“BJP wants to justify the abrogation of article 370 by putting all the pressure on Kashmiri students, we reject it”; Kashmiri Student

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After 50 days of absolute communication blockade, mass arrests, night raids, severe torture by the armed forces, and a complete allowance of Indian conscience for these war crimes on Kashmiris with their silence, the Uttar pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath invited Kashmiri students of Aligarh Muslim University for a meeting to discuss the benefits of abrogation of article 370, on saturday at Lucknow. But the entire Kashmiri student community turned out against this invitation and rejected it.
A PhD student who had participated in the meetings with administration and the district magistrate CB Singh says,
“The university administration, proctor and registrar were trying to persuade us, asking us to go to the meeting, they conveyed it, we said that we will not go because there are so many things, it is not morally right for us to go when there is a clampdown at Kashmir, they understand. After that the district administration called us. They tried to persuade us, we said already the agenda is fixed by him when he wants to meet the Kashmiri students. There is no point in meeting him. If he wants to talk about Kashmir there are lots of politicians languishing in jail right now in Agra, Meerut, they are in his state, he can go meet them. The district magistrate told us, “If you are not going to talk with him, which country you are going to talk with? are you interested in talking to another country?”, underlining as we are interested to talk with Pakistan. We don’t want to talk to anyone. He said, “you are studying here, who is providing you security? If you don’t go who will provide you security?” It is harassing for us in many ways. Why you want to invite us for a meeting? What is the purpose of inviting Kashmiris for a meeting? Jitendra Singh is going to JNU in October to give a talk. They are trying to justify their stand everywhere, because now it has become an international issue. They want to justify this by putting all the pressure to students. There is lot of pressure on India right now. BJP rather taking this step back they are doing this now.”
Another student who participated in the meetings said that even a meeting of Kashmiri students to decide on the response to this invitation itself was irritating for the Kashmiri students. “I had been part of all the meetings regarding this invitation by UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath. The administration received the invitation from the CM. They called us for a meeting. There was proctor and registrar, they tried to convince us to send forty students for this meeting. We put before them our reservations, we don’t want to be part of this. There are few reasons, there is no normalcy in Kashmir, it will be shown as some kind of normalcy, that Kashmiris are happy about this, another reason Kashmiris are in strong resentment, the way the article has abrogated, Kashmir is caged, and this is a mark of protest from Kashmiri students, another reason is this is an international issue, Yogi do not have a mandate to talk on this issue, CM of the state can’t discuss this issue which was abrogated by PM or home minister of India. People know what is it all about, this is a PR program. This doesn’t come in the domain of the CM of the state. It is mere work of public relation and propaganda. We had a meeting of all Kashmiri students, we had unanimously decided we will not go there. The administration had asked us to reveal the grievances, I told them our grievances are these, political dis-empowerment of Kashmir, it doesn’t come under his domain, our grievances are related to mess, hostel, financial issues, that university itself can manage, no need to go to the cm. We were always been managing these things internally or within the bodies of university. We were called by DM, he also tried to convince to participate in the meeting, we refused it, he asked us to talk to all students, we told we have already talked to them, after that there were one more meeting, even people are against meeting, this is something everyone knows that we have to reject this, this is self understood. They told it is not necessary. That is why we had cancelled lunch. We have to reject it. There were some media outlets trying to know our opinion, we had almost rejected. Students unanimously decided and rejected this decision that we will not go. University did not invite us for more talks, there were three rounds of talks on the first day. We will not attend the meeting, we told them. They are contacting students from different universities. Mostly those universities where Kashmiri students are in large number, like Sharda university. They might have contacted to some other university in UP. I read in newspaper that they have started some kind of a campaign to make people aware about the merits of abrogating 370. As Kashmiris are more sensible to these things and they know why the article is abrogated, they know it is repercussion, so they are conscious regarding this propaganda.”
Right after the abrogation of article 370 which gives special status to Jammu and Kashmir, students from Kashmir who study in Aligarh Muslim University were invited for Eid lunch by government of India’s liaison officer Sanjay Pandit. Kashmir governor Satyapal Malick had sanctioned Rs 1 lakh each to the designated liaison officers for organizing Eid festivities for Kashmiri students. Rejecting this invitation the Kashmiris students of AMU lashed back at “New Delhi’s opportunism” and stated that they strongly believe that an invitation for lunch on Eid is to rub salt on their wounds and to present a humane face of the brutal state before the world. In a collective statement, they said the governor’s move is to buy the consent of Kashmiri students.campaign to make people aware about the merits of abrogating 370. As Kashmiris are more sensible to these things and they know why the article is abrogated, they know it is repercussion, so they are conscious regarding this propaganda.”

Right after the abrogation of article 370 which gives special status to Jammu and Kashmir, students from Kashmir who study in Aligarh Muslim University were invited for Eid lunch by government of India’s liason officer Sanjay Pandit. Kashmir governor Satyapal Malick had sanctioned Rs 1 lakh each to the designated liason officers for organizing Eid festivities for Kashmiri students. Rejecting this invitation the Kashmiris students of AMU lashed back at “New Delhi’s opportunism” and stated that they strongly believe that an invitation for lunch on Eid is to rub salt on their wounds and to present a humane face of the brutal state before the world. In a collective statement, they said the governor’s move is to buy the consent of Kashmiri students.


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