Tragic to see violence in universities: President
President Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday said those in universities must engage in reasoned discussions and debates rather than propagate a culture of unrest, and said there should be no room in India for the intolerant Indian.
“These temples of learning must resound with creativity and free thinking,” he said, delivering a lecture in Kochi, Kerala.
Mukherjee said India’s democracy “requires constant nurturing”. “At no cost should we allow the exploitation of the fault lines. Those who spread violence must remember that Buddha, Ashoka, and Akbar are remembered as heroes in history; not Hitler or Genghis Khan,” he said.
The President didn’t mention recent incidents in Delhi University, or those of last year’s in Hyderabad Central University and Jawaharlal Nehru University. But he bemoaned the current state of affairs in universities.
“It is tragic to see them (universities) caught in the vortex of violence and disquiet,” he said. The President’s remarks come days after Sangh Parivaraffiliated ABVP (Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad) activists reportedly beat students in Ramjas College for hosting a seminar on Bastar, a district in Chhattisgarh. In the aftermath of the attack, Gurmehar Kaur, a 21-year-old Delhi University student and daughter of an army officer who was killed in action against militants, had tweeted her support for the freedom of speech of her fellow students. Kaur was threatened with rape on her Facebook page.