NIT violence and controversy: What happened and why it could have national impact

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As the stalemate continued, the protests took a new turn when police used force – the images and videos uploaded by the students allegedly show that the police had used disproportionate force – to disperse the protesting non-local students. This turned the ire of the non-local students on the police and the institute’s administration and they hardened their stand. The issue has now snowballed into a state vs Centre.

The police action needs to be investigated. Over the last two days, the Valley students argue that the police action has only given credence to their stand that the police are ruthless in dealing with protests.

The NIT crisis can’t be seen in isolation. Any incident at the campus would directly impact the students studying in different colleges across the country with BJP already warning of its fallout on Kashmiri students outside the state.

In this regard, the Centre’s decision to intervene and send a three-member team of the HRD ministry to listen to the protesting students and help solve their problems is a welcome step. But the Centre’s complete silence on the attacks on Kashmiri students studying in colleges outside the state and the police intervention in the NIT controversy have raised many eyebrows in Kashmir. The people in Valley see it as another message from the Centre that students from other parts of India are different from the students of the Valley.

The good news, however, is that the Valley-based political parties, across the separatist-mainstream divide, have resisted the temptation to use this crisis for their political means and are out to douse the flames.