Professional Documents
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Hands Off Our Teachers!
Hands Off Our Teachers!
We, the students, teachers and members of the academic community are alarmed by the
summons issued to Prof. Prem Kumar Vijayan of Hindu College, Delhi University by the
NIA to join the ongoing investigation into the Bhima Koregaon case on Friday, 14th August.
Recently, Prof. Hany Babu of English Department, Delhi University had also been summoned
similarly by the NIA and arrested under draconian UAPA charges in the expanding Bhima
Koregaon witch hunt of progressive teachers, journalists, lawyers, cultural and social activists.
Prof. Vijayan is a noted academic whose commitment to democratic rights, education for all
and ensuring social justice is reflected both in his academic engagements and social activism.
He has been a staunch voice against privatization of public education, attacks on
constitutional social justice norms, saffronization of curriculum by the RSS-BJP regime and
criminalization of political opposition. He has authored several academic papers and
participated in national and international seminars and conferences. His most recent book,
'Gender and Hindu Nationalism: Understand Masculine Hegemony' has been published by
Routledge.
In the university, we have personally witnessed Prof. Vijayan, or PKV as we all know him,
inspire a passion for literature and its place in the struggle for a more egalitarian, just social
order. We have also been aware of the intimidation faced by him from state and non-state
actors over the years, most recently with the information of Israeli spyware 'Pegasus' being
illegally used to surveil his personal communications along with at least 120 other Indians.
NSO Group, the spyware developer admitted before an US court that 'sovereign governments
in foreign countries' had used their services in April-May 2019 to illegally monitor citizens.
As members of the academic community, we condemn the RSS-BJP regime's increasing use
of repressive laws and manipulation of investigation and judicial processes to eliminate
critical thinking and democratic opposition.
We demand:
1. Immediately end the use of state agencies to harass our Professor P K Vijayan.
2. Release all political prisoners wrongfully arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case.
3. Arrest the known perpetrators of anti-Dalit violence such as Milind Ekbote, Sambhaji
Bhide and others in the Bhima Koregaon case.
4. Repeal all draconian laws such as UAPA, NSA, AFSPA and Sedition used to criminalise
mass movements.