PIPFPD condemns action against Kashmiri students in - TopicsExpress



          

PIPFPD condemns action against Kashmiri students in Meerut Demands immediate withdrawal of all cases, expulsion order KT NEWS SERVICE SRINAGAR, Mar 12: Strongly condemning the action against Kashmiri students in Meerut, the Indian chapter of Pakistan India Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD) today demanded immediate withdrawal of all cases against them. PIPFPD has also demanded withdrawal of the expulsion order by the university in Meerut and ensuring the safety of all students. It has also demanded that the University take action against students who allegedly beat up the Kashmiri students and ransacked their rooms. It further appealed that “the seriousness of what has happened and this hooliganism by right wing groups should not be covered under the storm of political opportunism and made into an issue that political parties can piggy back on”. The demands have been made in a joint statement by Asha Hans and Anuradha Bhasin Jamwal, co-chairpersons, PIPFPD India Chapter. “PIPFPD condemns the action taken by fellow students, the university administration and the Meerut Police against the students from Kashmir,” they said. They have urged for action on students who have beaten them up and ransacked the rooms of Kashmiri students in the university campus. “We appeal that the seriousness of what has happened; this hooliganism by right wing groups is not covered under the storm of political opportunism and is not made into an issue that political parties can piggy back on,” the statement said. They stated that the recent case of charges of sedition, spreading enmity and mischief imposed on some students from Kashmir at the Swami Vivekanand Subharti University, Meerut, Uttar Pradesh and their expulsion from this University after they cheered for Pakistan post a cricket match between India and Pakistan on March 2, 2014 has evoked a lot of responses, anger from some, judgments on what the students should have or should not have done and a lot of debate. The students were booked under section 124 A (sedition), 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups) and 427 (mischief) of IPC after a complaint by university chancellor. After severe opposition, the UP government dropped the charges of sedition against the students on March 8, 2014 but, the other charges remain and the order by the university administration to expel these students still stands. “One thing it all boils down to is the fact that a bunch of Kashmiri students were not only expelled, attacked and thrown out of their hostel rooms for cheering for Pakistan’s cricket team, but this incident is a reflection of a sense of jingoistic nationalism that is being promoted since years and in this case, students are being made subjects. There is no law that says that it is necessary for one to cheer the official sports team of the motherland and hence it is important to understand that this is not just about bad sportspersons spirit,” the statement said. They added that many of the matches between India and Pakistan where India wins, have been times when massive rallies with anti-Pakistan and anti-Muslim slogans have taken place from University areas and in fact, from almost every second locality in various parts of the country, which all go unnoticed. “But, this cannot be allowed to go unnoticed because it feeds into the kind of nationalism that this country endorses,” the statement said. The PIPFPD maintained that the Indian constitution needs to be followed by the Indian government. “The students cheered for a cricket team. There is no evidence that shows that they engaged in vandalism, hooliganism, held arms, were a threat, disrupted government functioning. Thus, the case does not stand and instead of going to the root of the problem, looking at the intolerance of the fellow students, the unacceptable action taken by the University authorities and the UP police; different political parties and politicians are trying to score points over one another,” it said. The PIPFPD statement pointed out that while demands for dropping sedition charges came mainly from Omar Abdullah, chief minister and the Peoples’ Democratic Party, Omar Abdullah on the other hand has said that they should not have cheered for Pakistan, they were misguided. “However, the fact of the matter is that the students have been harassed, attacked, have had to hear taunts in the past, one Kashmiri student was also stabbed earlier and this is the light in which the incident on March 2 took place,” the statement added. News Updated at : Thursday, March 13, 2014
Posted on: Thu, 13 Mar 2014 08:32:52 +0000

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