Last year during the Techvaganza festival at National institute of Technology (NIT) Srinagar Kashmir, I was there to receive a certificate as a receipt for being the media partner of the event, I talked to many non-local students there, and they had all praises for hospitality, gesture and the cordial relation maintained by local students. Hardly anyone talked about politics. Only a non-local student whom still I’m in contact said that there is a need to launch a campaign about the misunderstanding of Kashmir viz-a-viz unrest, terrorism etc.
Today when it seems that the Institute is under the hostage of non-locals following clashes with Kashmiri students who had celebrated India’s defeat against West Indies in T20 semifinals the incident will undoubtedly affect the Tourism sector which has not yet recovered fully in the aftermath of the devastating 2014 floods.
The incident has allegedly also drew its shadows over the character of local students of the varsity and exposed the double standard of the big guns of the party in alliance with state government, the separatist leaders are appealing for peace and mutual brotherhood repeatedly. New Delhi seems very much interested to do politics over the matter with the reasons known to them only. We recently witnessed the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) incidents which erupted on the eve of anniversary of Afzal Guru.
The incident of JNU and NIT strongly indicates the premises of educational institutions are now becoming the market and ground for those elements who want to sell radicalization and to play petty politicking respectively for their political benefits.
The elements behind this are actually anti-people and anti-Kashmir who want to destroy the peaceful atmosphere of Kashmir by sponsoring such type of violence which tantamount risking and putting to jeopardy the lives of Kashmiri students studying outside Kashmir.
The state government have called for probe over the clashes at NIT, the challenge for the probe committee seem to be multifaceted, but a tough mystery to crack for the probing committee would only be who brought the tri color flag to the Non local students in the premises of varsity which later was used to collect scrap by non local laborers’. However, if it had been the green flag the story would be different.

The Hurriyat firebrand Syed Ali Geelani minutes after his return from Indian capital while addressing the people stressed upon the students to concentrate on their studies, adding, non local students are our guests and we always welcomed them here. The Hurriyat (M) appealed the students of NIT to remain focused on studies and try to maintain the atmosphere of harmony and cordiality along with maintaining the credibility of this institution, besides preventing themselves from indulging in any sort of bickering.

 

The recent news about the assault of a police officer by non local students is perhaps first of its kind reported from Kashmir and is eye opener to the common people of outside Kashmir how much the guest students are being tolerated with love and care. The local police, accused of thrashing outstation students, is virtually invisible. Two companies of CRPF had been deployed earlier and three companies of 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 extremists’ radar for having a large presence of non-Kashmiris. The way in which the government rushed paramilitary forces into the university premises, sidelining the state authorities, has caused some concern, both about the future of the new government and the students of the college.
The Hurriyat firebrand Syed Ali Geelani minutes after his return from Indian capital while addressing the people stressed upon the students to concentrate on their studies, adding, non local students are our guests and we always welcomed them here. The Hurriyat (M) appealed the students of NIT to remain focused on studies and try to maintain the atmosphere of harmony and cordiality along with maintaining the credibility of this institution, besides preventing themselves from indulging in any sort of bickering.
Like in NIT row the government of India should also take serious notice of the acts wherein its people with the communal mindset indulge in targeting Kashmiri students with violence on just petty issues which sometimes caused the loss of precious lives.
Right from beef ban to Bharat Mata ki jai, such controversies in Kashmir are becoming the central point, we observed many strikes, we were beaten on the floor of assembly, we lost brothers on the roads of Udhampur, nowadays we are facing the bullying of non-state youths but the question is what makes Kashmir to gain this unfortunate centralizing, what happens to the above said misunderstandings and hospitality and gesture of Kashmir the answers for this question are innumerous but I guess north and south pole alliance is aggravating this .
Nearly 3,000 students currently study on the campus. At present, 50% of the university seats are reserved for students from outside the state of Jammu and Kashmir. The other 50% is divided between students from the Muslim-majority Kashmir valley, the Hindu-majority Jammu and Ladakh regions.
At a time when NIT has now become the latest hotspot in the debate over “nationalism” in India, there was a need to control the situation, not with lathis, pepper gas or pellet gun but through a dialogue process among the two faction of students and authorities, but due to ban of student politics in Kashmir no one can be ready to come on forefront except if a specialist like Kanaya Kumar or Umar Khalid would be imported.

The writer hails from Srinagar and can be reached at bilalbashirbhat@gmail.com