An online statement purportedly by 'Indian students condemning the government's response to student dissenters' went up on Google at midnight yesterday, 'to gather around, to state our collective opinion -- aloud to ourselves and to our country, and to show that we are many, that students who feel this way come from all parts of the country and from myriad backgrounds. It is a place for us to realise our own numbers and strength.'


The document, which is in English and eight Indian languages, is being translated in as many languages as possible, and seeks the endorsement of those who agree with it.


It states: "As students of varied disciplines, we greatly value the unfettered space Indian universities and colleges provide for varied political views and ideologies as well as for activism, and we believe it is crucial that this freedom be safeguarded. These are not only relevant to our education, but also to our development as aware and engaged citizens.


"We wish to state strongly that we do not think that expressing discontent against state action, for example by protesting the hanging of Afzal Guru or Yakub Memon, threatens our country as much as the all-powerful state using violence and outdated colonial laws against its own young citizens does. The use of force and high-handedness by the state teaches young people that this is the language in which public debates must be conducted.

"We are disappointed that our government has forgotten our history -- that we are a people who through non-violent assertion of individual and collective rights, triumphed over state brutality. We are shocked that our government thinks that concern for the nation can take only one form, that which it endorses. We are disgusted that it uses its enormous power to silence students who bring attention to the injustice that our poor and marginalised face. We reject the legacy of divisiveness and suppression that not only this government but many previous ones have left us.

"As young participants in a democracy, we seek a country that will celebrate not only a diversity of languages, foods, arts, music, religions and ethnicities, but an equally diverse range of political views. If the state cannot and will not allow for the forming of such a country, the young people of this country will resolve to intensify their (democratic, non-violent and inclusive) struggle against the narrow-minded and majoritarian powers that be."


You can read the document here.


Pic: Activists protest against alleged 'anti-India' slogans shouted during a demonstration at the Jawaharlal Nehru University where students allegedly called the Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru a martyr.