German student shunted home for participating in anti-CAA stir

Hyderabad, Dec 24: With students across the country on intensified anti-CAA protests, the Union Government has issued an advisory asking a German exchange student to leave India. The reason for the decision was that he had participated in a CAA protest.

Jacob Lindenthal, the 24-year-old student from Dresden, is pursuing post-graduation in Physics at IIT Madras and participated in the protests held at the campus, and at Chepauk. On Monday night, he flew out of the country on being urged by immigration department officials. He was told that he had violated student visa rules.

The students decried the move and said it was a "shame" because he had just one semester to complete.

Jacob said, "I have been 'banned' from India, I have no confirmation about the ban, but I have been threatened with deportation”.

The 'threat', an unmarked communication, came from an 'unnamed immigration officer', he pointed.

The German student was holding different placards: one being ‘'1933-1945, we have been there’', referring to the Holocaust in Germany and the other 'Uninformed criminals = criminals'.

Students, activists and political leaders took it to twitter to express their opposition.

Shashi Tharoor tweeted in support of the German student saying, "No democracy punishes freedom of expression. "

This is dismaying. We used to be a proud democracy, an example to the world: https://t.co/M1MU3CyJVT No democracy punishes freedom of expression. I call on @DrRPNishank to instruct @iitmadras to withdraw the expulsion & allow India to hold its head high in the academic world.

— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) December 24, 2019