Student groups, teachers' association slam JNU VC over counter-terrorism course

New Delhi: Several students groups and teachers' associations at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) slammed vice-chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar's statement about the new counter-terrorism course being "holistic".

JNU VC Jagadesh Kumar had on Wednesday stated that the criticism drawn by the contents of the new course was a "needless controversy" without going into the "academic merits" of the course.

He opined that the new counter-terrorism course to be taught to engineering students is "holistic," while asserting that it is imperative that an academic institution like JNU takes the lead and builds a good set of counter-terrorism specialists.

JNU Teachers' Association secretary Moushumi Basu said that international Relations is a diverse subject.

"The present set of IR courses does not do justice to the discipline and, in fact, turns the clock back. The VC's comment is silent on the process whereby such a course has come to be introduced, without any critical scrutiny" she said as reported by The Indian Express.

The course titled 'Counter-Terrorism, Asymmetric Conflicts, and Strategies for Cooperation among Major Powers' was allegedly passed without any discussion. The course says that "Jihadi terrorism' is the only form of "fundamentalist-religious terrorism", and that the erstwhile Soviet Union and China were the "predominant state-sponsors of terrorism" that influenced "radical Islamic states".

JNU Students' Union vice-president Saket Moon told The Indian Express that the VC's statement did not address the main issue of singling out one religion and a few countries. He added that the issue with using terms like "jihadi violence" was not addressed either.

Moon further said that a course like this needs more balance and should include all forms of political violence, including those from the Hindu right-wing. He also demanded that the course be rolled back.

Fawaz Shaeen, national secretary of the Students' Islamic Organisation, said the course "seeks to reinforce the misinformed ideas about Islam and Muslims", and stated that it is ironic that the VC is talking about evolving India's perspective.

Shaeen commented that the course material reads like a propaganda manual rather than an academic document. He noted that India has a long and well-documented history of communal violence and majoritarian hatred that finds its origin in the home-grown fascist ideologies.