RSS-affiliated teachers’ body lends support to JNU protestors

The Delhi unit of RSS-affiliated University Teachers’ body — Akhil Bhartiya Rashtriya Shaikshik Mahasangh (ABRSM), on Wednesday echoed the demands of the protesting JNU teachers – ‘Don’t defame JNU’ — besides strongly opposing the “Shutdown JNU Movement” on social media on the ground that it would be against true “Freedom of Expression”. The right wing teachers’ body also endorsed the line of leftist lobby that there are faculty and students of all ideologies in the campus.

“We strongly disapprove any attempt to defame a prestigious educational institution such as JNU in the name of these on-going activities. There are faculty and students of all ideologies,” said ABRSM in a press statement. “If one section is found indulged in these anti-India activities, it does not qualify the entire institution to be castigated in the same light,” added the statement. The statement further added: “We are against the “Shutdown JNU Movement” which is finding some place on social media these days. Shutting down is not a solution as this will be equivalent to curbing the true “freedom of expression” which of course can never be absolute in nature.”

Condemning the “anti-India sloganeering” in the campus by separatist elements in a function on February 9 and in Jadavpur University on February 16, ABRSM said that these kind of criminal activities are actually “waging a war in the nation” and cannot be tolerated in the name of freedom of expression. “We demand enforcement agencies to take a firm hand in dealing with these elements with a view not to harm or harass innocent students,” said Anurag Mishra, Convener, Delhi unit of ABRSM who is also a professor in Delhi University. He also demanded that cases be trailed in fast track courts and appealed not to create hindrances in the working of law enforcement agencies and the on-going investigations.