13 out of 21 DUTA EC members support Geelani’s release

Teachers belonging to a splinter Congress group on the Delhi University (DU) campus have supported the resolution calling for withdrawal of sedition charges against former DU professor SAR Geelani.

A resolution in this regard motioned in the Executive Council (EC) by Delhi University Teachers Association (DUTA) president, Nandita Narayan, was passed on Thursday. In the motion, the DUTA demanded that sedition charges should be dropped against Geelani, over the controversial event at Press Club against the hanging of Afzal Guru. The resolution was supported by 13 members out of 21 members of the EC. The members who voted for the motion belong to the Congress-linked group AAD and Left-aligned teachers’ group DTF on the campus. On the other hand, the teachers’ body of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), NDTF, opposed the resolution and walked out of the meeting. “The DUTA executive also expresses its concern about misuse of colonial sedition law to suppress dissent and settle political scores. EC appeals for repealing of this law which has no place in modern democracy,” the resolution statement reads.

Geelani, who holds a doctorate in Arabic and teaches at Zakir Hussain College (Evening) in Delhi, has been questioning Afzal Guru’s hanging. He was also accused in the 2001 Parliament attack and was acquitted.