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JNU teachers, students protest as counterterrorism course gets EC’s nod
According to teachers the ‘Counter Terrorism, Asymmetric Conflicts and Strategies for Cooperation among Major Powers’ course — which will be taught to engineering students — had problems with the content and reading list. Student activists called the course ‘Islamophobic’.
The executive council of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on Thursday approved a course on counterterrorism, amid protests by teachers and students, even as it gave its nod to other projects, including setting up a medical college and observing Partition Remembrance Day on August 14, in accordance with the central government’s announcement.
According to teachers the ‘Counter Terrorism, Asymmetric Conflicts and Strategies for Cooperation among Major Powers’ course — which will be taught to engineering students — had problems with the content and reading list. Student activists called the course ‘Islamophobic’.
The course was passed by the Academic Council on August 17.
On Wednesday, the university’s vice-chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar said that there was a “needless controversy” over the new counterterrorism course.
Kumar said the controversy was being created “without going into the academic merits” of the course.
“There is a need to further evolve India’s perspective in a balanced and objective manner. This course has the potential to build a strong narrative for India. An in-depth understanding of various global and regional terrorist networks is a part of the curriculum of this course,” said Kumar.
Teachers raised issues during Thursday’s EC meeting on the counterterrorism course. “Courses like these will degrade the standard of the university. No critical scrutiny was allowed on the course even in EC,” said JNU teachers’ association secretary Moushumi Basu.
Waseem RS, a member of Fraternity Movement JNU, said “The proposal of the course reflects upon the Islamophobia of JNU administration. The course will create a terrible situation for the Muslim JNU students as it will further the Islamophobic questions they face periodically in JNU,” he said
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