Summary Signatories included students, alumni, two employees and one faculty member.
HARYANA (Dunya News / Web Desk) – Two teachers of Ashoka University in Indian state of Haryana were forced to quit after they signed a petition calling for an end to atrocities in occupied Kashmir and providing civilians the right to self-determination.
According to Indian Express, the petition was signed on July 25 by 88 members of the university and was addressed to the occupied Kashmir and Indian government.
The petition condemned “the violence after Burhan Wani’s death and called for de-militarisation of the state and the conduct of a plebiscite.”
Signatories included students, alumni, two employees and one faculty member.
The newspapers reports that on October 7, the two employees, Saurav Goswami, deputy manager of academic affairs, and Adil Mushtaq Shah, programme manager of academic affairs, of the Young India Fellowship sent farewell emails to the current batch of 225 YIF fellows.
People on the campus have revealed that the university management was ‘displeased’ after the petition went public.
“Until two weeks ago, they (Goswami and Shah) had no intention of leaving; they were busy planning guest (speaker) sessions for December. And then, out of the blue, we find emails announcing their resignation. It seems too much of a coincidence that the only two employees who signed the petition resign together and leave the university the same day,” said a student who did not wish to be identified.
Indian Express reports that an assistant professor in the mathematics department, Rajendran Narayanan who is the only teacher signing the petition, is also under pressure to quit by the end of this semester.
“Meanwhile, the Maths department has been informally asked to look for his replacement from next semester starting in January,” said a professor.
After the petition went public, the university has revised the regulations to moderate all emails between alumni and students, says the newspaper.
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