National

Arjun Singh’s support for Jamia welcomed

CHENNAI: Sahmat, a New Delhi-based organisation in memory of activist-playwright Safdar Hashmi, has congratulated Union Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh for supporting Professor Mushirul Hasan and the Jamia Millia Islamia in the decision to provide the two university students in the terrorism dragnet with competent legal defence.

“We recognise the decision as a sign of abiding commitment to the basic rule of natural justice: that a person is innocent until proven guilty,” the organisation wrote to Mr. Singh. The timely intervention by Jamia Millia and the Minister had saved the situation from assuming damaging communal proportions and had come as a much-needed measure of confidence-building, especially in the context of attempts by the BJP leaders to vitiate the atmosphere, it said.

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