A professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru University has voiced her support for plebiscite in Kashmir and said that India had “illegally occupied” the territory, a media report said.
“We believe that democracy (Rashtraraj) is a very strong thing, but if it was so strong then why few students, who raised such (anti-India) slogans were arrested,” asked JNU professor Nivedita Menon, who teaches at the Centre for Comparative Politics and Political Theory at the International Studies school.
Menon said that tanks and guns were used to keep “the democracy intact”.
“If such incidents happen then the democracy is not so strong as we claim because tanks and guns are used to keep the democracy intact and strong.”
“After Independence, the accession of Kashmir was done following the India-Pakistan war on the pretext that a plebiscite will be conducted when the situation gets back to normal and since then it (janmat sangrah) has not happened,” she said.
“We all know that the world today believes that India is illegally occupying Kashmir,” she asked while addressing a gathering of students on nationalism programme at the varsity.
According to the report, she said that India is an “imperialist country”.
“Here 30-40 percent of the country is under control of the army in the name of special forces laws, which are used to crush the people.”
“Atrocities are being committed from Kashmir to the Northeast and in Chhattisgarh. Manipur and Kashmir have been illegally occupied by the Indian state.”
She said raising pro-azadi slogans in context of Kashmir was justified, said the report.
“When the international community is debating over legal occupation of Kashmir, then we should think that ‘azadi’ slogan is justified.”
Source: Greater Kashmir
