Row erupts in JNU over approval of course on counter-terrorism

A new controversy has erupted in Jawaharlal Nehru University after the Academic Council approved an elective course titled ‘Counter Terrorism, Asymmetric Conflicts and Strategies for Cooperation among Major Powers’.

New Delhi: Jawaharlal Nehru University is once again in the headlines. This time, a controversy has been sparked by the approval of a counter-terrorism course to be offered to dual-degree engineering students.

The issue will now be placed in the meeting of the Executive Council to be held September 2, where too the course is expected to be passed.

According to the information received, the row erupted after the Academic Council meeting held August 17 at JNU approved an elective course titled ‘Counter Terrorism, Asymmetric Conflicts and Strategies for Cooperation among Major Powers’. This elective course is for engineering students who opt for a dual degree after completing BTech at JNU and will pursue a masters degree with specialisation in international relations

In one of the modules of this course titled Radical Religious Terrorism and Its Effects, it is written that radical religiously motivated terrorism has played an important role in giving rise to terrorist violence in the early 21st century, which is interpreted as jihadist violence and and terror in the form of suicide killings and murder.

Apart from this, a particular religion has been linked to terrorism in the curriculum, due to which this controversy arose. Radical religious terrorism has been described as jihadist terror.

Attempts were made to talk to the university administration regarding this issue but there was no response.