Caravan News
NEW DELHI – Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has asked the HRD Ministry to revoke the expulsion of a German student pursuing his Masters at IIT Madras after he was asked to leave the country following his participation in an anti-Citizenship Act protest (CAA).
“This is dismaying. We used to be a proud democracy, an example to the world. No democracy punishes freedom of expression,” Tharoor said.
“I call on Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank (HRD Minister) to instruct IIT Madras to withdraw the expulsion and allow India to hold head high in the academic world,” he added.
This is dismaying. We used to be a proud democracy, an example to the world: https://t.co/M1MU3CyJVT No democracy punishes freedom of expression. I call on @DrRPNishank to instruct @iitmadras to withdraw the expulsion & allow India to hold its head high in the academic world.
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) December 24, 2019
A German student studying in India was expelled from the country after he joined the protests at IIT-Madras against the controversial Citizenship Act (CAA). BJP MP Anantkumar Hegde has said how can “any Tom, Dick and Harry” be allowed to join protests against internal issues of India.
In a tweet, Anantkumar Hegde said, “Any Tom, Dick & Harry from any part of this globe can poke themselves and involve in their s**t protest in our internal issues!! Does any other country provide such liberty? Precisely #IndiaSupportsCAA!”
The German student who took part in anti-CAA protests in Chennai last week has left India after Bureau of Immigration authorities asked him to leave since his participation in demonstrations over domestic issues allegedly violated visa regulations.
Jakob Lindenthal, who was in India on an exchange programme, was attached to the Physics Department of the IIT Madras and he left the country on Monday night, reported PTI.
Holding a placard that had an indirect reference to the Nazi persecution of the Jews in Germany between 1933-45 during the Hitler regime, he had told co-participants at a protest last week that small measures against Jews had not attracted much attention initially.
Such measures eventually led to their mass killings, the German student had said.
The placard read “1933-1945 We have been there.” He had also held another one which read, “No democracy without dissent.” Jakob, who had also taken part in a protest at the institute’s Gajendra Circle against the amendment to the Citizenship Act, was a student of the Technical University of Dresden in Germany.
