Delhi Students Call for International Protest Day 2nd March 2016 #StandWithJNU

JNU Students’ Union has called for a March to Parliament and International Protest Day with three main demands:

• Removal of sedition and other charges from all JNU students and release the arrested students.
• Scrapping of sedition law (Sec 124A IPC).
• Enactment of a “Rohith Act†for ending caste-based discrimination in educational institutions. (Rohith was the name of a Dalit student in HCU who was forced to commit suicide after being hounded by the University administration at the behest of, again the ABVP, the MHRD and one of the BJP MPs who is also the Union Labour Minister. Rohith and his friends were partially suspended from the university, resulting in a virtual social boycott, as they couldn’t access public spaces. What is happening in JNU is very similar. In HCU, the attack was on Ambedkarite activists, whereas in JNU, the attack is on Left activists, a majority of them belonging to deprived backgrounds. The enactment of a “Rohith Act†seeks to provide institutional mechanisms to end caste-based discrimination in universities and other educational institutions.)

JNUSU appeals you to join the March to Parliament [in New Delhi] on 2nd March, 2016 from Mandi House to Parliament at 12 noon, if you are in Delhi. If not in Delhi, we appeal to you to hold parallel events in your city/country in support of our demands. We also appeal to everyone to use the hash tag #StandWithJNU to post live updates and support. Let’s try to trend #StandWithJNU globally. You may consider presenting a memorandum of demands to the local authorities as well or holding a press conference in order to publicize the demands of this movement.