A misrepresentation

Sir — Faculty members at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay have issued a statement, supporting the students of Jawaharlal Nehru University, arguing that “the state cannot define who is an Indian and what is nationalism”. It is distressing that the IIT-B faculty members are misrepresenting the facts and are wittingly overlooking the backdrop of an unnecessary controversy on the issue of nationalism.

The faculty members are deliberately ignoring the sad sequence of events at the university that was marked by offensive, seditious sloganeering against India. Where is the question of defining an Indian or Indian nationalismIJ Is patriotism of an Indian citizen not taken for grantedIJ Will an Indian wish for or tolerate his motherland’s destruction by another personIJ Or, is it that elite academics of Government-established institutions regard patriotism and nationalism dirtyIJ