The prestigious science journal, Nature, has joined an international chorus of concern calling on the Indian government to step in and stop the violent attacks on campuses and protect the freedom of expression and dissent.
The journal has referred to last month’s police action at Jamia Millia Islamia and Aligarh Muslim University and the January 5 attacks at Jawaharlal Nehru University.
“Academics in India and around the world are right to be alarmed and to speak up because force has been used on university campuses, causing fear,” Nature said in an editorial published this week.
“The severity of the police action has rightly prompted a chorus of international concern.”
The journal continued: “What is troubling is that decisions on who can — and cannot — apply for citizenship will be made on the basis of religious belief. Muslims are to be excluded, which is a violation of the foundational principle that people of all faiths and none must be equal in law.”
Nature said that while the government’s supporters are upset that university students, academics and scientists are opposing the new law, they must know that freedom of expression is central to a university’s mission and that citizens’ ability to protest peacefully is a right, not a privilege. The state should provide protection for such dissent, it added.
“Without it, no Opposition would be able to present its case to the public -– as members of the current government and its supporters did in the years they were out of power,” Nature said.
The editorial comes at a time teachers and students across India’s academic institutions have experienced various forms of pressure to refrain from joining protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.
“There are definite attempts to intimidate or muzzle independent thinking — particularly so across the educational institutions,” a senior faculty member at a central academic institution told The Telegraph.
“India’s international image has been badly eroded, particularly among scholars.”
The journal has called on Indian authorities to heed the words of the Prime Minister’s principal scientific adviser, Krishnaswamy VijayRaghavan, who has said: “Campuses are places for learning, discussion, collegial debate among diverse opinions and research. There is no place for violence at all.”