A Letter Of Support To Students Of JNU From St. Aloysius Degree College, Bangalore

13 March, 2016
Countercurrents.org

To,
The Students and Teachers,
Jawaharlal Nehru University,
New Mehrauli Road,
New Delhi - 110067

Sub. A letter of solidarity and support from St. Aloysius Degree College, Bangalore

Dear Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid, Anirban Bhattacharya, students and staff members committed to democratic means and methods of struggle,

We are alarmed and concerned at the situation in your campus, especially about the attack on the democratically elected student representatives of the University and the arrest of student leaders that followed. We appreciate your courage for standing up against state repression and propaganda politics of the fascist forces at the helm of power at the moment in the country. This note is to express our solidarity with your struggles for the protection of democratic values and constitutional principles.

For us at St. Aloysius, JNU is not merely an institution but an idea. You stand for the Nehruvian idea of India, of liberalism and inclusion, of diversity and pluralism. You are a university of individuals with different ideas and ideologies. You are a student community from every part of India from different social groups representing the spirit and idea of India. What we appreciate is your democratic spirit and resistance. Even when the government and the police have accused you and abused you, you have not resorted to violence. We have witnessed in you the spirit of India while your opponents have been undemocratic and un-Indian through resort to violence and propaganda with least respect for truth. JNU has been a melting point for ideas and ideologies, a centre for debates and discussion and a place for argument and counter arguments.

In the last few years we have witnessed in the name of nationalism the imposition of norms for social behaviour, control of dietary habits, moral policing, communal violence and choking of liberal and free thinking.

You have truly inspired us and set an example of struggle and resistance at a time when democracy and constitutional principles are under attack from the fascist forces and when there is a tendency to bring the universities under the control of these forces through sectarian ideologues.

We stand with you in your fight against undemocratic forces of the government and state.

In solidarity

Signed by 260 Students and 16 staffs of St. Aloysius Degree College, Bangalore-560005