Aligarh Muslim University’s Kashmiri students reject India’s Eid lunch invitation, says it “aimed to rub salts on our wounds”

Kashmiri students of Aligarh Muslim University rejected the invitation of Indian government for Eid lunch, as per Kashmir’s governor Satyapal Mallik allowed 1 lakh each for liaison officers. They rejected the invitation finding it as an opportunity to reject Delhi’s authoritarianism. the students say that this invitation is aimed at rubbing salt on their wounds.

Read the statement in full here,

This statement is a response to the message conveyed by the Registrar AMU to the students from Jammu and Kashmir at Aligarh Muslim University that Mr. Sanjay Pandit, Liaison Officer, Government of India has invited us for the Lunch on the day of Eid at the University Guest House. Earlier newspaper reports suggested that Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik has sanctioned Rs 1 lakh each to the designated liaison officers for organising Eid festivities for students from the state who are studying in other states and are unable to come home on the occasion of Eid amid security clampdown in the J & K.

We, the students from Jammu and Kashmir studying at Aligarh Muslim University hereby express our dismay on the invitation that has political connotation and is aimed to rub salts on our wounds. We take this invitation as an opportunity to reject the Delhi’s authoritarianism and drama played in the Indian parliament on 5th of this month. Though Delhi has a history of broken promises, the revocation of article 370 without consultation of the people of J&K by manoeuvering constitution is broad day robbery of our rights. It was followed by an absolute clampdown in the state and a massive crackdown across J&K, thereby arresting over 800 political workers. All the communication services have been barred and there is a blanket ban on expressing dissent in J & K. No News paper has published its online or print version in the last six days. The Governor of J&K has even imprisoned the Lawyers, Professors, traders and students in the guise of public law and order. There is an emergency situation in the state and a war cry at the borders. The Universities and colleges have been turned into camps for paramilitary troops and schools have been closed for an indefinite time. No means to communicate with our parents back home have been left. We have been rendered to the dark ages in the 21st century. There is an eminent threat of demographic change in the Designs of Delhi to rob us of our culture, history and religion.

Under such circumstance, the entire Alig fraternity of J & K at AMU expresses our deep anger against the deceitful behaviour of Delhi. We condemn the curfew and clampdown of communication services in J & K. We strongly believe that an invitation for the lunch on Eid is to rub salt on our wounds and to present a humane face of the brutal state before the world. This is an attempt to mislead the international community and people in India about the ground situation in Kashmir. The Governor of the state has no sympathies for us and the sanction of Rs 1 lakh and an Eid invitation is to buy our consent for the undemocratic means adopted by the Indian Government. The acceptance of the invitation would be an insult to our courage of our parents who are surviving the massive militarization and absolute clampdown in J & K.
We, the students at Aligarh Muslim University have therefore unanimously decided to reject this invitation.

Students of Jammu and Kashmir,
Studying at Aligarh Muslim University