JNU issue: Bengaluru comes out in support of freedom of speech

Many activists, academics and students came out in support of the arrested Kanhaiya Kumar, president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU), at Town Hall here on Thursday, and condemned the “attack on freedom of expression”.

Students and faculty members of the Indian Institute of Science, National Law School of India University, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Indian Statistical Institute and the Institute for Social and Economic Change, and Bangalore University raised their voice in support of JNU.

“It is a concerted attack on the freedom of expression, and a terrible vendetta against democratic people,” said Clifton Rosario, an advocate and activist.

The protesters held placards that read “Support JNU” and “Dissent is our right,” among others slogans.

Kunal Ambasta, a faculty member at NLSIU, questioned the government’s decision to attack students. “Whether we agree or disagree with their views, the government should counter these students with ideas or a debate. Instead, it is doing so with batons and all the powers in its disposal,” he said.

V.K. Ramachandran, a faculty member at the Indian Statistical Institute, said that Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru had underscored the antiquity of sedition laws which were introduced by the British during the freedom struggle.

It is an attack on freedom of expression, a terrible vendetta against democratic people.

Clifton Rosario,advocate-cum-activist