Appeal to Defend Jamia Millia Islamia’s Secular Character

SAHMAT
– 8, Vithalbhai Patel House,
– Rafi Marg,New Delhi-110001
– Telephone- 23711276/ 23351424
– e-mail: sahmat @ vsnl.com

25.9.2008

We applaud the Vice Chancellor of the Jamia Millia Islamia, Professor Mushirul Hasan and the entire academic community of the university for their calmness and courage in what is proving to be a testing and traumatic time.

We fully endorse the decision by the Vice Chancellor, to provide the university students who have been swept up in the terrorism dragnet, with a competent legal defence. This decision has to be recognised as a sign of abiding commitment to the basic rule of natural justice: that a person is innocent until proven guilty.

We appeal to :

All democratic and secular individuals and organizations to support all steps of the University administration and the faculty to maintain and strengthen the secular character of this premier institution.

We condemn the vituperative attacks that have been launched against Professor Mushirul Hasan by spokesmen of the BJP and its affiliates.

Anil Chandra
– Arjun Dev
– Atluri Murali
– Badri Raina
– Biswamoy Pati
– C.P.Chandrasekhar
– Chanchal Chauhan
– D. N. Jha
– Girish Mishra
– H. C. Satyayarthi
– Indira Chandrasekhar
– Iqtidar Alam
– Irfan Habib
– Jabri Mal Parekh
– Jayati Ghosh
– Lata Singh
– Lima Kanungo
– M.K.Raina
– Madangopal Singh
– Madhu Prasad
– Manmohan
– Mihir Bhattacharya
– MMP Singh
– N. Rajendran
– Parthiv Shah
– Prabhat Patnaik
– R. L. Shukla
– R. S. Sharma
– Rajan Gurukul
– Rajen Prasad
– Ram Rahman
– Ramkrishna Chatterjee
– S Kalidas
– Saeed Mirza
– Shireen Musvi
– Sohail Hashmi
– Suvira Jaiswal
– Utsa Patnaik
– V Ramakrishna
– V. N. Jha
– Veer Munshi
– Vivan Sundaram