Social activist Teesta Setalvad, on Tuesday, accused the Centre of trying to cut down on student scholarships, as it is afraid of questions that the student community is raising against the government.
While addressing a programme on freedom of speech in Kolkata, Teesta said students are leading a fightback by occupying the space of an opposition. “What is happening in all our Central universities today is that the real fighbacks are coming from the young students who are capturing the opposition space by challenging an extremely hegemonic government,” she said. She said the Centre is trying to curb such voices by slashing student scholarships “so that there is no second Rohit Vemula or Kanhaiya Kumar”.
While emphasizing that the freedom of speech and the independence of media is under threat, the activist said right-wing forces want to instill a fear of death. “The killing of Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare, (M M) Kalburgi and Gauri Lankesh is an example of how voices of dissent are being silenced. These people asked serious questions to the established hegemonic order and that is something which was not palatable to the forces that govern us today,” she alleged.
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