In one of the latest anti-education measures against Kashmiri people, the Modi-led Indian government has cancelled the fellowship of a student from the Kashmir valley pursuing PhD at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) on the charge of pro- freedom fiction writing on his social media posts. Earlier, Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi, had cancelled the admission of the Kashmiri activist Safoora Zargar on a baseless charge.
The University Grants Commission (UGC) of India has discontinued the ‘Maulana Azad National Fellowship’ of AMU scholar Javid Ahmad Reshi, who belongs to north Kashmir’s Bandipora district on its portal, and all his pending payments have been stopped for his fiction writings.
The action was taken on the direction of the Indian Ministry of Minority Affairs. Indian media citing the ministry officials said that other students, who spew venom against India, indulge in “secessionist activities or write or propagate content, which may amount to be seditious, on social media or any other platform should take this step against Javid Reshi as a wake-up call.”
“Maulana Azad National Fellowship is the scheme of the Indian Ministry of Minority Affairs and it is implemented through the UGC. Before starting his PhD in Trauma Studies at the Department of English, Aligarh Muslim University, Reshi had completed his MA in English from the University of Kashmir.
“Reshi is using social media platforms to glamorise the ongoing violent campaign in J&K by drawing its parallel with the Kashmiri children’s games through fiction writing and would refer to the Military-Mujahid game to give a despicable spin indicating that Kashmiri children continue to play such a game to this day,” some media reports quoted a ministry official as having said.—KMS
