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Rusticated for his alleged involvement in sedition case for being associated with the organising the event to commemorate the hanging of Afzal Guru in the varsity on February 9, 2016 by the HLEC, JNU scholar Umar Khalid had said that he will challenge the decision in court.
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In a statement released by Khalid, via Facebook, he said that it is for the third time in last two years that JNU administration rusticated him, while the court has set it aside twice. Expressing his anguish, Khalid said in the statement said, “This is the third time in the last 2 years that the administration has come up with a ‘rustication’ order against me in this case – an order that has been twice set aside by the courts. We once again reject this farce of an enquiry along with its findings and verdict. It is against all principles of natural justice, and is riddled with contradictions, lies and malice which will soon be exposed again. We will once again challenge this in court.”
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The statement further reads the decision as ‘real drama’ and alleges of ‘being targeted in a systematic and a malafide manner’. It says, “With the pretext of the recent order of the farcical “High Level” enquiry (read drama) of the JNU administration, they are claiming that their fiction has been “validated”. I want to state categorically, that we are all being targeted in a systematic and a malafide manner by an enquiry that was prejudiced against us from day one.”
Khalid alleged that the administration is motivated and is running at the orders of the ruling BJP and the RSS, so no impartial enquiry is expected from them. He said, “This recent order of the HLEC in JNU is in line with the pattern of the administration’s high-handedness and selective targeting of opposing voices in the student community who against all odds have refused to kneel in the face of despotism.” Adding further that the decision was announced just before they are due to make their final submission.
Rejecting the decision of HLEC and administration he and other fellows, (falsely) implicated in the case, will not lie down, he said, “It is rather ironical that the same regime that says that students are non serious about their studies in JNU is today hellbent upon stopping us from submitting our PhDs that have been the products of rigorous research, passion and criticality.”
Ending the note, he wrote that the Union government is desperate to win 2019 Lok Sabha elections with their ‘jumlas, assaults, fictitious conspiracies, arrests and media witch-hunt’ and this decision is a sign of ‘fear and weakness of a government that has terribly failed the nation and its people’.
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Questioning the decision, Khalid pointed out that the rustication of Anirban Bhattacharya, who left the university in 2016. He wrote in another message, “Just got to know that Anirban has also been rusticated from JNU for a semester from July 2018-Jan 2019. Now, the fun part is he ceased to be a JNU student in 2016. How do u rusticate a person who has already left? Put him on a time machine? Such a High Level farce, this enquiry.”
Earlier in the day, the high-level inquiry committee upheld Khalid’s rustication and a fine of Rs 10,000 imposed on Kanhaiya Kumar, who was then the JNU students’ union president, in association with their ‘alleged’ involvement in the event that marked the commemoration of hanging of Afzal Guru, during which anti-national slogans were allegedly raised.
Along with Khalid and Kumar, 13 other students, including Anirban Bhattacharya, were found accused for violation of disciplinary norms. After that, these students moved to the Delhi High court, which directed the varsity to place the matter before an appellate authority to review the panel’s decision.
Read the statement posted by Umar Khalid here:
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