With Hurriyat Conference (G) Chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani condemning government for closing down schools the helmsmen have no moral authority to keep class work suspended for some more days just to thwart student protests against the continuing arrests of youth in different parts of Kashmir valley. The government tending to blame separatist leadership for student protests is itself responsible for the protests in schools and colleges as it allowed the intervention of police and paramilitaries inside the campuses of educational institutions across Kashmir. Allowing paramilitaries and police to enter the campuses of schools and colleges to disallow student protests was totally a miscalculated decision taken by the government without taking on board the heads of concerned educational institution. If the government would have taken heads of the concerned educational institutions on board, the students angered over the arrests of their colleagues could have been properly counseled by their teachers and students protests won’t have spread to commercial hubs in Srinagar city and major towns of Kashmir valley.True it is that last year unrest was triggered by the killing of top Hizb-Ul-Mujahideen Commander Burhan Wani but this year students protests were triggered by the unwanted intervention of paramilitaries and police in a government run college in Pulwama in South Kashmir. So the wanted intervention of paramilitaries and police which triggered student protests this year is sufficient to prove Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s charge that government wants to ruin the future of the students in schools and colleges. Now when Syed Ali Shah Geelani has accused the government of playing with the future of the students by closing down school , the government has no justification to suspend class work in schools and colleges for some more days under the garb of law and order disturbances.
Suspending class work in educational institutions is not the solution to the current phase of crisis in Kashmir but an academic environment free from the intervention of the government forces is the only way to restore calm and revive normal academic work in educational institutions in Kashmir valley.
The government has an institutional and administrative responsibility to ensure peaceful environment in campuses of educational institutions and under no circumstances the intervention of police and paramilitaries in the administration of schools and colleges can be justified. Keeping in view the fact that students have already suffered a lot and have to compensate the academic loses they suffered last year the government is bound to take all measures to stop intervention of government forces inside the campuses of education institutions in Kashmir valley. Suspending class work in educational institutions is not the solution to the current phase of crisis in Kashmir but an academic environment free from the intervention of the government forces is the only way to restore calm and revive normal academic work in educational institutions in Kashmir valley.
