From being tagged as an ‘anti-national’ to other slanderous words, Jawarharlal Nehru University vice-president (JNUSU) Shehla Rashid Shora has braved a lot since the night of February 9, when a programme on Afzal Guru was held, following which a string of incidents took place.
One of the allegations on the JNU students was that slogans of ‘Pakistan zindabad’ were raised on the night of February 9. “If Pakistan was a country with social equality for women and minorities, then I would be the first one to raise that slogan,” said Ms. Shora, an M. Phil student of law and governance at the university. Even after the press conference she addressed here at Lamakaan on Sunday afternoon, questions kept coming. “Life has changed for the better now as our issues were not covered much before. But now we have much more space,” she replied, when asked how she felt about everything that transpired since the events of February 9.
“The government (Centre) is terrorising students with arrests. In this era of privatisation, JNU offers affordable education for everyone. Even the child of a poor man can study here along with that of a rich person,” said Shehla at the press conference. So what exactly happened on the night of February 9? The event held in JNU that day subsequently led to the arrest of JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar, and two other students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, who are all facing charges of sedition. Shehla maintains that some slogans were raised which were not in good taste, and that the JNUSU had condemned them. “None of the JNU students were involved in raising those slogans. However, those who did raise them are citizens of this country. There is a difference between supporting Afzal Guru and being against the death penalty. Those who are for the latter, oppose the punishment, be the killers of Rajiv Gandhi as well,” maintained Shehla.
Mohit Pandey, another JNU student who accompanied Shehla to Hyderabad, also said that they had been receiving several threatening calls since February from unknown persons.
Both of them demanded that the charges of sedition be dropped against all three JNU students.
‘Life has changed for the better now as our issues were not covered much before’
