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Jodhpur University files Complain Against JNU Professor For its Kashmir Remarks

February 4, 2017 | By Sikh Siyasat Bureau

Jaipur: As per the media reports the Registrar of Jai Narain Vyas University in Jodhpur has filed a police complaint against JNU professor Nivedita Menon over her alleged remarks about Kashmir and the Indian Army during a speech on campus that triggered protests by ABVP members leading to a shutdown in the university on Friday.

Corroborating the move of the Registrar the university’s vice-chancellor R P Singh quoted Prof Menon as saying that Kashmir was not an integral part of India and that soldiers worked for their livelihood and not the nation. But Prof Menon has straight away denied these charges and said that an “unnecessary controversy” had been created “based on rumours”.

Jodhpur Police Commissioner Ashok Rathore while speaking to Indian Express (IE) said that “The university Registrar filed a complaint, along with a report of what happened. We will be conducting an inquiry based on which we will decide whether to file an FIR or not.”

A professor at the School of International Studies at JNU, Nivedita Menon had been invited by the JNVU’s English department to deliver a lecture on last Thursday on the topic, ‘History reinterpreted: nation, individual and culture’.

Whilst quoting R P Singh the university’s vice chancellor the media reported that the university has lodged a complaint against Nivedita Menon and one of the organizers, Rajshree Ranavat, who also announced while introducing Nivedita Menon that she is famous for her views on Kashmir. Today, some children from the ABVP and some faculty members shut down the university in protest. I have set up a three-member committee to look into the matter.”

“She spoke about two-three objectionable things…that Kashmir is not an integral part of India and India should give up claims on Siachen…and that soldiers work for their livelihood and not for the nation, etc.,” R P Singh maintained in its statement.

Prof Menon in a statement given to the media has rejected the allegation leveled against her and claimed that the “entire controversy has been kicked up based on the account of one former professor…who is an RSS supporter”.

“I never said anything about Kashmir being illegally occupied by India…the organizers introduced me as someone who had said so in an earlier speech from last year. Secondly, the point about showing India’s map upside down…that was a picture taken from the Himal magazine, which points out that the world is round and that nations are not natural objects but imagined constructs,” Nivedita Menon added to her statement.

“Regarding the soldiers, I said that the Army is also a means of livelihood and that if we loved our soldiers why do we treat them badly,” she further adds.

“I did make a distinction between Hinduism and Hindutva, saying the latter is a political ideology that I am opposed to. What I basically said was not anti-national but anti-RSS and Hindutva and if that is a crime today then I don’t know what to say,”  Prof Menon concludes her statement with it.

JNVU assistant professor and event organiser Rajshree Ranavat was not available for comment. However, her colleague and associate professor Satish Harit said Ranavat had only introduced Prof Nivedita Menon. “We had invited the professor for the lecture. How were we suppose to know that she would say something objectionable? The organizers had only introduced her,” said Satish Harit.

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Related Topics: ABVP, Indian Politics, Indian State, JNU, Jodhpur, Nivedita Menon, Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), RSS

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