Protests at Kashmir University against Yoga Day have grown in intensity over the week, resulting in the administration locking the gates of the complex on Friday. Hundreds of policemen were stationed outside the two main entrances of the campus, near Srinagar's Dal lake, in an attempt to stop demonstrations.
On Thursday, the administration issued an order cancelling classes and ordering the hostels to be vacated for an indefinite period. At least five students were injured on Thursday after the police resorted to flash fire, a baton charge and aerial gunshots to quell their protests.
“It is the worst kind of state terrorism and it has no moral and constitutional justifications,” separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani declared in a statement. Whatever the reality or the purpose of yoga is, he said, the practice cannot be thrust on people who are not willing to do it. “No civilised society can force the people to adopt the tradition or religious sign of any other religion,” he said.
Protest march
Trouble has been brewing at Kashmir University ever since Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a mass exercise class in New Delhi on International Yoga Day on June 21. Kashmir University also planned a similar large-scale yoga session. But the night before, some students conducted a protest march, contending that they were being compelled to do yoga. The protestors vandalised the makeshift tent where the session was to have been conducted, a student said, forcing it to be cancelled.
Two days after the proposed yoga session, the police arrested a university student, Muzamil Farooq Dar, from his rented room near the campus. The police claimed that Dar was linked with militants but the agitated students have alleged he is paying price for opposing yoga. Since then, students had been protesting on the campus every day to demand his release.
“On Thursday we had gathered peacefully outside the vice-chancellor's office, demanding release of a fellow student but the situation turned violent when the security guards started aerial firing and baton charge," said one participant in the demonstrations.
On Friday, students who had come to submit applications forms or visit their departments for official work were turned back from the gates. A student from Doda who stays the hostel pleaded to the officials and police to let her in. “They are telling us to leave the campus and go wherever you can,” she said.
Ordered out
Another student who managed to enter the hostel told this reporter, over phone, that the administration had brought in several several buses and had told residents to pack their bags. “We are told board the buses and we will be dropped at the railway station, bus stations or taxi stand and go home,” he said, requesting anonymity.
Separatists have called for shutdown on Saturday in Srinagar district to protest against the police actions at the university.
The protests against Yoga Day may actually mask deep-seated discontent against the long ban on student politics at the university. The Kashmir University Students Union has been banned intermittently since the armed rebellion of the late ’80s. Though the ban was removed in 2007, it was imposed again in 2009, after students protested against the rape and murder of the two women in Shopian The authorities later demolished its office in May 2010 leading to more protests.
After forming government with Bhartiya Janata Party, the People’s Democratic Party said last month that the university should lift the ban. “I have put forward the suggestion that student union be given a green signal on the campus,” said Naeem Akhter, state’s education minister. “It introduces students to a democratic system and I feel no reason why KU shouldn’t have it. The hard-fought union elections induce democratic temper in students.”
But Vice-Chancellor Prof.KhurshidAndrabi rejected the suggestion. “Unionism feels good at a university like JNU [Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi] which has made its mark, but not KU which is nowhere in the scene,” he told a local daily. “We have to first work hard to reach the pedestal of academic excellence and only then these things will blossom.”
On Thursday, the administration issued an order cancelling classes and ordering the hostels to be vacated for an indefinite period. At least five students were injured on Thursday after the police resorted to flash fire, a baton charge and aerial gunshots to quell their protests.
“It is the worst kind of state terrorism and it has no moral and constitutional justifications,” separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani declared in a statement. Whatever the reality or the purpose of yoga is, he said, the practice cannot be thrust on people who are not willing to do it. “No civilised society can force the people to adopt the tradition or religious sign of any other religion,” he said.
Protest march
Trouble has been brewing at Kashmir University ever since Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a mass exercise class in New Delhi on International Yoga Day on June 21. Kashmir University also planned a similar large-scale yoga session. But the night before, some students conducted a protest march, contending that they were being compelled to do yoga. The protestors vandalised the makeshift tent where the session was to have been conducted, a student said, forcing it to be cancelled.
Two days after the proposed yoga session, the police arrested a university student, Muzamil Farooq Dar, from his rented room near the campus. The police claimed that Dar was linked with militants but the agitated students have alleged he is paying price for opposing yoga. Since then, students had been protesting on the campus every day to demand his release.
“On Thursday we had gathered peacefully outside the vice-chancellor's office, demanding release of a fellow student but the situation turned violent when the security guards started aerial firing and baton charge," said one participant in the demonstrations.
On Friday, students who had come to submit applications forms or visit their departments for official work were turned back from the gates. A student from Doda who stays the hostel pleaded to the officials and police to let her in. “They are telling us to leave the campus and go wherever you can,” she said.
Ordered out
Another student who managed to enter the hostel told this reporter, over phone, that the administration had brought in several several buses and had told residents to pack their bags. “We are told board the buses and we will be dropped at the railway station, bus stations or taxi stand and go home,” he said, requesting anonymity.
Separatists have called for shutdown on Saturday in Srinagar district to protest against the police actions at the university.
The protests against Yoga Day may actually mask deep-seated discontent against the long ban on student politics at the university. The Kashmir University Students Union has been banned intermittently since the armed rebellion of the late ’80s. Though the ban was removed in 2007, it was imposed again in 2009, after students protested against the rape and murder of the two women in Shopian The authorities later demolished its office in May 2010 leading to more protests.
After forming government with Bhartiya Janata Party, the People’s Democratic Party said last month that the university should lift the ban. “I have put forward the suggestion that student union be given a green signal on the campus,” said Naeem Akhter, state’s education minister. “It introduces students to a democratic system and I feel no reason why KU shouldn’t have it. The hard-fought union elections induce democratic temper in students.”
But Vice-Chancellor Prof.KhurshidAndrabi rejected the suggestion. “Unionism feels good at a university like JNU [Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi] which has made its mark, but not KU which is nowhere in the scene,” he told a local daily. “We have to first work hard to reach the pedestal of academic excellence and only then these things will blossom.”
Limited-time offer: Big stories, small price. Keep independent media alive. Become a Scroll member today!
Our journalism is for everyone. But you can get special privileges by buying an annual Scroll Membership. Sign up today!