NIT row: Students stick to their demand, want campus shifted

Amit Khajuria

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Tribune News Service

Jammu, April 7

The non-Kashmiri students of the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Srinagar, today insisted that their main demand remained that the NIT campus in Srinagar should be shifted from Kashmir.

Refuting media reports that they were demanding a temple and the Tricolour on the campus, the non-Kashmiri students clarified that they wanted the Tricolour on the campus as per the guidelines of the Centre, but their main demand was that the campus should not be in Kashmir.

“We never demanded a temple on the campus, and the media should not mislead the country over the issue. Our only demands are that the campus should be shifted and action must be taken against the anti-national faculty members and students,” said a non-Kashmiri student at NIT.

“Even if the Central government provides us foolproof security on the campus, we cannot study under the shadow of guns. What about our security outside the campus? We cannot be caged inside the campus,” he added.

Even after the assurance of foolproof security on the campus, nearly 1,500 non-Kashmiri students continued to stage a protest, demanding the shifting of campus from Kashmir. They said the issue had been politicised and they were here for studies and not for politics.

“I have been here for more than two years and have not celebrated any festival or Independence Day. We didn’t complaint because we are here for studies, not for politics. But now we are not safe here, we should be sent home safely and called back to the campus where the HRD ministry shifts it,” said another student.

“We didn’t have any issues when in the past the national flag was not unfurled, but the Pakistani flag cannot be tolerated on an Indian campus. We unfurled the Tricolour on the next day of the match just to show them that we are nationalists and now we are facing the consequences of being nationalists in our own country,” he added.

‘Not safe here...should be sent home’

I have been here for more than two years and have not celebrated any festival or Independence Day. We didn’t complaint because we are here for studies, not for politics. But now we are not safe here, we should be sent home safely and called back to the campus where the HRD ministry shifts it. —A student of National Institute of Technology, Srinagar