Renowned American philosopher and academician Noam Chomsky has asked the Jawaharlal Nehru University Vice Chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar as to why he allowed the police to come on the campus, pointing out that it was not “legally required”.
In an e-mail to the vice chancellor on Sunday, he also charged that the present crisis in the JNU was “apparently created and precipitated” by the government and the university administration with “no credible evidence” of any seditious activities on campus.
“Many of us remain very concerned about the crisis in the JNU, which was apparently created and precipitated by the government and university administration with no credible evidence of any seditious activities on campus. Why did you allow the police on campus when it is clear that this was not legally required?” he sought to know from the vice chancellor.
The reports about Chomsky’s communication with the JNU vice chancellor began surfacing in media after some posted a picture of the American philosopher’’s e-mail to the the Kumar.
A e-mail sent by the Deccan Herald to Chomsky for his comment in this connection, however, remained unanswered till this report was filed.
Chomsky, professor of Linguistics (Emeritus) at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US, along with Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk and 84 other academicians and scientists from different parts of the world, condemned arrest of JNU Students Union president Kanhaiya Kumar on charges of sedition.
In a joint statement, they also said the police crackdown on JNU students on charges of sedition had brought “great dishonour” to the Narendra Modi government.
Noting that “the culture of authoritarian menace that the present government in India has generated”, they also charged that those in power were “replicating the dark times of the oppressive colonial period and of the Emergency of the 1970s.”
While the JNU administration remained tightlipped over the Chomsky’s e-mail to the varsity’s vice chancellor, a news agency quoted Kumar as maintaining on the issue that “the university was bound to do so (allow police in the campus).”
“I never invited the police to enter the campus and pick up our students. We only provided whatever cooperation was needed as per the law of the land. We were bound to do so,” the vice chancellor said.