Members of Uttarakhand Citizen Initiative, a citizen platform formed in Dehradun in 2017, have expressed distress over the recent developments related to the students from Kashmir in Uttarakhand. They said that some self-styled groups and organisations have deliberately tried to vitiate the peaceful and inclusive character of Dehradun as well as Uttarakhand. Quoting some newspaper reports, they said that these self-styled nationalists have forced two educational institutions to give statement that they would not admit students from Kashmir in future.
According to them, this is a clear violation of the Constitution of India as every Indian has the freedom to choose his or her place of education. On behalf of the Uttarakhand Citizen Initiative, the media coordinator, Ashish Joshi, said that they are appealing to the State Government to take stern action against such self-styled organisations. “They are maligning the inclusive image of Uttarakhand which enjoys an exalted place for its spirit of tolerance and hospitality. Such outfits should under no circumstances be allowed to bring bad name to the State by their vicious activities and campaign,” he said.
The members of the Uttarakhand Citizen Initiative further requested the police to ensure safety and security of all the students, especially the Kashmiri students, now studying in Dehradun and other places of the State. “Necessary directions should be given to the educational institutions targeted by such outfits to ensure that they withdraw such statements of not allowing the students from Kashmir to study in them, Besides, they should be assured of proper protection,” Joshi added.
Notably, a first-year engineering student from Kashmir had been suspended from a university based in Dehradun where he was studying following complaints of his having circulated a provocative facebook message which appeared like throwing support to the Pulwama suicide bomb attack that killed over 40 jawans.
The university had further sought an explanation from the student and set up an inquiry committee to investigate the case. Besides, it is learnt that the management of some educational institutions based in the city had said in a written undertaking that they would not take students from Kashmir in future under pressure from some right wing organisations when their activists had staged demonstration outside the institutions, demanding the expulsion of the Kashmiri students studying in them.