Prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University Appoints Genocide Supporter As Vice Chancellor Leading To Fear Among Muslim Students

The prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has appointed vicious Hindu supremacist Santishree Dhulipadi Pandit as its Vice Chancellor, despite students and reporters circulating various hateful tweets she had made against minorities. 

Pandit has used her Twitter account to spread Covid-19 conspiracy theories, call Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination a “solution,” Muslims and other activists “jihadists,” Christians “rice bag converts,” and Sikh farmers “parasites.” 

“Do it like the Chinese with these mentally ill jihadists,” she said in one tweet, implying that India should adopt a policy of state-sponsored genocide against Muslims, similar to the ongoing torture and concentration camp detention of Uyghurs in China.

The JNU is a globally renowned university from India, with its alumni accepted for higher education and as faculty at the world’s leading universities. Abhijeet Banerjee, the 2019 Nobel Prize winner for Economics, is a JNU alumni.

Pandit is also known for being an open supporter of the Nazi-inspired Rastriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the organization that spearheads India’s national Hindu supremacist movement. She also supports Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which serves as the political arm of the RSS. 

She also bragged about having voted for Modi and vowed that in the future, she would also vote for current Home Minister Amit Shah and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, both of whom are dangerous Hindu supremacist leaders. 

Students have expressed their fears over giving this amount of power to a person with a clear hateful agenda against minorities. 

“With the tenure change we think it will help them make use of institutional resources and support [the BJP] unabashedly, now more than ever,” a student of MA History at JNU told Maktoob Media, an Indian news outlet.

“Things haven’t been going very well here. Now, it’s too dangerous. Really, I feel scared after seeing her tweets,” said a Muslim student from JNU’s School of Social Science. “She called for the ethnic cleansing of my community. How will I study there? How will I stay inside the campus where a woman who hates us is in power?” 

Since her tweets have been exposed, Pandit has deleted her Twitter account. However, no action has been taken against her for her blatant support of genocide, and she remains secure in her new position as JNU’s Vice Chancellor. 

Hindu Extremists Harass Muslim Students As Court Begins Hearing On Right To Wear Hijab In Colleges

The Karnataka state’s Chief Minister has ordered that all high schools and colleges be shut down for three days to avoid communal tensions as the Karnataka High Court began its hearing of petitions filed by five Muslim students, who have slammed their colleges’ anti-Muslim and unconstitutional hijab ban. The shutdown order shows how officials in BJP-ruled Karnataka would rather suspend education for all, rather than maintain the rights of a religious minority. The court hearing will take place over the course of two days, while Hindu extremists continue to intimidate Muslims over their constitutional right to wear religious garments to school. 

“People should have faith in [the] Constitution. Only a mischievous section will keep the issue burning. But making agitation, going on the street, shouting slogans, attacking students, students attacking others, these are not good things,” said Justice Krishna S. Dixit at the end of the first day, seemingly referring to the vast number of incidents where Hindu supremacists – students and non-students alike – have harassed and even made physical threats against Muslim students. 

Several of these incidents have been captured on camera. In one viral video, a large group of male Hindu extremist students wearing saffron scarves began heckling a lone hijabi girl, shouting Hindu religious slogans as she walked past. Another video shows Hindu extremist students barging into a classroom while chanting “Jai Sri Ram.” A third video shows a group of male Hindu extremist students climbing a pole and planting a saffron flag on top. 

The hijab issue has garnered national attention. On February 7, opposition leaders in Indian Parliament demanded that the issue be discussed, slamming the BJP for supporting hateful and divisive policies. 

 “BJP is fishing in dangerous waters by meddling in Hijab-Saffron row in Udupi district. It shows their sinister plans to create issues out of nothing for petty political gains,” said Congress leader B.K. Hariprasad. 

Civil society groups have also raised their protests regarding the hijab ban. A press release issued by the Campus Front of India slammed the continuous attacks on Muslim women, which are often carried out by young, radicalized Hindu Indians and are rarely punished by law enforcement. Denying basic rights to Muslim women, the group said, “only helps the hate-mongers.”

BJP Promises 10-Year Jail For Muslim Men For Marrying Hindu Women In Uttar Pradesh

In a hateful manifesto released by the BJP in Uttar Pradesh, the Hindu nationalist party promised that if it was voted into power again after upcoming elections, anti-conversion laws would be made even more draconian, with the risk of a 10-year prison sentence and a fine of a thousand rupees hanging over the heads of Muslim men who marry Hindu women. This is the latest in the Uttar Pradesh government’s ongoing anti “Love Jihad” campaign to stomp out interfaith marriages and encourage attacks against Muslim men who have even basic interactions with Hindu women.

“Love Jihad” is a conspiracy theory, circulated by Hindu extremists to claim that Muslim men have an agenda to convert Hindu women to Islam by seducing and marrying them. There is no evidence to back up the claim that this is an ongoing risk to Hindu women; yet Hindu extremist men will often form vigilante groups that work with police to hunt down interfaith couples, force the woman to return to her family, and subject the man to beatings, jail time, and sometimes death by mob lynching. 

Editors Guild Of India Calls Kashmiri Journalist Fahad Shah’s Arrest Harassment in the Name of National Security

The prestigious Editors Guild Of India (EGI) has bashed Indian authorities for the arrest of Kashmiri journalist Fahad Shah, who is the founding editor of ‘The Kashmir Walla’ news portal. Shah was arrested on February 4 for “sedition” and “glorifying terrorist activities” in his reporting. The EGI has slammed these allegations, calling upon the Indian government to “respect democratic values and stop the harassment of journalists in the name of national security.”

“This arrest is part of a larger trend in Kashmir of security forces calling journalists for questioning and often detaining them, because of their critical reporting of the establishment…. The space for media freedom has progressively eroded in Kashmir. Last month, security forces abetted some journalists in a coup of the Kashmir Press Club management, and then later on state authorities shut down the club completely, reverting the land back to the Estates department,” the guild said in a statement.

Kashmir has suffered under brutal Indian military occupation for decades, which has only worsened after the Modi government revoked Kashmir’s constitutionally-granted semi-autonomy in late 2019. In the years since, attacks on journalists and news outlets have ramped up, with 25 total attacks on Kashmiri reporters and publications reported in 2021.