Kashmiri students are now outsiders in NIT

Last year, during the Techvaganza festival at the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Srinagar, I was present to receive a certificate for being the media partner of the event. I spoke to many non-local students, and they were all praises for the hospitality and the cordial relations between non-local and local students.

Hardly anyone spoke about politics. Only one student from outside Srinagar, who I'm still in contact with, said there was a need to launch a campaign on the misunderstanding of the Kashmir issue, vis-a-vis unrest, terrorism and so on.

Today, it looks like the institute is under the siege of non-local elements following clashes with Kashmiri students who had celebrated India's defeat against the West Indies in the World T20 semifinal. This incident will undoubtedly affect tourism in the Kashmir Valley, which is yet to recover fully after the devastating floods in 2014.

Also read: Students are right, shift NIT Srinagar out of Kashmir Valley

The incident has also cast shadows over the character of local students of the institute and exposed the double standards of the big guns of the BJP, which is part of the ruling alliance in the state. The separatist leaders, on the other hand, have been repeatedly appealing for peace and mutual brotherhood.

The Central government seems very interested in politicising the matter for reasons best known to it. We recently witnessed how it turned the protests at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) into a huge national issue. Incidentally, it started on the eve of the death anniversary of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.

The incidents at the JNU and NIT strongly indicate that the premises of educational institutions are now becoming marketplaces for elements who want to sell radicalisation and play petty politics for their own benefit.

The elements behind this episode are anti-people and anti-Kashmir who want to destroy the peaceful atmosphere in the Valley. By sponsoring violence, they are putting the lives of Kashmiri students studying outside the state at risk.

Also read: NIT row an excuse to fuel communal fire in Kashmir

The state government has called for probe into the clashes at the NIT. The challenges for the probe committee seem to be multifaceted. A tough mystery to crack for the probing committee would be: who brought the tricolour to the non-local students in the premises of the institute which later was used to collect scrap by non-local labourers? However, if it had been the green flag, the story would have been different.

The news about the assault of a police officer by non-local students is perhaps the first of its kind reported from Kashmir.

The local police, accused of thrashing outstation students, is virtually invisible. Two companies of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) was deployed earlier and three companies of the Sashastra Seema Bal joined them.

This is probably the only campus in India with its entire security handed over to the paramilitary. The paramilitary presence could become a regular feature as the clashes may have put the institute on the extremists' radar given that it has a large presence of non-Kashmiris.

The way in which the government rushed paramilitary forces into the premises of the institute, sidelining the state authorities, has caused some concern, both about the future of the new government in the state, and the students of the college.

Firebrand Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, minutes after his return from New Delhi, stressed upon the students to concentrate on their studies, adding that "non-local students are our guests".

The Hurriyat (Moderate) also appealed to the NIT students to focus on their studies and try to maintain an atmosphere of harmony and cordiality, and the credibility of the institute, besides keeping away from any sort of bickering.

The government of India should also take serious note of the fact that Kashmiri students are being targeted by people with a communal mindset, with violence being committed over petty issues which have led to a loss of precious lives.

Right from the beef ban to politics over the slogan "Bharat Mata ki jai", controversy in Kashmir have been rearing its ugly head. Many strikes were observed, we were beaten, we lost brothers on the roads of Udhampur. And now we are being bullied by youths from outside the state.

The question is, what makes Kashmir a victim of such high-handedness by the Centre? The answers are numerous, but I guess, the alliance between north and south poles (BJP and PDP) is aggravating this.

Nearly 3,000 students currently study in the NIT. Fifty per cent of the seats are reserved for students from outside the state of Jammu and Kashmir at present. The other 50 per cent is divided between students from the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley, the Hindu-majority Jammu, and Ladakh.

At a time when the NIT has become the latest hotspot of the debate over nationalism in India, there is a need to control the situation, not with lathis, pepper gas or pellet guns, but through dialogue among the two factions of students and authorities. Unfortunatlely, owing to the ban on student politics in Kashmir, no one is ready to come to the forefront. Unless a Kanhaiya Kumar or Umar Khalid can be imported.