on Wednesday burnt the effigy of noted historian and AMU professor emeritus,
Irfan Habib
, at DS College, Aligarh, for supporting the stand taken by DU student, Gurmehar Kaur. Gurmehar's Facebook post against violence in Ramjas College had gone viral, rekindling the nationalist vs anti-national talk.
Habib attracted the ire of the ABVP for his comments, questioning the definition of "nationalism", as being propagated by the RSS and BJP. Speaking at the university campus on Tuesday evening, Habib had supported Gurmehar Kaur’s stand and questioned "if rape threats to a young lady for expressing her frank views were part of
Indian culture
."
Taking on RSS and the BJP, Habib said if India considers Kashmir as part of the country, then the atrocities being committed on "Kashmiris" is biggest "anti-national act". He said, "If someone cannot understand the pain and sufferings of the Kashmiris then they cannot claim to be nationalists."
Habib said merely considering the state of Kashmir as an integral part of India cannot be termed as nationalism, as what really counts is considering and accepting that Kashmirs are part of the country.
His comments drew criticism from ABVP activists who burnt his effigy and demanded an unconditional apology for him, failing which they have threatened to gherao his house. An ABVP activist claimed that Habib had "questioned BJP’s and RSS’s nationalist credentials by his remarks."