Sedition anyone?

Common sense appears to have prevailed in the Uttar Pradesh state government of India. It is reported to have dropped charges of sedition against 67 Kashmiri students studying in a private university of the state for cheering the Pakistan cricket team in the high-strung Asia Cup clash with India on March 2. While this shows the state quickly realised its foolhardiness in considering such extreme measure against students for impromptu display of their emotions, the Meerut-based Swami Vivekanand Subharti University is sticking to its decision to keep them suspended indefinitely. This is regrettable as the action puts the scholastic ambitions of a large batch of students at considerable risk.

Kashmiris in the Indian-ruled part of the valley are known to support Pakistan unreservedly in sporting battles with India and this particular episode is, perhaps, unique only in that it happened on a campus in the heart of India. The university vice-chancellor says the students’ behaviour was not conducive to peace on the campus. That may be so. But rusticating students from universities is not likely to make the Kashmiri students India’s fans. The resentment they nurse towards New Delhi is only bound to heighten after such episodes. It will be in the fitness of things that India sees the root cause of Kashmiri people’s disenchantment with it that obligates it to keep them under sway at the point of a gun. Otherwise, it will keep suffering the embarrassment of the kind it did on one of its main city campuses.

Islamabad, meanwhile, has said that if the students wish to pursue their studies in Pakistan, “our hearts and academic institutions are open to them”. This is a good gesture on our part. But the best course would be for India not to sully its reputation by being seen as lacking the spirit of sportsmanship. It should quickly tackle a situation that is increasingly making it the laughing stock in the eyes of the world and ignore a trivial case of some students throwing their weight behind ‘the wrong team’.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 9^th, 2014.

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