Delhi: Multiple student organisations at Jamia Millia Islamia called for a boycott of the Centre for the Study of Social Inclusion (CSSI) event, which had invited Bihar Governor Arif Mohammad Khan to speak on the Constitution Day.
The All India Revolutionary Students Organisation (AIRSO), All India Students Association (AISA), Chhatra Rashtriya Janata Dal (CRJD), Daya-I-Shauq Students’ Charter (DISSC), Fraternity Movement, and Students Federation of India (SFI) released a joint statement condemning the “grave betrayal” of inviting the Bihar Governor.
In their statement, the groups asserted that “Jamia Millia Islamia cannot become Hindutva’s stage.”
The groups characterised the decision as political endorsement in the guise of academic engagement, saying it “insults every community the Centre claims to represent,” especially Dalits and religious minorities.
“At a Centre that claims to teach Dalit mobilisation, minority politics, and Muslim identity politics, bringing Arif Mohd Khan is nothing short of an insult to every community the Centre pretends to stand for,” they wrote.
Stating that Arif Khan has often defended the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and his support for amendments to the Waqf laws, they described it as an attack on minority rights, the very foundation on which CSSI is built.
The groups pointed to Khan’s remarks at the 2019 Indian History Congress, where he defended the CAA and targeted protestors by misquoting Maulana Abul Kalam Azad.
Allegedly, Khan had said that Partition had “taken away the dirt and left the dirty water behind,” implying that dissenting citizens were “stinking water.”
They claimed that his presence has always ignited protests and walkouts on university campuses, and yet their faculty “appear eager to garland him with legitimacy.”
“This is the man that CSSI has chosen to platform, a man who stood against student protestors, who used the constitutional office to push the line of the ruling regime,” the statement read.
The statement claimed that by inviting Khan, CSSI has turned itself into a “gateway for Hindutva to enter the campus under the cover of academic dialogue.”
Additionally, highlighting the irony of the timing, the groups called it shameful that a day dedicated to India’s secular and democratic Constitution is being used to honour Khan, who has repeatedly defended exclusionary citizenship and attacked democratic protest.
According to the statement, this invitation shows “not only academic hypocrisy but deep disrespect for constitutional values.”
“This is not an invitation, it is a stain on the academic careers of those organising it.”
Refusing to legitimise it, they called for a campus-wide boycott of the programme.
“On the day of the event, students must rise in peaceful but powerful resistance. This parcha is a reminder that academic institutions cannot claim to teach justice while practising surrender,” read the statement.
