Ex-Soldiers Threaten To Return Degrees Over 'Anti-National Activities' At JNU

Ex-Soldiers Threaten To Return Degrees Over 'Anti-National Activities' At JNU

Afzal Guru event row: Ex-armymen threaten to return degrees from 'anti-national' JNU

TNN | Feb 13, 2016, 11.05 AM IST

NEW DELHI: Former armymen who are Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) alumni have threatened to return their degrees saying they "find it difficult" to be associated with an institution that has become a "hub of anti-national activities", news agency ANI reported on Saturday.

They are referring to a recent event held to protest the 2013 hanging of parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.

"We would be constrained to return our degrees if such activities are allowed to be conducted inside the university," the ex-servicemen of 54th NDA course said in a letter to JNU vice-chancellor Jagdeesh Kumar on Saturday.

On Friday, police arrested JNU students' union president Kanhaiya Kumar for sedition during the pro-Afzal Guru event, shortly after home minister Rajnath Singh instructed Delhi Police to not spare anyone indulging in anti-India activities. That prompted fierce protests from students and teachers in the university and several academics across the country.

The university also barred eight students -- whom they didn't name -- from academic activities, pending a disciplinary inquiry into the holding of the event.

The students who have been debarred based on an interim report of a "disciplinary" committee, have been allowed to stay in their respective hostels to enable them to state their case so there is a fair investigation.
The controversy began earlier this week when a few students pasted posters across campus inviting people to gather for a protest march against the "judicial killing of Afzal Guru and Maqbool Bhatt" and in solidarity with the "struggle of Kashmiri people for their democratic right to self determination".

Members of the BJP-backed student body, ABVP, objected to the event and wrote to the Vice Chancellor that such activities should not take place on the campus of an educational institution. This prompted the university administration to order that the march be cancelled as they "feared" that it might "disrupt" peace on campus.
Still, the organisers went ahead with the event but instead of a protest they held a cultural programme, and an art and photo exhibition on the issue of Afzal Guru's hanging.