of JNU Students’ Union president Kanhaiya Kumar, arrested in a sedition case, as thinker and academician Noam Chomsky questioned JNU vice-chancellor M. Jagadesh Kumar’s decision to allow the police on its campus in connection with the row over an event against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.
In an email to the JNU V-C, Prof. Chomsky said, “Many of us remain very concerned about the crisis in JNU, which was apparently created and precipitated by the government and university administration with no credible evidence of any seditious activities on the campus. Why did you allow the police on campus when it is clear that this was not legally required ”
The students from many international universities are narrating his seditious speech in English and uploading their videos online.
Eleanor Newbigin, University of London, said in a video, “I have never been a student of JNU, but I have interacted with students from the university. I am narrating an excerpt from Kanhaiya’s ‘seditious’ speech.
Quoting from Mr Kumar’s speech, she said: “Some people are saying JNU runs on taxpayers’ money. Yes, it does. But I want to raise the question: What are universities for Universities are there for critical analysis of the society’s collective conscience. Critical analysis should be promoted. If universities fail in their duty, there would be no nation. If people are not part of a nation, it will turn into a grazing ground for the rich, for exploitation and looting.”
In a joint video, Dora Zhang and Damon Young, University of California, Berkeley, quoting Mr Kumar, said, “We challenge the RSS definition of justice. We say your vision of justice has no place in it for our vision of justice. We will believe in freedom and justice on that day when every person is freely able to exercise constitutional rights.”
Asserting if Mr Kumar’s speech was seditious, then all those narrating it should also be penalised, Greta LaFleur from Yale University continued with her narration from the transcript of Mr Kumar’s speech. “Call us and hold a debate. We want to debate the concept of violence. We want to raise questions about the frenzied slogans, their slogan that they will do tilak with blood and aarti with bullets. Whose blood do they want to spill
“They aligned with the British and fired bullets on the freedom fighters of this country. They fired bullets when poor people demanded bread; they fired bullets when people dying of hunger talked about their rights; they have fired bullets on Muslims; they have fired bullets on women when they demand equal right and they are now distributing certificates of patriotism.”
Over 400 academicians from international varsities, including Columbia, Yale, Harvard and Cambridge, have also come out in support of the JNU students agitating against a row over an event on the campus. Mr Kumar was arrested on February 12 in a sedition case in connection with an event against hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru where anti-national slogans were allegedly raised.
While the students and teachers supporting Mr Kumar have condemned raising of anti-national slogans, they claim the slogans were not raised by him and there was nothing seditious in his 26-minute speech rendered a day later.
