Anjali Arondekar, Director of the Center for South Asian Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz, was among the 300 signatories opposing the recent attack on the students of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi, the implementation of CAA and the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
Speaking to to Indica news, Arondekar said the CAA and the JNU attack were "clearly connected", and the escalation of unhitched violence against students at the varsity "makes it even more pressing for us to link the two events together, which they obviously were".
The professor added that the situation at JNU carries great weight for her precisely because of the threat it poses to the future of public education in South Asia, and in the world at large.
"The unprecedented attack against students at JNU amplifies the concerns scholars have been expressing since the discriminatory citizenship registry efforts began in Assam," said Arondekar, who has a Ph.D., from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.A., from Cornell University
When asked if this was a new India, Arondekar told Indica news: "No, not at all. This is not a new India. This is the India that has always been around, but the last 10 years of the rise of BJP has made it impossible for this India to shine."
( With inputs from IANS )