Responding to allegations by Jawaharlal Nehru University Assistant Professor Buddha Singh that his car was vandalised and home attacked for organising an event to condole the death of jawans at Sukma and Kupwara, a section of the university faculty termed his allegations “baseless”.
Hasty conclusions
The teachers said such hasty conclusions were being drawn for the first time and that instead of probing the incident, it has been recast as some kind of political conspiracy and vendetta. They expressed shock over how Prof. Singh’s tweet alleging violence went viral, raising speculations and allegations.
The statement, issued by 32 JNU teachers, said, “Obviously the incident in which the windshield of the car was found shattered in the morning is worrisome and a cause for concern. Yet, it is not an isolated incident on an otherwise safe campus.”
The statement added that other faculty members living on campus have suffered due to random acts of vandalism in different parts of the university over the past few months.
“However, no one until now made either baseless allegations or blamed students’ groups or levelled charges against any particular political ideology,” said the teachers, adding that at a time when the JNU community was facing grave challenges and its excellent academic environment was at risk, it was the duty of the faculty to maintain calm.
‘Adding to anxiety’
“Instead, such baseless allegations are adding to a situation of anxiety and distress, especially for students who are in the midst of examinations, other than facing an uncertain future,” they said.
In a complaint to the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Singh had stated: “I would like to draw your attention to the fact that the safety and security of teachers and their families on this campus are under serious threat. There was an attack on my car and home as reward for paying tribute to our martyrs at Sabarmati Dhaba. Due to that, I feel unsafe and fearful for my family.” He had added that this wasn’t the first time that “anti-India elements had celebrated the death of our jawans”.
