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