Jamia students made to leave NCC camp for not willing to shave beard

NEW DELHI: Eleven students of Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) were on Sunday allegedly asked to leave an ongoing National Cadet Corps (NCC) camp in Rohini after they denied to shave off their beards.

Following the incident, students on Monday held a protest at the university campus. They called it a 'discrimination' and said that they should be brought back in the camp.

"A total of 35 students from the JMI had joined the 10-day camp on December 19, of which, eleven of us sport a beard. We were repeatedly asked to shave to which we denied as it is against our religious beliefs. We were finally thrown out of the camp," one of the students, who did not wish to be named due to the NCC protocol, told DNA.

According to the NCC officials, however, said that the cadets other than Sikhs are forbidden from growing beard during the camps. "It's a part of NCC’s code of conduct and not any discrimination. Nobody was asked to leave the camp," a senior official said.

The students, who staged an overnight protest initially outside the camp and then on the college campus, demanded the suspension of Jamia’s NCC in-charge Rajnish Kumar.

"Our university in-charge did not help the students when they were discriminated. Some of the students have been attending the camp for the last two-three years but none of them were asked to shave," said Aqdas Sami, a third-year Bioscience student.

The students also met Vice-Chancellor, Talat Ahmad urging him to take immediate action against Kumar."The VC assured the students that he will constitute an inquiry committee to look into the matter," said Meeran Haider from the Jamia Students' Forum. 

(With DNA inputs)