The Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers’ Association (JNUTA) has issued a statement condemning the arrest of former university student and radicalised Shaheen Bagh mastermind, Sharjeel Imam. The statement says that his remarks do not warrant charges of sedition and his arrest is an attempt to curb dissent.
The statement also went on to blame ‘extreme politicization’ of the conduct of the law enforcement agencies for the arrest. Signed by DK Lobiyal, President and Surajit Mazumdar, Secretary of JNUTA, the statement also slammed the Delhi Police for showing undue ‘urgency’ in the arrest of Sharjeel Imam as in contrast to the lack of a single arrest over the January 5 JNU violence till date.
“The continuation of the colonial-era law on sedition on the statute book of Independent India has also been subjected to widespread questioning, particularly due to its rampant misuse by the government to curb dissent”, read the statement issued on January 28.
The JNU Teachers Association which is largely controlled by the leftist coterie, also alleged that the sedition charges on Sharjeel Imam were invoked due to “other reasons”. JNU has also had a direct experience of this not so long ago, it said.
It is pertinent to note here that 113 JNU professors had in a note written on November 21, 2019, disassociated themselves from the JNU Teachers Association (JNUTA) alleging that the association was hand in gloves with miscreants in attacking teachers over protests against the marginal hostel fee hike in the university. One Professor Aswini Mohapatra took to Twitter to say that the 113 teachers believe that JNUTA is the root cause of the current deadlock. Controlled by the Left-wing coterie, it has turned JNU into a hotbed of Azadi brigade.
Meanwhile, after arresting former JNU student and The Wire columnist Sharjeel Imam Tuesday from Bihar’s Jehanabad, the Delhi Police returned to the capital with him on Wednesday. Imam, who was booked in a sedition case, was produced in the Patiala House court in Delhi on Wednesday, which sent him on five-day police custody.
Imam, who masterminded the Shaheen Bagh road blockade to protest against the CAA, was arrested by Delhi Police from Bihar after multiple FIRs were filed against him for his seditious speech. Addressing a gathering at Aligarh, Imam had urged Muslims to come together and cut off the Siliguri Corridor aka the chicken’s neck, which connects the seven northeastern states to rest of India. He had also earlier made provocative speeches where he had asked Muslims to come out and block roads of India and bring it to a standstill so as to get international media attention.
