JNUSU VP Alleges Receiving ‘Hate Letter’ for Opposing Ramdev Visit

JNU Students Union’s vice president has approached the National Commission for Women (NCW), alleging that she received a “hate letter” for opposing the varsity’s invitation to Yoga guru Ramdev for an event.

In her letter to the NCW chief, Shehla Rashid Shora said she had opposed the invite to Ramdev to be a keynote speaker in an academic conference at JNU and in return, she had to face “abusive” comments on Twitter which she “chose to ignore”. “And now I have received an anonymous letter, hurling abuses at me for opposing the visit. I seek your intervention in this regard,” she said.

“I am the only female among members of JNUSU. My fellow office-bearers do not have to face comments on their body, sexuality and parentage. But, I have to…only because I am a woman,” she alleged. Shora, a candidate of left-backed All India Students Union, was the first Kashmiri women to contest and win the students union polls at JNU.

She had led a campaign against the invitation extended to Ramdev for ’22nd International Congress of Vedanta’ in December last, terming it as a “silent right-wing onslaught” on the university. While the varsity had refused to withdraw the invitation, Ramdev skipped the visit citing shortage of time.

Meanwhile, women activist Kavita Krishnan denounced the “hate letter” saying “atrocious sexist and communal abuse for writing to JNU against allowing Ramdev to deliver a keynote address at an academic function on science…such abuse really exposes the cowardly politics of some goons”. NCW officials were not available for comment on the issue.