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2016: The year of student movements

The country saw a new vigour as students rebelled against the system from initiating a debate on free speech, to protesting the appointment of FTII chief

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clockwise: Police use water cannons to disperse students during a protest against the Ministry of Human Resource Development in New Delhi in January over the suicide of a PhD scholar Rohith Vemula at University of Hyderabad, JNU student union leader Kanhaiya Kumar addressed fellow students during a march to Parliament House in New Delhi, Rohith Vemula’s mother with students at India Gate during a protest in February, and More than 10,000 people turned up at a rally organised in support of JNU student leader Kanhaiya Kumar in February this year
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Starting from the demand of justice for Hyderbad University scholar Rohith Vemula to the sedition case against Jawaharlal Nehru University students Kanhaiya Kumar and others, to the missing case of Najeeb Ahmed, 2016 was a year of student movements.

The country saw a new vigour as the young people rebelled against the system, fighting against caste bias and raging a debate on free speech.

It all started with a letter written by Hyderabad University scholar Rohith Vemula, who in a note written just before his death narrated what discrimination based on caste, creed, religion and gender can do to an individual and force the person to take the extreme step of ending his/her life. A series of protests erupted all over the country after the letter was released by Vemula's friends in the month of January. Students, alleging that the University authorities and senior Bharatiya Janata P leaders including former HRD Minister Smriti Irani was responsible for driving the scholar to suicide demanded action.

His death became a rallying point for all those who had been saying that the higher education system is discriminatory towards Dalits and those coming from backward classes.

While this movement had already united students all over the country to raise their voice against the system, another set of students in national capital's Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) got entangled in a case that started a raging debate over free speech. On February 9, some students in JNU commemorated Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru on his death anniversary. During the event, some objectionable slogans were shouted in the campus, which ultimately led to registration of a sedition case against the students and arrest of three of them including the student's union president Kanhaiya Kumar. What followed later was the most memorable student's movement in current times.

"The student movement that started in February this year was the game changer. Students were already angry with a system that was trying to saffronise education after the central government stopped non-NET fellowships and appointed Gajendra Chauhan as the head of Film and Television Institute of India. The perception of being under attack was already there and it all erupted after Kanhaiya, Umar and Anirban were arrested by police. The gravity of police action was misplaced in that case," says Shehla Rashid, former vice president JNU student's union, who led the students movement.

Post his release from jail Kanhaiya Kumar made a fiery speech inside JNU campus, in which he openly challenged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government's 'repressive' measures. The student activist raised the issue of azaadi (freedom) and told the nation why we need azaadi in India, not from India, giving a whole new meaning to the word azaadi. He emphasised on the exigency to bring freedom from oppression, discrimination, hunger, poverty, corruption, religious bigotry, violence against women and minorities.

Towards the end of the year, another raging issue, this time that of a student – Najeeb Ahmed missing from JNU campus after allegedly being beaten up by Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishand students, echoed all over the country. Questions related to Najeeb's missing were even asked in the Parliament.

Rohith Vemula case highlights:

Vemula died on January 17, 2016 leaving behind a note
His note is released by his friends, trigerring a protest against university authorities.
Students all over India join the movement, demanding action against Hyderabad University Vice chancellor Appa Rao.
Then HRD Minister Smriti Irani gave an emotional speech in Lok Sabha, saying how she is not responsible for the scholar's death.
JNU sedition case highlights:
February 9: Event to mark death anniversary of Afzal Guru in JNU campus.
February 12: Kanhaiya Kumar arrested in connection with a sedition case against him.
Protests erupt all over the country demanding the release of Kanhaiya.
March 2: Kanhaiya Kumar granted bail, a day later he gave a speech challenging the Prime Minister.
JNU administration released report by the panel that was set-up to investigate February 9 incident in the campus.
Findings of the report further fuelled the matter as it mentioned that Kanhaiya was not involved in shouting any objectionable slogans.

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