On one hand, leftists are crying hoarse over legal recourse taken by some groups over controversial talk given by JNU professor Nivedita Menon, and on the other hand they are not even allowing a professor to enter his office, let alone delivering a talk.
This intolerance and hooliganism of the left was witnessed this afternoon when some students did not allow professors to enter their offices in School of Languages at the Jawaharlal Nehru University.
These leftist students were protesting over UGC rules and over the disappearance of another student called Najeeb Ahmed, who went missing under mysterious circumstances in October last year. Najeeb had got into scuffle with fellow students and allegedly slapped one student for wearing ‘sacred Hindu thread’ before he went missing.
Police has announced reward for people who can come up with information about the case, and last month they had arrested a man named Shameem who had made ransom calls to Najeeb’s family. However, the arrest could not lead to any breakthrough in the case.
It is not yet clear how stopping professors from entering their offices could have helped in finding Najeeb, but that’s what the students belonging to various left organisations decided to do today.
Professor Makarand R Paranjape, who has been teaching at the university for 16 years, was one of the professors who had to face the irrational protests. He was not allowed to go into his office.
Prof Paranjape rued that the security on the campus was ineffective. The security staff backed off when he asked them to help him go to the office, the professor revealed on Twitter.
Prof Paranjape told the protesting students that he too wanted Najeeb to be found, but their form of protest was wrong.
“I tried to reason with so many but they refused to enter into a dialogue, resorting to name-calling and slogan-shouting instead,” he said.
He also shared a video on Twitter where he is seen reasoning with the protesting students who claim they were following “social justice ideology”:
#JNU: Blocked from entering the School of Languages, I was the only one who succeeded in getting inside in the end. pic.twitter.com/Ftm8Fyt3ep
— Makarand R Paranjape (@MakrandParanspe) February 6, 2017
Finally the helpless professor had to sit down on ground and touch the feet of the protesting students in order to access his office. He was the only one who could get inside his office.
The incident comes close to the instance where leftist students had forced the university to cancel invite to a speaker whose views they didn’t agree with.
Leftists insist that they are for free speech, diversity of views, and individual liberty. Indeed.
