AMU demands unconditional release of JNUSU president Kanhaiya

ALIGARH: Students, teachers and other employees of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), along with the office bearers of the various unions of the university, held a meeting under the banner of ‘AMU Student Action Committee and Student Federation of India’, at Kennedy House on Saturday. They protested against the “arbitrary arrest” of Kanhaiya, president of Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) and lodged objections against police entry inside JNU campus and the “harassment of the students there”.

The speakers demanded unconditional release of Kanhaiya. They alleged that police was harassing the students and the faculty of JNU on the directions of the central government and its supporting groups. “Due to the interference of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and RSS, the police are acting in an authoritarian way, which is lowering the prestige of the university,” said the speakers. They added, “Some forces are trying to change the curriculum in Gujarat and Rajasthan but due to opposition from the whole country they are not succeeding.” The speakers declared that if the “unnecessary harassment” of the students and teachers of JNU continued then a national-level agitation would be launched. Nearly the entire university was represented at the protest meeting. General secretary of AMU employees’ union, Shamim Akhtar and several others addressed the meeting.