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We are writing, as a group of academics, to express our deep disappointment with your actions in the
events leading up to the arrest and detention of several students last week.
We understand that last Tuesday, a student group organized a rally to commemorate the death
anniversary of Afzal Guru. The police alleges that some of the students voiced controversial opinions.
The police then proceeded to arrest the president of the JNU Students Union, Kanhaiya Kumar, and
charged him with sedition. This has been followed by a number of further detentions. What is most
disturbing is that the JNU administration appears to have defended and aided these repressive actions
by the police, rather than defending the students who were involved in a non-violent activity.
The arrest of the president of the JNUSU is especially troublesome since he was not even an organizer
of the rally but merely present to express his solidarity. However, even as far the organizers and the
speakers at the event are concerned, we hope that you recognize that expressing controversial views in
a peaceful forum cannot be equated with sedition. For example, many people believe that Afzal Guru
was let down by a lack of appropriate legal representation in his trial, and that his execution was
therefore a grave miscarriage of justice. One may agree or disagree with this viewpoint and, indeed,
signatories to this letter hold different positions but we are unanimous that students should have the
right to freely discuss this issue. This is such a basic pillar of academic ethics that we were dismayed
by the statement made by the registrar of JNU, Mr. Bupinder Zutshi, who reportedly said "The
government of India hanged him [Afzal Guru] after declaring him a terrorist. How could we allow them to
organise an anti-Indian programme?" This indicates a complete lack of appreciation of the concept of
academic freedom.
India is a vast country, and no one group can define what it means to be "nationalist" or "anti-national"
is, in specific terms of positions to hold and causes to support. The country's fabric is strong enough to
accommodate a plurality of views. It is the attempt to suppress differing viewpoints that is genuinely
damaging for the country's democratic ethos. Further, we believe that creativity in all branches of
knowledge surely in the interest of our nation finds highest expression in a milieu that does not
put constraints on the freedom of thought.
It is ironic that this attempt to suppress dissent occurred at one of the country's leading Universities. A
University is a site where contesting ideas are explored and where students should be able to freely
debate and discuss various views, including controversial ones, without the threat of state action.
Senior members of the government have aggressively targeted your students. The JNU administration
should have protected its students against these attacks and charges that have also vitiated the police
investigation. We are deeply disappointed that you have failed to carry out this responsibility.
We hope that you will take urgent corrective steps to ensure that the police releases the arrested
students, and also to ensure that it drops the unsubstantiated charges against them. We also hope that,
in the future, you will take steps to protect freedom of speech on the JNU campus.
The individuals listed here have signed this letter in their personal capacity. Institutional affiliations are
listed for purposes of identification, and this letter does not indicate the official positions of these
organizations. Names are arranged in alphabetical order.
1
2
Name
Aanayat Bhat
Abhijith M S
Affiliation
Indian Institute of Science,Bangalore
IIT Hyderabad
Position
student
student
Abhik Jash
researcher
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
Abhishek Atreya
Abhishek Dhar
Abu Anand
Adhip Agarwala
Adway Mitra
Ajin K Prakash
Ajit M. Srivastava
Alok Laddha
Alok Tiwari
Alokmay Datta
Amar Sapra
Amit Apte
Amit Basole
Amit Gupta
researcher
faculty
student
researcher
researcher
student
faculty
faculty
researcher
faculty
faculty
faculty
faculty
researcher
18
19
Amit Singh
Amitabh Bhattacharya
20
21
22
23
24
25
Amitabh Joshi
Amitabha
Bandyopadhyay
Amrita laha
Anand I
Anand Sasidharan
Ananth Kamath
faculty
researcher
researcher
student
student
26
27
28
29
Ananthu James
Ananyo Maitra
Angelie Multani
Anilkumar KV
student
faculty
faculty
researcher
researcher
faculty
Member
30
student
researcher
researcher
