Students from Universities Across the World Stand With JNU

University students from Pakistan and South Africa Africa and Lebanon expressed their solidarity with JNU.

Students from various organisations shout slogans as they march from Mandi House to Jantar Mantar in solidarity with the JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar, in New Delhi on Thursday. (Photo: PTI)

Jawaharlal Nehru University isn’t alone in its fight against the Centre’s crackdown on its university campus and the arrest of JNU Students’ Union President Kanhaiya Kumar.

University students from neighbouring Pakistan and faraway countries like South Africa and Lebanon have expressed their solidarity with JNU.

In their statement of solidarity, the Democratic Students’ Alliance from Pakistan writes:

The strangulation of academic and political freedoms is a dark hallmark of despotic and authoritarian societies and governments which aim to silence and subjugate. State intrusion on intellectual spaces is an assault on democratic rights and liberties [...]​ In the spirit of the idea, we strongly condemn the arrest of Kanhaiya.

The Black Student Union of the Rhodes University of South Africa also criticised the BJP-led government’s curb on freedom of expression. In their statement of solidarity, they lauded the “comrades at JNU” who organised t​he protests to maintain the university space as one that engages in conversations over nationalism, the nation, and citizenship.​

We condemn the unlawful occupation of JNU by the police, the intimidation of students and staff members and the arbitrary arrest of President Kumar... If the university can no longer be the space for these discussions then there are truly dark days ahead for us all. We send you strength and solidarity as you fight for these rights, not just in the context of Indian society, but for all of us in the Global South.

<b>Excerpt from the statement of solidarity from the Black Student Union</b>

The Red Oak Club of the American University of Beirut said that the charges of sedition against the JNUSU president are an attempt to intimidate and coerce the Left and that the move is not only directed towards JNU but also stands for a general attack on free thinking.

While comrade Kumar was arrested for ‘sedition’ (a charge that Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had demanded to be removed), it is clearly a deliberate blow to political freedom and a terrible suppression of student voices.

<b>Excerpt from the statement of solidarity from the Red Oak Club</b>

Even the Western academia circulated a statement of solidarity which has been signed by eminent scholars like Noam Chomsky, Orhan Pamuk, Sheldon Pollock, Judith Butler, Partha Chatterjee, Homi Bhabha, and filmmaker Mira Nair to name a few.