New Delhi: Adding another controversy in the ongoing fiasco over anti-sloganeering in the Jawaharlal Nehru University (Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) row, JNU professor Nivedita Menon on Tuesday kick-started another controversy with her statement that 'India is an imperialist country and pro-azadi slogans on Kashmir are justified'.

While addressing a group of students in the university, Menon said that India has forcefully occupied almost 30-40 per cent of the territory.



Nivedita Menon teaches at the Centre for Comparative Politics and Political Theory at the International Studies school in JNU.

Here are some quotes from her speech:

“We believe that democracy (Rashtraraj) is a very strong thing, but if it was so strong then why few students, who raised such (anti-India) slogans were arrested.” She went on to say that, “If such incidents happen then the democracy is not so strong as we claim because tanks and guns are used to keep the democracy intact and strong.”

''After Independence, the accession of Kashmir was done following the India-Pakistan war on the pretext that a plebiscite will be conducted when the situation gets back to normal and since then it (janmat sangrah) has not happened,''

“We all know that the world today believes that India is illegally occupying Kashmir,”

“India is an imperialist country. Here 30-40 percent of the country is under control of the army in the name of special forces laws, which are used to crush the people.''

“Atrocities are being committed from Kashmir to the northeast and in Chhattisgarh,” Menon noted, adding that “Manipur and Kashmir have been illegally occupied by the Indian state.''

“When the international community is debating over legal occupation of Kashmir, then we should think that 'azadi' slogan is justified.''