New Delhi. Close to 300 signatories urge the President to ensure that the sense of trust and democratic spirit of our constitution are restored.

This is the letter (appended below) by concerned citizens affiliated with academia and academic institutes from across the globe to register their grave concerns regarding the high handed dealing of various student related issues by the authorities.

The letter with all the signatories and their respective affiliations is attached.

They have signed the letter in their respective personal capacity.

OPEN LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT OF INDIA

24th February 2016

To,

Shri Pranab Mukherjee

President of India

Rashtrapati Bhawan,

New Delhi 110004

Honourable Mr. President,

We, the undersigned, write this letter to you to express our shock and concern at the alarming increase in reports from several academic institutions in India of high-handed behaviour on the part of the authorities. The latest in the series is the police action at JNU and the arrest of the president of the JNU Students Union on the frivolous and baseless charge of sedition. From the news reports, all we are able to gather is that the immediate provocation was a meeting organised by a fringe student group to protest/ commemorate certain events in the troubled history of Kashmir. We fail to understand why and how organising and debating on any matter should become an act of sedition and provoke police action, more so in a place of learning. We would also like to draw your attention to the rapidly growing tendency of cynically defining ‘anti-nationalism’ for sectarian ulterior motives in order to further terrorise people through self-appointed vigilante groups. This indeed is a danger which the Indian Republic can ill afford.

To all of us who have had the privilege of higher education, it is essential that the mandate of a good university is not merely to impart ‘formal’ education but also to build the character of the students as future citizens of the nation and engaged members of the society. Surely, we all agree that any serious academic institution will fail in its endeavour to nurture informed citizenship if it is not a place for dialogue, debate and dissent. The Report of the Education Commission i.e. Kothari Commission (1964-66) stated:

are the dwelling places of ideas and idealism . . . Theirs is the pursuit of truth and excellence in all its diversity – a pursuit which needs, above all, courage and fearlessness. Great universities and timid people go ill together. . . universities are pre - eminently the forum for critical assessment of society – sympathetic, objective, unafraid . . .

We are persuaded to assert that the kind of terror that is being unleashed at the moment by those whom the people of this country have voted to Constitutional positions of responsibility is likely to make it impossible to nurture such a healthy environment. An atmosphere of fear and distrust will only teach the young to be timid and subservient, not the best qualities to cultivate democracy and create proactively thinking and questioning citizens of the future.

We urge upon you and, through you, all concerned to take this issue up with the elected representatives and other people in positions of authority at all levels and restore the sense of trust, confidence and the democratic spirit of our Constitution.

Yours sincerely

…

S.No.

Name

Affiliation
2

Abhijit A. M.

College of Engineering, Pune
4
Abhishek Majumdar

Jadavpur university

5

Achla M Raina

IIT Kanpur

6

Alladi Sitaram

Indian Statistical Institute(Retired)

