JNU Student Union leader from Anantnag alleges religious profiling by ‘right wing’ Professor

JNUSU general secretary, Aejaz Ahmad Rather, who is also a Kashmiri, has alleged that he was a target of religious profiling by Prof. Singh.

A resident of Anantnag, Rather told Free Press Kashmir that Prof. Singh not only abused the JNU-Student Union’s general secretary, but has been ‘consistently provoking’ Muslim and Dalit minorities.

Narrating the sequence of the incident to Free Press Kashmir, Rather said, “A student sitting on a chair happened to fall in the way of Prof. Singh’s car. To which, the student quickly got off his seat and pulled out the chair to make way for the professor, which is when she started behaving very aggressively.”

When Rather confronted the Professor over her behaviour, he says that she launched a personal attack on him, saying: “From your appearance, it looks like you are a convict in ten bomb blast cases.”

He believes Prof. Singh’s actions were “on purpose, with a clear agenda to provoke”.

Four days past the incident, on December 30, students decided to hold a sit-in inside the campus against Prof. Singh for hurling “Islamophobic” abuses on Rather. Rather lodged an FIR against her, alongside drafting a complaint letter to Equal Opportunities Office, the Delhi Minority Commission and the National Minority Commission.

Aejaz Ahmad Rather (centre).

The same day, Singh sent a letter to the University’s vice-chancellor in the backdrop of the outrage against her by the students, accusing Rather of creating ‘fake news’.

Also slamming the JNU-Teachers Association’s, and one Atul Sood’s statement supporting Rather and other students, Prof Singh wrote: “Sood is pursuing a highly illegal and dangerous path in connivance with JNUSU to create fake news…”

“Some JNUSU boys under the Rather have threatened to protest outside CSLG. I will definitely ensure their hospitality but they, however, remain unwanted and I treat it as a trespass into my time and workspace harmony,” she further wrote.

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While also launching a public attack through her twitter handle, she wrote: “JNU an unending Aesop’s fable! A professor asks 4 students not to smoke. They misbehave and in two hours the social media splattered with anti-Muslim/Islamophobic titles to Prof. JNUTA president drums for students to launch young India Charter pre-2019. Defeated communal Jokers!”

Further sharing a news-clip of Amit Shah’s quote as a headline – ‘Those trying to dilute nationalism active on campuses’, she said, “so true Mr. Shah. Campus mockery of national harmony is to our dismay and disbelief turning out to be true with the latest incident against me by a student who later glorified himself with a Muslim name,” further adding: “Who knows who he is?”

Post the December 31 protest, Singh also filed a police complaint against Rather and Sood “for creating fake news and trying to disturb the peace and communal harmony, and inciting violence and divisiveness on campus”.

On January 4, she posted yet another tweet on her handle, which read: “What is the Delhi police doing against those who are fake news generators? JNU is once again vulnerable to the Tukde Tukde gang. (Delhi Police) should nip it in bud. Their mind is a very fertile ground for news created around lies hate and conspiracies!”

Almost a month past the incident, on January 24, Delhi Minorities Commission has directed the JNU administration to conduct an inquiry against Prof. Singh.

The DMC has asked JNU to submit its report by January 29, threatening action if the administration fails to conduct the “timely inquiry”.

Rather, however, doesn’t expect a “fair” report from the side of the administration.

“Majority of them are hardcore right-wingers having anti-Muslim sentiments,” Rather told Free Press Kashmir. “I really don’t expect the administration to file a fair report to the commission.”

Professor Amita Singh.

This isn’t the first time Singh has been in controversy. In 2016, she had particularly called the Dalits and Muslim teachers in JNU “anti-national”.

In the same interview, she also had targeted a student who was in judicial custody, saying he believes in “strong kashmiriyat”.

“It’s really shocking to see how a professor openly carries out communal and racial profiling of students coming from minority and marginalised background,” Rather remarked.

“Regardless how the incident unfolds, my protest will continue until this rightwing Professor will be held accountable.”

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