NIT Shutdown: ‘Institutes, Campuses being made Hostile for Natives,’ says KUSU

KL NEWS NETWORK

SRINAGAR

The KU ‘Solidarity protest’ on Saturday.

Reacting to the events which unfolded in National Institute of Technology (NIT) post defeat on India in a thriller world cup T20 semi-family with West Indies, the banned students body of University of Kashmir Saturday alleged that campuses and institutes in the Valley, are “being colonised and made hostile for Kashmiri students by the Indian state”.

“It should serve as an eye opener for all, while the whole valley fears for the safety of their loved ones studying or working in India, Kashmiris are even not safe in their homeland. The hegemonic atmosphere created by the outsiders with the full support of Indian forces and establishment is an extension of the state policy of strengthening the occupation and control on Kashmiris,” the Kashmir University Students Union (KUSU) said in a statement this afternoon.

“The conversion of Regional Engineering College (REC), Srinagar into NIT was in itself a planned conspiracy to get hold of educational institutes in Kashmir to create mini settlements of outsiders which will ultimately change the demography of the students joining these institutes in favour of India. This loss of an engineering college and its assets has reduced the number of Kashmiri students joining to less than 20% what used to be a decade earlier,” the students body said, “In a Kashmiri students’ perspective, the proposed Indian National Institutes have lost the credibility given the fact that reformation of REC, Srinagar into NIT has robbed them off the previously prevailing opportunities, scope, freedom and safety, as was evident from one of the banners in the protest organised today in Kashmir University that read “No NIT, No IIT – We Want Freedom’. KUSU vehemently rejects the notion of NIT, and has time and again called for restoration of REC and disbandment of NIT.”

KUSU strongly condemns this “hooliganism and stands firmly in support of the fear-stricken Kashmiri students enrolled in NIT”. “Cane charging, tear gas canisters and chasing students inside the campus is not a solution to the problem, NIT, itself is a problem which is more behaving like a state within a state,” the statement added.

“Rather begging for more Indian institutes,” the statement said, “KUSU believes, our focus should be to develop and upgrade our institutes along with upgrading the quality education. Otherwise, in near future, all our institutes are bound to become experimenting laboratories for India’s Hindutva state.”

from Kashmir Life http://ift.tt/1pTEa28
via IFTTThttp://ift.tt/1iGhVXj