faculty
student
faculty
31
32
33
34
35
Anindita Bera
Anindita Bidisha
Chatterjee
Anindita Brahma
Anindita Mitra
Anindya Banerji
Anindya Bhattacharya
36
faculty
37
38
39
40
41
42
Anu Krishna
Anubha
Anupama Mahajan
Anupama Potluri
Anupriya Chatterjee
Anwesa Bhattacharya
student
faculty
student
faculty
faculty
research associate
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
Apoorva Nagar
Archisman Ghosh
Arijit Bishnu
Arijit Chatterjee
Aritra Bandyopadhyay
Arnab Kundu
Arnab Rai Choudhuri
Arpan Bhattacharyya
Arpan Maiti
Ashim Roy
Ashok Krishnan
Ashoke Sen
58
59
Atish Dabholkar
Atul Chokshi
60
61
Aurnab Ghose
Avishek Das
faculty
student
faculty
faculty
researcher
researcher
62
63
64
65
66
67
Ashvin Vishwanath
Asit K. De
Aslamuddin
B Ananthanarayan
B.NIKHITH
Bhabani Deb
Bhanu Pratap Das
Bharathi Rajeswaran
Bhargav kumar
68
69
Bhavtosh Bansal
Bidisa Das
70
71
72
73
Bindusar Sahoo
74
Binu K Sasi
faculty
researcher
faculty
researcher
researcher
faculty
faculty
researcher
researcher
researcher
researcher
faculty
faculty
student
faculty
faculty
faculty
researcher
faculty
scientist
student
faculty
faculty
faculty
researcher
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
Bipin C M
Birenjith P S
Biswajit Banerjee
Bittu Karthik
Carol Upadhya
Chandan Samanta
Chandana Anusha
Chandra Kant Mishra
Chandrashekar C M
Chandrashekar K A
Chetan Singh Solanki
86
87
88
Collins Assisi
D C V Mallik
D Parthasarathy
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
D.P.Sen Gupta
Daigy Varghese
Dattaraj Dhuri
Deb Sankar Banerjee
Debabrata Phukon
Debaditya Bhattacharya
Debadrita Ghosh
Debarghya Banerjee
Debasis Sengupta
Debraj Chakrabarti
Deepa Agashe
Deepak DSouza
Deepak Malghan
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
Deya Das
Dileep Jatkar
Dinesh Mohan
Dipankar
Diptarup nandi
Durga Bhavani S
E. Arunan
Farhana Ibrahim
Feroz Musthafa
G Vijay
Gaiti Hasan
Garga Chatterjee
Gaurav Mendiratta
Gautam Ganapathy
Geeta Mahashabde
Geetam tiwari
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
Gitanjali Yadav
Govindarajan T R
Gyan Bhanot
Haris Uzhunnan
Harjinder Singh
Himadri Shekhar Dhar
Hema Swaminathan
Hemant Belsare
Husna Jan
researcher
researcher
researcher
faculty
faculty
researcher
student
researcher
faculty
researcher
faculty
faculty
faculty
faculty
student
researcher
student
researcher
faculty
student
researcher
faculty
faculty
faculty
faculty
faculty
researcher
faculty
faculty
faculty
student
faculty
faculty
faculty
other
faculty
faculty
faculty
student
researcher
faculty
faculty
faculty
researcher
faculty
researcher
faculty
researcher
student
Trivandrum
TIFR Centre for Interdisciplinary Sciences
Centre for Ecological Sciences, IISc, Bangalore
Indian Institute of Astrophysics
researcher
researcher
faculty
130 Jenny S
131 Jean Dreze
132 Jishnu Sadasivan
researcher
faculty
student
133
134
135
136
137
Jishy Varghese
Joby Joseph
Joseph Samuel
Jyoti Dalal
Jyotsna Jha
Thiruvananthapuram
faculty
faculty
faculty
researcher
director
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
Kabir Husain
Kajari Gupta
Kallol Paul
Kannan U.M
Karan N. Khirade
Kaushik Bhattacharya
Kazi Rafsanjani Amin
Kesavan Subburam
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
Koel Das
Koushik Dutta
Krishna Hanumanthu
Krishna Maddaly
University of Hyderabad
Raman Research Institute
JNCASR, Bangalore
Center for Budget and Policy Studies
National Centre for Biological Sciences, TIFR,
Bangalore
IISER Pune
TIFR Centre for Interdisciplinary Sciences
Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad
Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur
Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
TIFR Centre for Interdisciplinary Sciences
Indian Institute of Science Education and Research
(IISER) Kolkata
Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics
Chennai Mathematical Institute
The Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai
Kritika Agarwal
Kunal Joshi
Kuntal Ghosh
Kunal Sengupta
M. V. Ramana
M. Vijayabaskar
Madan Rao
Madhukar S
Madhusudan Roy
Madhusudhan Raman
Madhusudhan
160 Venkadesan
Yale University
161 Maitreyee Saha Sarkar Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics
student
researcher
researcher
researcher
researcher
faculty
researcher
researcher
faculty
faculty
faculty
faculty
student
faculty
faculty
faculty
faculty
faculty
faculty
student
faculty
researcher
faculty
faculty
Faculty
researcher
researcher
faculty
faculty
faculty
student
faculty
faculty
researcher
researcher
173 Mrunalini
174 Mugdha Sarkar
175 Myna V
