People like Kanhaiya, Umar and Shehla are role models for youth and elders both: Irfan Habib
By Naved Ashrafi
Teachers and students at Aligarh Muslim University organised an open lecture followed by a solidarity march. A number of students and teachers including Prof. Irfan Habib were a part of the event.
Students and teachers of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) today came out in solidarity with the students and teachers of University of Delhi in the backdrop of recent incident of disruption and hooliganism by a right wing students' body in Ramjas College. In an open lecture at Faculty of Arts lawn followed by a peaceful march, number of students and teachers gathered and upheld the need for a strong rebuttal of fascist ideology that endangers university campuses in India.
Prof. Irfan Habib, eminent Marxist historian and emeritus professor at the Centre of Advanced Studies, Department of History (AMU) said that whenever fascist forces come to the power, they don't smash the social, political and economic institutions all of a sudden. They do it all in 'stages' and first of all stages is 'curbing the free voices and expressions'. Prof. Habib emphasised, 'what Hitler and Mussolini did is a testimony to this fact'. At the gathering Prof. Habib was flanked by other faculty members of AMU including Prof. Wasi Haider, Prof. Ali Nadeem Rezavi, Prof. Md. Aftab Alam, AMUTA secretary Prof. Mustafa Zaidi and others.
He said, 'students are the saviour of university campuses against the fascist threat and people like Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid and Shehla Rashid are the role models not only for students but also for elders like me'. 'Battle against fascist forces starts from 'awareness' and 'alertness' about their motives, he added urging students to make masses aware at large about moves like demonetisation, and cooperating corporate houses.
Prof. Md. Aftab Alam from Department of Political Science asked students to register strong protest against such attacks on freedom of expression as that happened in Ramjas College and urged students not to take the law in their hands during such protests. He indicated that influence of fascist forces was quiet palpable even in AMU as it became quite toilsome to get permission from AMU administration even for a 'peaceful' protest. He said, 'protest must be registered in constitutional ways and we must believe in might of democratic institutions of free India'. AMUTA Secretary Prof. Mustafa Zaidi also endorsed students to revitalise campuses with democratism and humanism.
