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JNUSU VP alleges receiving 'hate letter' for opposing Ramdev

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Press Trust of India New Delhi
Last Updated : Jan 11 2016 | 7:42 PM IST
JNU Students Union's vice president has approached the National Commission for Women (NCW), alleging that she received a "hate letter" for opposing the varsity's invitation to Yoga guru Ramdev for an event.
In her letter to the NCW chief, Shehla Rashid Shora said she had opposed the invite to Ramdev to be a keynote speaker in an academic conference at JNU and in return, she had to face "abusive" comments on Twitter which she "chose to ignore".
"And now I have received an anonymous letter, hurling abuses at me for opposing the visit. I seek your intervention in this regard," she said.
"I am the only female among members of JNUSU. My fellow office-bearers do not have to face comments on their body, sexuality and parentage. But, I have to...Only because I am a woman," she alleged.
Shora, a candidate of left-backed All India Students Union, was the first Kashmiri women to contest and win the students union polls at JNU.
She had led a campaign against the invitation extended to Ramdev for '22nd International Congress of Vedanta' in December last, terming it as a "silent right-wing onslaught" on the university.

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While the varsity had refused to withdraw the invitation, Ramdev skipped the visit citing shortage of time.
Meanwhile, women activist Kavita Krishnan denounced the "hate letter" saying "atrocious sexist and communal abuse for writing to JNU against allowing Ramdev to deliver a keynote address at an academic function on science...Such abuse really exposes the cowardly politics of some goons".
The members of ABVP, who had yesterday called off their
protest after the university assured them of a fair enquiry into the issue, burnt effigies of JNU administration demanding expulsion of the those supporting "anti-national" sentiments.
The controversy erupted earlier this week when few students had pasted posters across the campus inviting people to gather for a protest march against "judicial killing of Afzal Guru and Maqbool Bhatt" and in solidarity with "struggle of Kashmiri people for their democratic right to self determination" at varsity's Sabarmati dhaba.
Members of the ABVP objected to the event and wrote to the Vice Chancellor that such kind of marches should not be held on campus of an educational institution, prompting the university administration to order cancellation of the march as they "feared" that it might "disrupt" peace on campus.
But the organisers went ahead with the programme despite the cancellation of the permission and held a cultural programme, art and photo exhibition on the issue rather than a protest.
The university had yesterday ordered a "disciplinary" inquiry into the incident saying that the act of students going ahead with the event despite cancellation of permission amounted to indiscipline and any talk about country's disintegration cannot be "national".
Asked about the protests today and the student groups being divided over the issue, the JNU authorities, said they will decide their course of action only after the proctorial committee comes up with its report.
"The students have a right to protest and express their dissent over any particular issue but we have to take care of the fact that the academic functioning of the university does not get disrupted," JNU VC Jagdeesh Kumar said.
"The probe committee headed by the Chief Proctor is examining the evidences and we will be able to take any action once the panel comes up with its return," he added.

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First Published: Jan 11 2016 | 7:42 PM IST

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