researcher
researcher
researcher
176
177
178
179
180
faculty
faculty
faculty
researcher
student
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
IIT Hyderabad
Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics
Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
Indian Institute of Science Education and Resarch
N G Prasad
Mohali
N Purendra Prasad
University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad
N. Raghavendra
Harish-Chandra Research Institute
Nairit Sur
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research
Nairita Pal
Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific
Nandu Gopan
Research
Naosad Alam
Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics
Narayanan Menon
TIFR, Hyderabad
Naresh Dadhich
IUCAA, Pune
Naveen Gaur
Dayal Singh College (University of Delhi)
Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology,
Naveen Surendran
Thiru'puram
NC Narayanan
Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay
Neenu Suresh
National Law School of India University
National Center for Biological Sciences and Yale
Nihav Dhawale
University
Nilanjan Sen
University of Calcutta
Nirmalendu Acharyya Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
Niruj Ramanujam
National Centre for Radio Astrophysics, Pune
Nishaan Ponnuru
Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education
Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the
Nitin Rai
Environment
Oindrila Deb
Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
Om Damani
Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
P Karuna Kumari
IIT Hyderabad
P.K Abdul Rahiman
University of Madras, Chennai
Palash Baran Pal
Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics
Papi Reddy
Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore
pappu acharya
TIFR Centre for Interdisciplinary Sciences
Parasar Mohanty
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
Parswa Nath
TIFR Centre for Interdisciplinary Sciences
Indian Institute of Science Education and Research
Partho Sarothi Ray
(IISER) Kolkata
Pinaki Chaudhuri
The Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai
Pooja Prasad
Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
Prabaha Gangopadhyay Indian Institute of Science
Prabhu R Nott
Indian Institute of Science
Prajval Shastri
Indian Institute of Astrophysics
Prajwel Joseph
Bishop Cotton W. C. C. Bangalore
Prokash Kumar Kundu Indian Institute of Science
Prasanta Char
Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics
Prathik CJ
The Institute of Mathematical Sciences
Prathyusha K. R.
Universtiy of Dundee, United Kingdom
Pratik Majumdar
Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics
Pravabati ChingangbamIndian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore
Praveen S
Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore
Preethi Meher
Indira Gandhi Center for Atomic Research
researcher
researcher
faculty
faculty
faculty
faculty
faculty
researcher
student
faculty
researcher
Scientific Officer
researcher
faculty
researcher
faculty
researcher
faculty
faculty
researcher
student
faculty
junior research fellow
faculty
faculty
student
student
faculty
faculty
faculty
student
researcher
student
researcher
faculty
faculty
student
researcher
Priyanka
Probal Dasgupta
Procheta Mallik
Proteep Mallik
R Jayasimha Reddy
R.VIMALAVIDYA
Rafael Sorkin
Raghunath J
Rahul De
Rahul De'
Rahul G R
Rahul Menon
Rahul Pandey
Rahul Siddharthan
Rahul Singh
Rahul Varman
Raj Kumar Manna
Rajani Raman
Rajdeep Sensarma
Rajesh Gopakumar
Raktim Abir
Ramray Bhat
Ranjini
Bandyopadhyay
Ranjith Kallyani
Ravi Kunjwal
Ravi Sankannavar
Ravinder K Banyal
Reetika Khera
Reuben George
Stephen
Rituparno Mandal
Rolla Das
Ron Sunny
S. Akshay
S. M. Bhattacharjee
S.B.Balaji
S. P. Venkata Subbaiah
S. Sundar
Sabhyasachi Chatterjee
Sachin M
Sachindeo Vaidya
Safiul Alam Mollick
Saientan Bag
Saikat Ghosh
Kalpakkam
Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore
Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
S.N.Bose Centre, Kolkata
Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scietific
Research
Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata
Innovation and Science Promotion Foundation
Azim Premji University
IIT Hyderabad
chennai
Raman Research Institute
Indian Institute of Science
Azim Premji University
Indian Institute of Management Bangalore
Indian Institute of Science
St Xavier's College, Mumbai
Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow
The Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai
