JNU violence: IIM-Calcutta students wear black badges to show solidarity

As students and teachers in college campuses across the country condemned the violence at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on Sunday evening, a group of students, alumni and faculty gathered at the New Academic Block inside the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIM-C) campus to hold a candlelight vigil on January 6. They wore black ribbons to condemn the attacks that left about 30 students and faculty members of JNU injured. On Tuesday, January 7, the students and faculty members wore black ribbons to class as a mark of protest.

They also signed a statement condemning the violence. “As members of the academic community, we, the undersigned, unequivocally condemn the violence unleashed by masked perpetrators on 5th January, Sunday, in JNU campus,” the statement read. “This barbaric act of aggression is an assault on the sanctity of university campuses as safe space for debate, discussion and dissent. Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident and rather fits a pattern where state and non-state actors have repeatedly used brute force to stifle any critical voice. It is in this context that we stand in solidarity with students and teachers of JNU, in our collective attempt at preserving the ethos of an educational institution.”

Kranthi Nanduri, a PhD student, said: “This is the first time in the history of IIM-Calcutta that such a large number of students, teachers and alumni have come together to show support for the student community across the country.”

In December 2019, after students of Jamia Millia Islamia and Aligarh Muslim University were attacked on campus, about 160 students of IIM-C held a peaceful march on campus to raise their voices against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019 (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC). About 250 plus students, teachers and alumni also signed a statement of solidarity, showing support for the protests that students across the country held against CAA and NRC.

December’s statement condemned the violent repression of student protests in educational institutions across the country. “Students, like any Indian citizen, have the fundamental right to peacefully protest. Such suppression of dissent undermines the very ethos of an educational institution and the secular functioning of our democracy,” the students had said then.