7

Amala Bhave

JNU

8

Ambuj Anand

IIM Calcutta

9

Amit Singh

NorthWestern University

10

Amitabha Bandyopadhyay

Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

11

Amitabha Bhattacharya

IIT Kharagpur

12

Amiya Kumar Bagchi

Institute of Development Studies Kolkata

13

Amrita Das Dutta

IIM Calcutta

14

Anand Manarkattu

Alumnus, IIT Bombay

15

Ananya

Researcher
17

Anil Pradhan

19

Anindya Sarkar

IIT Kharagpur

21

Anjali Maydeo

University

23
Annapurna Shaw
Indian Institute of Management Calcutta

25
Anup Sinha
IIM Calcutta

26
Anupam Banerjee
Research Scholar, IIT Kharagpur

27
Anush Shetty
28
Anwesha Mukherjee
University of East Anglia

29
Apoorv Khare
IIM Calcutta

30
Aravind Muthusamy
Student @ IIT Kanpur

31
Ariharan S
IIT Kanpur

32
Arijit Chakrabarty
ISI DELHI

33
Arindam Roy
IIT Kharagpur

34
Arnab Mukherjee
MNNIT Alumnus

36
Arpita Basu
38
Arundhati Dhuru
NAPM

40
Aswathy Raveendran
Research Scholar, HBCSE, TIFR

42
B.N. Patnaik
None

43
B. Roy
Retired PSU executive

44
Babasaheb Kazi
Tata Institute of Social Sciences

45
Badri Raina
Columnist

47
Bhim Reddy
Institute for Human Development, New Delhi

49
Bijay Bhai
Bharat Jan Andolon

50
Bimal Kumar Das
Member, Forum Of Scientists and Technologists (FOSET)

51
Bindu
52
Binoy
Independent Researcher

53
CB Choudhary
54
Chaithra Puttaswamy
IIT KANPUR

55
Chandra Has
IIT Bombay

56
D M Diwakar
A N Sinha Institute of Social Studies, Patna

57
Debarati Basu
IIM Calcutta

58
Debarshi Das
60
Debashish Goswami
ISI Kolkata

62
Deepankar Basu
University of Massachusetts, Amherst

64
Dheeraj Singh
66
Dileesh P V
Student _IIT Bombay

67
Dilnaz Boga
Independent journalist and PhD scholar

68
Dipankar Sarkar
IIT Kharagpur

69
Dipanwita Roy Chowdhury
IIT Kharagpur

71

Dr Mohammad Imtiyaj Khan

Department of Biotechnology, Gauhati University

University
74

Dr Subir Sinha

SOAS, University of London

76

Dr. A. S. Shimreiwung

Tezpur University
78

Dr. V.N. Sharma

Federation of Retired SAIL Employees

80

Dwiparna Chatterjee

IIT Bombay

81

Faraz Ahmad

Freelance journalist

82

Flavia Agnes

Majlis Legal Centre

83

Gagandeep Kaur

Student, IIT Kanpur

84

Ganesh Kailas

Student IIT Kanpur
85
Gaurav Dar

BITS Pilani Goa Campus

86

Gautam Bandyopadhyay

87

Gautam Ganapathy

IIT Bombay

88

George Oommen
89

Girish Mishra

Retired Teacher of Delhi University
90

Goutam kr Das

Associate Professor, ECE Dept, MIT, Bishnupur, WB
91

Gurinder Singh
TIFR, Mumbai
93

Guruprasad Kar

ISI Kolkata

95
Hardip Grewal

97

Himani Rawat

98

Himanshu Srivastava
Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education

99
Himmat Singh Ratnoo
100
Hiren Gohain
Independent radical scholar

101
Indraneel Dasgupta
ISI Kolkata
102
Ishita Mukhopadhyay
Dept. of Economics, Calcutta University
103
JAGANNATHAN
NONE
104
Jagmohan Singh
Shaheed. Bhagat singh centenary foundation
105
Janbee Shaik Mopidevi
Anglia Ruskin University

106
Jishnu Dasgupta
the Supreme Court on FOOD
108
K Kranthi Kumar
Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai
109
Kajri Misra
Xavier University Bhubaneswar
110
Kamal Lodaya
The Institute of Mathematical Sciences

111
Kamal Nayan Kabra
Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi
112
Kanak Raina
113
Karabi Biswas
IIT Kharagpur
114
Kaushik Bhattacharya
IIT Kanpur
115
Kaushika Draavid
Research scholar, IIT Kanpur
117
Kh Burhanuddin
119
Kuntal Ghosh
122
M. B. Balsamant
University of Delhi
124
Malabika Biswas
IIT BOMBAY
126
Manali Chakrabarti
Independent Researcher
128
Md. Zamilur Rahman
129
Meher Engineer
All India Forum for Right to Education
130
Mehernosh Madan
131
Mihir Arjunwadkar
University
133

Mimasha Pandit

Assistant Professor, St. Paul's Cathedral Mission College

135

Mohini Mullick

Retired faculty of IIT Kanpur

137

Moyna Bammi Bedi

138

Mritiunjoy Mohanty

Indian Institute of Management Calcutta

139

Mrityunjoy Chakraborty

IIT, Kharagpur

140

Nandini Gupta

IIT Kanpur

142 Niloy Ganguly IIT Kharagpur

Nisha Biswas

Nisha D'souza

146
Nishant Singh
Student, IIT Kanpur

147
Nishchay M
College of Engineering Pune

148
P. Premalatha
Mumbai

149
Parasar Mohanty
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

151
Pavni Kaushiva

152
Poonam A
IIT Bombay

153
Prabal Bhargava
Alumnus IIT Kanpur

154
Pradeep Kumar S
Student, IIT Kanpur

155
Pranab Kanti Basu
Professor, Visva-Bharati

156
Pratik Tarafdar
IIM Calcutta

157
Prem Prakash Verma
Alternative Development Forum

158
Priya Sebastian
Alumnus, IIT Bombay

160
Priyanshu Gupta
IIM Calcutta

161
Probal Dasgupta
Kolkata

University, Shibpur
164

Puja Sen

Himal Southasian

165

R Babu

Student, IIT Kanpur

167

Rabindranath Mukhopadhyay

University of Calcutta

169

Raghabendra Chattopadhyay

Retired

171

Rahul Maganti

Student

173

Rahul R

Student, IIT Kanpur

174

Rahul Varman

IIT Kanpur

175

Rajendra Sahai

Alumni - IIT, Kanpur

176

Rajesh Bhattacharya

IIM Calcutta

177

Rajesh Kumar

178

Rajinder Chaudhary

(Haryana)

