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JNU Again: Webinar Stopped Over Alleged ‘Anti-India’ Reference to Kashmir

The Vice Chancellor said the faculty members did not seek permission before planning such an event.

ABVP takes objection to online invitation that refers to J&K as under ‘Indian occupation’

NEW DELHI — An online webinar, organised by the Jawaharlal Nehru University’s Centre for Women’s Studies, on Friday was immediately ordered stopped by the varsity administration for allegedly referring to Kashmir as “Indian Occupation in Kashmir”.

Vice Chancellor M. Jagadesh Kumar said: “As soon as it came to our notice that an online webinar titled ‘Gender Resistance and Fresh Challenges in Post-2019 Kashmir’ was being organised by the Centre for Women’s Studies, at 8.30 p.m. on Friday, we immediately instructed the faculty members to stop the event.”

Several JNU students and teachers lodged strong objection to the reference of Kashmir in the webinar. Student organisation ABVP said that the webinar webpage addressed Jammu and Kashmir as “Indian Occupied Kashmir”, which is objectionable and unconstitutional.

The VC said the faculty members did not seek permission before planning such an event. “This is highly objectionable and provocative, as it raises questions on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our country. JNU cannot be a platform for such highly questionable webinars. The matter is under investigation,” he added.

Meanwhile, a Delhi-based lawyer on Saturday filed a police complaint against the JNU’s Centre for Women’s Development Studies and organisers of the webinar.

Advocate Vineet Jindal, in his complaint to Delhi Police Commissioner Rakesh Ashtana, said, “In the subject of the invitation to the seminar, it was mentioned Gendered Resistance to Indian Occupation in Kashmir’. By mentioning this phrase, the organisers of the webinar have depicted the forceful occupation of Kashmir by the Indian government and this phrase has questioned the integrity and unity of the country,” the complaint read.

The complaint filed against JNU under section 121A,124 A,505 OF IPC and 74 of it Act 2008, also attached the screenshot of the online seminar in the petition.

“The phrase also indicates the intention of the organisers that in the pretext of this webinar it was purposefully used to publicise the idea, provoke and instigate people against the Indian government,” it stated. – IANS

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