Following the brutal violence unleashed by the left-wing forces on the students inside JNU campus on January 5, more than 200 academicians, including vice-chancellors of reputed universities have written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday, blaming a “small coterie of Left-wing activists” for a deteriorating academic environment in the country.
“We observe with dismay that in the name of student politics, a disruptive far-left agenda is being pursued. The recent turn of events in campuses from JNU to Jamia, from AMU to Jadavpur alarms us to the deteriorating academic environment due to the shenanigans of a small coterie of left-wing activists,” they wrote to the prime minister.
The signatories to the statement include Hari Singh Gour University VC R P Tiwari, Central University of South Bihar VC HCS Rathore and Sardar Patel University VC Shirish Kulkarni, among others.
In a letter titled, “Statement against left-wing anarchy in educational institutions”, the academicians have blamed the left-leaning groups and said it has become difficult to organise public talks or speak independently due to the “censorship imposed by the left-wing politics”.
“Strikes, dharnas and shutdowns over maximalist demands were common in Left strongholds and personal targeting, public slandering and harassment for not conforming to the Left ideology were on the rise,” the academicians wrote to Modi.
The worst sufferer of this kind of politics were poor students and those from marginalised communities, the statement said.
“They (these students) lose out on the opportunity to learn and build a better future for themselves. They also lose out on the freedom to articulate their own views and alternative politics. They find themselves constrained to conform to the majoritarian left politics. We appeal to all democratic forces to come together and stand for academic freedom, freedom of speech and plurality of thoughts,” it added.
Earlier on Sunday, January 5, a large group of masked goons had entered the JNU campus and assaulted students, faculty and other staff members. JNU Student Union president Aishe Ghosh was also attacked and she was injured in the incident.
Prior to that, on January 4, leftist groups had tried to stop students from registering for the winter semester. The students had disrupted the registration process for the winter semester by barging into the Centre for Information System office and cut off the power supply and damaged the servers to protest against the fee hike.
The Delhi Police have now filed an FIR against JNUSU President Aishe Ghosh and 19 others for attacking security guards and vandalizing server room on January 4.
