According to Hussain, students who were absent were asked to respond in writing to a notice issued by the IIM Jammu student council or pay a fine of Rs 500.
Hussain, a Rajya Sabha MP from Karnataka and All India Congress Committee observer for Jammu and Kashmir, shared a purported “notice” issued by the “Student Council from IIM Jammu”, which set a deadline of Friday night for students to submit their responses.
‘Why Should Attendance Be Mandatory?’
“Why should attendance at PM Modi’s birthday celebration be mandatory for students?” Hussain wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
“Is this an academic responsibility at an IIM or has PM Modi’s publicity been brought into the campus as a compulsory exercise? Educational institutions should nurture independent minds, not compel students to attend political leaders’ celebrations or threaten them with penalties. BJP’s publicity stunts should be kept out of our premier educational institutions,” he added.
A screenshot of a purported email shared by Hussain stated that attendance at the event had been marked as mandatory for all students.
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The note said, “… an exemption from the absence will be considered only on medical grounds, and the same must be supported by an official note from Sanjeevni, specifically recommending bed rest for the concerned period. Medical reasons without the required documentation from Sanjeevni will not be considered for exemption.”
“Sanjeevni” or “eSanjeevni” is a central government-run free national telemedicine service through which patients can access outpatient consultations with specialists.
IIM Jammu Says No Student Was Fined
Brigadier Neeraj Soni, chairperson, student affairs at IIM Jammu, said no students were penalised.
“This is the normal measure that we take, like on Independence Day, Gandhi Jayanti. The idea is to ensure holistic participation of the students. We are not stringent at all about fines. This time too, no student was fined,” Soni told The Telegraph Online.
Lamp-Lighting Event Part Of BJP’s Month-Long Celebrations
The lamp-lighting event, held at 7pm on September 17, was among several events organised by the BJP as part of its month-long “Seva Sankalp Abhiyan” celebrations for Modi’s 76th birthday and 25 years in public life, beginning with his first term as chief minister.
In several BJP-ruled states, the government “order” also extended to private educational institutions.
Several government school teachers and anganwadi workers had complained that they were asked to remain at their workplaces until late in the evening and send photographs of the lamp-lighting ceremony.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: abplive.com
