New Delhi: Students of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) took a bold stand against the varsity by opposing an invite to Yoga guru Ramdev to deliver the keynote address at an event which is being co-organised by it.
The students have asked University officials to withdraw their invitation to the Yoga Guru to attend the ’22nd International Congress of Vedanta’ or face protests after terming the move as a “silent right-wing onslaught”.
The convention which is being organised by the university’s Special Center for Sankrit Studies in collaboration with the Institute of Advanced Sciences, Dartmouth, USA and the Center for Indic Studies, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, will go on from December 27 to December 30.
Ramdev has been invited to deliver the key-note address on December 30.
Speaking with regard to this decision, JNU students’ union Vice-president Shehla Rashid Shora said, “It is very unfortunate to know that JNU has allowed ‘Baba’ Ramdev to be invited as a keynote speaker in the Valedictory Ceremony of the Congress of Vedanta”.
“It does not befit the stature of an academic institution like JNU to have persons with such a questionable background to address an academic gathering”.
Taking JNU “several steps back” is what this invitation is doing, said the students.
They also said that Ramdev’s presence at the meet does not make any sense as he is neither an academician nor a professor and hence the university should withdraw its proposal to invite him.
The university spokesperson, meanwhile, was not available for comments on the issue.
