February 2016. JNU saw sedition charges levied on students' union President Kanhaiya Kumar Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya. The case is still on.
February 2019. AMU Students were charged with sedition after an FIR was filed which said that the students allegedly raised slogans such as “Pakistan Zindabad” and “Bharat Murdabad”. Charges haven't been dropped even though video of the incident reveals no such slogans
Former Aligarh Muslim University Students' Union's President Maskoor Ahmad Usmani claimed that he was not even in the premises or even the city when the entire incident took place. "I was in Jamia Millia Islamia University when this happened. I was detained for a few hours when I was on my way back to Aligarh," said the young medical practitioner who just graduated medical school. "This has been done just to demean us and fuel communal hatred in the country right before the elections. Three years ago it was JNU now its AMU. All that has changed is the name of the institution and the name of the booked students."
Aligarh Muslim University Students' Union's President Mohammed Salman Imtiaz takes it a step further to suggest that this is nothing less than an issue of national security. "They are spreading hate in a university where people from every corner of the country come to study. The BJYM functionary, Mukesh Lodhi, demanded a mandir be built on campus and then said that the union is not letting it happen. If this is not trying to spread communal hatred then what is. I think this is an issue of National security and should be addressed as soon as possible," he said. "I don't hope — I believe that Modi will lose in 2019 elections and that will bring about some normalcy to the chaos of a nation that we are now. If the next government does something that is not in favour of the people and the students we will protest against them as well."
"We had a meeting scheduled on February 12. That morning I got a call from a Republic TV anchor saying that they wanted to cover the programme and sought permission. I clearly told her we won't be able to arrange for her permission to shoot on campus," said Salman. "Even though she was denied permission, she reached the university and started forcing us for an interview. We eventually succumbed to that and gave an interview. But it did not stop there. In her piece-to-camera, she said that she is reporting from the "university of terrorists". The students around her were offended and asked her not to say things like that." he said.
Things took an ugly turn from there. The reporter allegedly threatened to charge complaints of sexual harassment and called Bhartiya Janta Yuva Morcha functionaries to the spot who came in with handguns and even fired a few rounds in the air, Salman added. "In spite of firing guns inside a campus, they have been only booked with insignificant charges of public nuisance etc and we were charged with sedition," he added. The police said that there was no prime evidence found regarding sedition in the said case. But they have identified 17 individuals, five of whom are outsiders, involved in violence on campus. Their names were forwarded to the AMU administration, along with a list of 15 complaints sent by the complainants. The university administration suspended eight students, four from the ruling side and four from the BJYM. The charges are set to be dropped, said the police pending further investigation.
