NEW DELHI: A couple of hours after the International Food Festival at Jawaharlal Nehru University started on January 26, some Kashmiri students set up a kehwa stall right outside it. They gave the Kashmiri kehwa away to the students for free.

There were cups bearing messages like “Drink to the freedom of Kashmir” and placards with “Come, taste the national drink of Kashmir (for free)” on them. The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad came down to protest as well.

“They came, shouted slogans in favour of India and the Indian Army but they didn’t harm us,” says one of the students who’d asked for a stall. “It was done as a mark of protest and it was attended by other JNU students and supported by members of the Democratic Students’ Union, Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students’ Association (BAPSA) and Concerned Students.”

The Kashmiri students had sought permission to participate from the International Students’ Association of JNU—it organizes the Republic Day food fest every year—and secured it. They had argued that if Palestine and Tibet can have stalls, so can they. Members of ABVP, however, learnt of their plans and complained to both International Students Association and the university administration leading to cancellation of the nod.

The students set up their stall outside the fest—the venue is the same as JNU’s pre-election presidential debate—hours after it began. “We had kept it a secret,” says a student. She adds that protest demonstrations and marches by Kashmiri students are routinely attacked.

