Opposition leaders claim JNU course seeks to 'demonise' a community, VC dismisses 'needless controversy'

A political row broke out over a course on counter-terrorism introduced by the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) with opposition leaders claiming that it seeks to “demonise” a community.

The optional course – Counter-Terrorism, Asymmetric Conflicts and Strategies for Cooperation among Major Powers – will be offered to Master of Science dual-degree students specialising in international relations at JNU’s School of Engineering.

This course and two others – India's World View in the 21st Century, and Significance of Science and Technology in International relations – were approved by the JNU Academic Council on August 17.

“A new course in JNU brazenly distorts history & demonises an entire community to communalism polity & yield electoral dividends for BJP & further divisive agenda of RSS,” BSP leader Kunwar Danish Ali said.

Ali said the move will have grave implications for India's unity and integrity and wanted the government to scrap it forthwith.

CPI leader Binoy Viswam had written to Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan claiming that the course tries to “distort history” and an attempt to “communalise and politicise geopolitical issues”.

Read more: JNU may soon offer course on ‘jihadi terrorism’

JNU Vice-Chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar dismissed the row as a “needless controversy” raked up “without going into the academic merits of the course”.

“The objective of the course, ‘Counter Terrorism, Asymmetric Conflicts and Strategies for Cooperation among Major Powers’, is mainly to have an in-depth understanding of the challenges emanating from terrorism to India’s national security and how India can get equipped with adequate responses in case of any eventuality,” he said.

He said the course had the potential to build a strong narrative for India.

“An in-depth understanding of various global and regional terrorist networks is a part of the curriculum of this course. How India has witnessed the rise of religious fundamentalism and radicalisation through perverse ideologies in its neighbourhood is an area where a lot of knowledge is needed to deal with emerging situations,” Kumar said.