Tensions between Kashmiri and outstation students kept the National Institute of Technology in Srinagar on the boil as outstation students — protesting the “celebrations” by some local students of India’s T-20 cricket loss to West Indies on March 31 — refused to cooperate with a team of the Ministry of Human Resource Development that visited the campus on Wednesday.
A day after they were lathi-charged by the police while protesting with placards, the outstation students demanded action against those NIT officials who, they said, had indulged in “anti-national” activities.
They insisted that they be allowed to hoist the national tricolour every day before the main gate of the institute.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh and HRD Minister Smriti Irani spoke to Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, who is said to have assured them of the safety of outstation students.
Incidentally, during the Jawaharlal Nehru University crisis, Ms. Mufti had sent emissaries to Delhi to ask the Centre to ensure the safety of Kashmiri students.
The flare-up is now emerging as a test for the new government of the PDP and the BJP, allies who are together despite having little in common in their approach to the Kashmir issue.
It also brings the Centre face to face with yet another impasse on “nationalism” after the student unrest in Jawaharlal Nehru University and the University of Hyderabad.
The roots of the crisis go back to alleged celebrations by Kashmiri students of India’s T20 loss, leading to a confrontation on April 1 with outstation students, who waved the tricolour.
[Source:- The Hindu]
