India’s premier university Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in Delhi, is currently in the middle of one of the biggest crackdowns on students in decades. Students who marched to mark the anniversary of the execution of a Kashmiri man found guilty of terrorism have been arrested, others are in hiding as a hysterical state apparatus clamps down on dissent. The crackdown has been so fierce that on Friday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged the Indian government to reconsider its decision to charge peaceful protesters with sedition and anti-national speech. ARI SITAS, currently visiting professor at JNU, says the signs are ominous for India’s democracy.

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