180

Rakesh Ranjan

University of Delhi

182

Ram Puniyani

All India Secular Forum

183

Ramesh bairy

iIIT Bombay

184

RANJANA KANHERE

185

Reva Yunus

University of Warwick

187
Ridhi Agarwala
IIM Calcutta

189
RK Verma
190
Rohan Mukherjee
IIT-Kharagpur

191
Rohit Dwivedi
IIM Shillong

192
Rohit Varman
IIM Calcutta

193
Rosemary Varkey M
HBCSE-TIFR

194
Ruchira Mandal
195
Runa Sarkar
IIM Calcutta

196
RUPAK KUMAR
IIT Bombay

197
Saba Hussain
UCL

198
Sabyasachi SenGUpta
Professor, IIT Kharagpur

200
Samar Kumar Bagchi
National Alliance of Peoples Movement

202
Sameet
Yale University

204
Sandeep Gupta
206
Sandeep Pandey
Socialist Party (India)

207
Sanjay Kureel
IIT Bombay

Sanjukta Majumdar

Sankara Narayanan

211
Santanu Sengupta

213
Sarbani Bandyopadhyay
Xavier's College, Kolkata

214
Sarmila Banerjee
University of Calcutta

216
Saumyen Guha
IIT Kanpur

218
Saurabh Singh
Indian Statistical Institute, Bangalore.

220
Sayan Gupta
IIT Madras

221
Shamim Akhter
Alumni, IIT Kanpur, AMU Aligarh

222
Shanta Laishram
Indian Statististical Institute, New Delhi
223
Shaoni Shabnam
Sciences IIT Bombay

225
Sharmistha Dey
Concerned and worried Indian citizen

227
Shiraz Ahmed
Father of a college going son
Shirin N

Shitij Gulati

Shiv Prakash Patel

232
Shobha Madan
IIT Kanpur

234
Shraddha Ghumre
Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, TIFR, Mumbai

236
Shuchismita Sarkar
University of Alabama

237
Shyamala
238
Sibnath Mazumdar
Retired PSU employee

239
Sinchan Mitra
Assistant Professor, University of Nottingham, Ningbo

240
Smruti
241
Somjita Laha
Indian National

Soonrita Sahasrabuddhe

Soraisam Devakishor Singh

244
Soumik Mukhopadhyay
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

245
Soumyadip Bandyopadhyay
Faculty Member BITS Pilani Goa campus

247
Srinath Jagannathan
Indian Institute of Management, Indore

249
Subarna Mondal
W B E S

251
Subhash Chand
253
Subhasish M. Chowdhury
Faculty, University of East Anglia, UK

254
Suchitra Mathur
IIT Kanpur

255
Sudhir Gulati
Alumni, IIT Kanpur

256
Sudip Chaudhuri
Indian Institute of Management Calcutta

258
Sujata Ghosh
ISI Chennai

260
Sukanya
261
Sumana Majumdar
JNU alumnus

262
Sumit Basu
IIT Kanpur

263
Sunil Patil
COEP, Pune

264
Suramya T.K.
IIT Madras

265
Sushil Handa
IIT Kanpur Alumni

266
Suvrat Raju
International Centre for Theoretical Sciences

267
Swapnesh
268
Swatija
Forum against oppression of women

269
Taj
271
Tanika Chakraborty
IIT Kanpur

273
Ubaid Mushtaq
Alumnus IIT Bombay

275
V Upadhyay
IIT Delhi

277
Vaibhav Vaish
ISI Bangalore

278
Vaishali Deshpande
279
Vandana
IIM Calcutta

280
Vasudevan N
Alumnus, IIT Bombay

282
Vidhu Shekhar
IIM Calcutta

284
Vijaya.V
285
Vikas Dubey
IIT Kanpur

Vikram Kanhere

Vinita Balekundri

288
Vivek Mehta
Independent

289
Waheed
290
Xavier Manjooran
Shakti, Legal Aid and Human Rights Centre, Songadh

291
Zoheb Nadeem
IT Professional (Fujitsu India)

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