J&K Students Association spokesman Nasir Khuehami. — File photo
J&K Students Association spokesman Nasir Khuehami said that allowing activism in educational institutes will help groom better leaders and professionals for future.
Clarion India
SRINAGAR — A student group in Kashmir has appealed to Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha to allow student activism, which remains “unofficially banned” in the Union Territory. The demand includes allowing students to form associations.
J&K Students Association spokesman Nasir Khuehami said that the authorities should lift the ban on the restriction on free speech and activism on the campuses. “Everybody should be allowed to propagate their ideas freely. The interactions, debates, discussions, and exchange of ideas lead to positivity.”
He said that allowing activism in educational institutes will help groom better leaders and professionals for future.
Student politics is a part of education and important for grooming future leaders who are young, honest and energetic. Khuehami said, “Our universities and colleges in Kashmir produce doctors, lawyers, academicians, engineers in bulk, but have failed to produce leaders due to the denial of student activism.”
Khuehami said the absence of student Unions and associations makes both the students and the administration suffer. “The authorities also find it difficult to address a leaderless mass of students as they have choked their freedom of electing a leader to represent them.” He cited University Grants Commission guidelines that allow the freedom to do activism on the campuses.
The Kashmir University Students Union (KUSU), the foremost student association In Kashmir, though officially unrecognised, has been at the forefront of student politics in Kashmir. The Union has often held demonstrations not just on student issues but also human rights violations and politics in general.