India "routinely" uses vaguely-worded laws like sedition and criminal defamation as "political tools" to "stifle" dissent, a leading rights group said.
For this dispensation, ideas are dangerous. Those who propagate liberalism and democratic traditions are even more dangerous, observes Rashme Sehgal.
She also hit out at the government for posting retired bureaucrats, who she alleged were its 'yes men', as head of institutions.
The CBI, tasked by the Calcutta high court to probe the case, received local court approval to conduct a polygraph test on the accused, days after performing a psychoanalysis test on him.
Hundreds of students and teachers of Delhi University, Jawaharlal Nehru University and Jamia on Tuesday hit the streets with a call to "save" the varsities from the "onslaught" of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and "curbing" of dissent.
'As we enter 2025, it must be acknowledged that there is a convergence of capital, influential people (from business and politics) and technology deciding the destiny of others in the name of pride, patriotism, nationalism, nation building, all of it thinly veiled disguises for personal profit and glory,' asserts Shyam G Menon.
The United Left alliance has retained all the four seats in the JNU students union election, defeating the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad with considerable margins.
The high court judgments will "not to be treated as precedent by any court" to give similar reliefs, the apex court said while hearing Delhi police's appeal against the bail granted to 3 Delhi students.
'Their brave resistance keep our hopes alive that this youth upsurge is strengthening India's democracy and pluralism,' states Mohammad Sajjad.
'If I am not there, the RSS would do that job. They are obviously in power, they can do anything.'
Hundreds of JNU students rocked the national capital on Monday, bringing several parts of the city to a halt.
JNU students staged a march from Mandi House to Jantar Mantar demanding expedited efforts to trace the student. A delegation of JNU students union went to submit a memorandum to the office of Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung in this regard.
Eminent scientists and writers from across the world, including renowned thinker Noam Chomsky and Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk, have joined the chorus of protest against the arrest of JNU students' union president Kanhaiya Kumar in a sedition case.
Condemning the police crackdown inside Jamia Millia university, several film industry insiders, including one from Hollywood, on Monday rallied behind the university's students and said the government is trying to stifle voices of dissent against the Citizenship Amendment Act.
The attacker said that he was upset with Kumar over his remarks regarding the army.
The high court directed Pinjra Tod activists Narwal and Kalita and Tanha to surrender their passports and not to offer any inducement to prosecution witnesses or tamper with the evidence in the case.
The court said the legal proceedings against the 11 accused were initiated in a 'perfunctory and cavalier fashion' and 'allowing them to undergo the rigmarole of a long-drawn trial does not augur well for the criminal justice system of the country'.
The high court said prima facie charges of rioting and unlawful assembly are made out against nine of the 11 accused, including Imam, Tanha and Zargar.
Ae Watan Mere Watan tries to get a grasp on the mind of youngsters, shaped by the words of inspiring leaders, committed to the cause of independent India. It's significant because their support isn't based on 'andh bhakti', but leadership that encourages questions, observes Sukanya Verma.
The 11 people were discharged on February 4 by the trial court, which said they were made 'scapegoats' by police and that dissent has to be encouraged, not stifled.
The noted writer, who was awarded D.Lit (Doctor of Letters, honoris causa) by the Central University of Hyderabad few years ago, said the institution has "acted against human dignity and knowledge."
A court in Delhi on Saturday discharged 11 people, including student activists Imam and Asif Iqbal Tanha, who participated in anti-CAA protests, in the 2019 Jamia Nagar violence case.
The Ambedkar-Periyar Study Circle explains their side of the story which saw the IIT-Madras student body being de-recognized for violation of code of conduct and misuse of privileges.
Thousands of students took to the streets demanding justice for Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula and protesting the Jawaharlal Nehru University crisis.
'This is a fascinating side to Sonia Gandhi, the way she disarms her opponents.'
Fresh protests erupted on the University of Hyderabad campus on Tuesday over the alleged suicide by Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula even as members of a social outfit tried to hold a demonstration outside the residence of Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya, who has been accused in the suicide case.
Medical seats for under-graduates and post-graduates remaining vacant in the NEET era, together with the Centre 'freezing' the number of medical colleges and seats in (Dravidian) Tamil Nadu and the launch of the PM's 'Vishwakarma Scheme' for the nation's craftsmen, are all seen as a bid to further reverse the state's progressive socio-economic agenda of and its achievements of the past hundred-plus years, argues N Sathiya Moorthy.
People across the nation have been carrying out protests demanding the resignation of Xi Jinping over his strict COVID-19 measures.
The implementation of the NEP and four-year undergraduate programme were approved by the Standing Committee on Academic Matters and the Academic Council last week.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar faced protest for the second day on Thursday during his Seva Yatra to Bihar's Buxar district.
Sedition, which provides a maximum jail term of life under Section 124A of the IPC for creating "disaffection towards the government", was brought into the penal code in 1890, 57 years before Independence and almost 30 years after the IPC came into being.
The decision was taken at the executive council meeting of the university, sources said.
Rahul Gandhi on Saturday accused the National Democratic Alliance government of "suppressing" students' voice as he visited the JNU campus to express solidarity with them, a day after the arrest of its students' union president Kanhaiya Kumar in a sedition case.
Talking about April 10 violence, she said that there are 17 hostels in the university and in 16 of those, everything went on peacefully with the iftar and the Ram Navami puja being organised together.
Is it a divine, sacrosanct university, a holy cow, prohibiting human intervention?
Former India cricketer Aakash Chopra said images of students clashing with police at various institutions over the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) are deeply disturbing and crushing voices of dissent will only turn the agitators against India.
'The party is breaking stereotypes by not inviting senior leaders to become chief ministers.' 'No other party has had the guts to do this.'
Environmental activist and educator Sonam Wangchuk said democracy has been compromised in Ladakh and the local people have no say in decision-making.
The three former office-bearers of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, who had resigned from the party in protest against the Centre's handling of the raging row at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, said they were being "mocked" at for supporting the BJP's student wing and the "guilt" made them take the strong step.
'They want to establish the silence of the graveyard in university campuses across India.' 'They cannot bear any questioning or dissent. They want subordination and obedience.' 'And that is not going to happen,' says Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Brinda Karat.
