Hyderabad — Student representatives at Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU) have sharply criticised the administration’s move to cancel its memorandum of understanding with Turkey’s Yunus Emre Institute, warning that campuses must not be reduced to “RSS shakhas” echoing a single ideology, reported the Madhyamam.
In a statement issued by the Azad United Students’ Federation, learners said the decision—to follow Jawaharlal Nehru University and Jamia Millia Islamia in cutting academic links over Ankara’s support for Pakistan—shows how geopolitical disputes are being allowed to trump scholarly exchange.
The five-year MoU, signed in January 2024, had introduced a Turkish-language diploma under MANUU’s School of Languages, Linguistics and Indology. Scrapping the pact, students argued, curtails cross-cultural learning, dilutes India’s legacy of intellectual openness and undermines the university’s global credibility.
They further contended that branding academic partners “terror sympathisers” on political grounds stifles education rather than combating extremism, and urged the administration to safeguard campuses from partisan pressure.
