AARYAN SHARMA
JAMMU: For the past several years, the Government of Jammu and Kashmir has been wooing Bollywood stars to visit Kashmir valley and start shooting films to give boost to the Tourism sector but on Sunday when famous Bollywood actor Anupam Kher arrived in Srinagar instead of spreading red carpet welcome he was detained at the airport and prevented from stepping out before forcing him to return to New Delhi.
His crime; he wanted to visit NIT, Srinagar to show solidarity with outstation students fighting a lonely battle for over 10 days.
Soon after his arrival at the Srinagar airport when Kher was approaching the exit gate Deputy Inspector General of Police Ghulam Hassan Bhat and a Senior Superintendent of Police met Kher and told him that he cannot visit the NIT campus. “Kher was later asked to take a flight back to Delhi. He went back by an IndiGo flight,” a police officer said.
Kher was even denied permission to visit his ancestral home and local religious places to pay obeisance.
On the other hand despite making tall claims of restoring near normalcy in the NIT campus the State ministers and high level MHRD team have failed to break the impasse.
The outstation students continue to hold peaceful protest demonstrations by waking up all night on the campus.
The girl students are also taking out long marches during the night shouting slogans.
The students who have been demanding rescheduling of their examinations beginning April 11 have failed to convince the college authorities.
The outstation students, including girls, who have been staging protests, claimed that officials of the college and HRD Ministry said the demand was “non-negotiable”.
“The Minors should be postponed and at least 10 days’ gap be given. That way the matter could also be settled and a solution can be arrived at,” students claimed but their pleas were turned down by the authorities.
“Till our demands are met, no academic activity should take place in NIT. Academic activities should be postponed,” another student said.
“We had a meeting (on Friday), but it had zero output. They were giving assurances but no promises were made. They said we will make sure something is done on this… But no actions were taken,” he said.
However, an official from MHRD said the issue of deferring Minors is “non-negotiable”, the student claimed.
“They are firm on their stand that Minors should be held on Monday. I don’t know why they are pressuring this issue that Minors should be held on Monday and said it’s a non-negotiable cause,” he said.
“We are not trying to create any political issue here. Our demands are for ensuring the safety of our academics,” another student said.
He also highlighted the cold weather conditions in which the students, including girls, were staging protests and falling ill.
Another NIT student said, ” None of us is mentally stable at this time to give exams. Also none of our genuine demands are really accepted by anyone here”.
“Over 55 outstation students have left the NIT Srinagar campus for their home towns following the unrest”, officials of HRD Ministry said.
The institute’s Board of Governors, meanwhile, will be meeting on Monday to discuss various issues.
STUDENTS
THANK ANUPAM
NIT students thanked Anupam Kher for reaching Srinagar to meet them. Some students in a tweet said, “#NITSrinagar is grateful to u @anupampkher ji & @ashokepandit ji, unfortunate that u could not reach us but ur gesture is enough.”