Indian Institute of Management Bangalore
IIT Kanpur
IIT Madras
Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics
TIFR Mumbai
International Centre for Theoretical Sciences
Aligarh Muslim University
Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
faculty
faculty
faculty
researcher
faculty
researcher
faculty
student
adjunt faculty
student
faculty
faculty
student
faculty
visiting faculty
faculty
student
faculty
researcher
researcher
faculty
faculty
faculty
faculty
faculty
researcher
researcher
researcher
researcher
faculty
student
researcher
researcher
researcher
faculty
faculty
student
Scholar
faculty
president
faculty
faculty
researcher
student
faculty
faculty
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
Somyadip Thakur
Soumitro Banerjee
Soundarya Iyer
Sourav Kumar Dey
Souvik Mandal
TIFR
researcher
IISER Kolkata
faculty
National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore student
Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics
researcher
Indian Institute of Science
student
International Centre for Theoretical Sciences of
Spenta Wadia
TIFR
faculty
Indian Institute of Science Education and Research,
Sreejani Sen Majumder Kolkata
student
Sreekrishna Varma RajaNational Centre for Biological Sciences
student
Sridhar Narayanan
The Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai researcher
Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific
Srikanth Sastry
Research
faculty
Sruthi C K
JNCASR,Bangalore
student
Subhabrata Majumdar Tata Institute of Fundamental Research
researcher
Subhadip Ghosh
Institute Of Physics, Bhubaneswar
researcher
Subham Rath
Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
student
Subhankar Chakraborty All India People's Science Network
researcher
Subhashis Banerjee
IIT Delhi
faculty
Subhojoy Gupta
Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
faculty
Subhradeep Mistry
Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
researcher
Subhro Bhattacharjee International Centre for Theoretical Sciences
faculty
Subramanya Hegde
IISER Thiruvananthapuram
student
Subroto Mukerjee
Indian Institute of Science
faculty
S. N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences,
Suchetana Goswami
Kolkata
student
Sudakshina Ghosh
University of Calcutta
faculty
Sudip Banerjee
Wildlife Institute of India
researcher
Department of Physics, Savitribai Phule Pune
Sudipto Muhuri
University
faculty
Suheel Mohammad
Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad
student
Suhita Nadkarni
Indian Institute of Science Education and Research faculty
Sujay Basu
Jadavpur University
(Retd) Faculty
Sujay K Ashok
Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai
faculty
Sujith K. S.
IISER Thiruvananthapuram
student
Sumathi Rao
Harish-Chandra Research Institute
faculty
Sumati Surya
Raman Research Institute
faculty
Sumilan Banerjee
Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel
researcher
Sumit Haldar
Indian Institute of Science,Bangalore
researcher
Sumit Kumar
International Centre for Theoretical Sciences, TIFR researcher
Sumit R. Das
University of Kentucky, USA
faculty
Sumithra Sankaran
Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
student
Sundar S
Chennai mathematical institute
faculty
Sundar Sarukkai
Manipal University
faculty
Sunil Bharadwaj
JNCASR, Bangalore
student
Supratik Chakraborty Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay
faculty
Indian Institute of Science Education and Research
Supratim Sengupta
(IISER) Kolkata
faculty
Surajit Sengupta
TIFR Centre for Interdisciplinary Sciences
faculty
Suresh Govindarajan Indian Institute of Technology, Madras
faculty
Sushma Mallik
Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore
faculty
Sutirth Dey
IISER-Pune
faculty
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
Sutirtha Dutta
Suvrat Raju
Swagato Sanyal
T. V. H. Prathamesh
Tarun Deep Saini
Trilochan Sastry
Triparno
Bandyopadhyay
Tulasi Ram Reddy
Vaibhhav Sinha
Vaisakh V
Varuni Prabhakar
Venu Madhav Govindu
Vijay Ravikumar
Vijayakumar
Solaiselvam
Vikram Vyas
Vinod John
Vipul Vivek
Vishaka Datta S
Vishwesha Guttal
Vivek Monteiro
VVNS Pradeep
Yogeshwar Prasad
Zaheer Ahmed Sayeed
researcher
faculty
student
researcher
faculty
faculty
University of Calcutta
Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
National Centre for Biological Sciences
Indian Institute of Science
Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai
Indian Institute of Science
Chennai Mathematical Institute
researcher
researcher
student
researcher
researcher
faculty
researcher