BJP Vs JNU                            16.2.16

Jawaharlal Nehru University with its sprawling campus and vast stretches of greenery immediately makes you feel like a free bird. Its towering red stone building with open arches on its periphery instills a thirst for knowledge in the people who enter its portal. Many years back I had the opportunity to visit this distinguished center for learning in connection with some official work. What struck me that learned professors and students interacted like friends. There was a free exchange of ideas. Nothing was labeled as anti -national or seditious. There are no barriers to thinking or formulating ideas. Ideas and expressions cannot be labeled as anti- national. Bright and young students expressed their inner convictions openly. All kinds of streams from leftist to extreme rightist happily co-existed on the JNU campus. It has remained like this for all the years. Suddenly the Hindutva right wing has started to exercise its muscles to smash the independence of Center of learning's in the country.

They felt that unless these liberal and secular streak in our youngsters and in the majority of our citizens are not nipped they would not be able to succeed in their mission to impose their so called superior ideology. Their favorite tool to propagate this ideology of the RSS is nationalism. Nationalism has become a word so cheap that it is peddled now a days at every nook and corner by these self proclaimed nationalists. If you don't subscribe to their Hindutva ideology you are anti national. If you eat beef you are anti national. If you oppose construction of Ram Mandir you are anti national. If you speak for reservations for dalits you are anti national. If you stand for protecting minorities you are anti national. So on and so on. The edict that patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel can be best applied to this group.

There are many student Unions on the campus of the JNU. Each have its own ideology. After all these are youngsters and it is natural that they be allowed to express themselves freely. Thoughts should not be suppressed but debated. One of the Union took permission to organise a event on 9th February,16. It was to debate Afzal Guru hanging and Kashmir. So was it anti national ? There are innumerable distinguished persons who have expressed their opinions on these two subjects. Have they all become anti-nationals ? Leave aside these people the PDP which is in power in Kashmir together with BJP demands freedom for Kashmir and questions the hanging of Afzal Guru. So how is that BJP has joined hands with such anti-national people ?

After getting permission from the VC the Union(DSU) was to gather for their programme when just 20 minutes before the ABVP( student wing of BJP) intervened for cancellation of this programme. Why ? If they wanted they could have expressed their views in a separate meeting of their own. Here the intention was to target the students and declare them anti-nationals. JNU for a long time has been known to be anti BJP and most of the students are known for their secular and liberal leanings. This irks the Hindutva right wing the RSS which wants to gate crash and impose its Nazi like dictates. They are fully backed by the state machinery since BJP has come into power.

The ABVP members started raising slogans and in response the opposite party replied with stringent slogans to maintain solidarity among their followers. They were not armed neither they threatened anybody with violence. It was a normal student protest which happens in every university. But here it was clear that the ABVP had a plan to target the DSU and thereby further malign the entire JNU community and the University itself. In this melee some Kashmiri students entered and it was these students who raised seditious slogans. Nobody has caught them but the Delhi police immediately arrested the President Kanahiya Kumar and booked him under sedition charges ! Can you believe it. A student arrested for sedition ? was he inciting violence? No. Was  he and his followers were armed and distributing arms to wage war against the country? No. Was he a member of a secessionist organistion,naxalite or a ISI agent ? No. It is clear that with the BJP in power its different wings are convinced that time has come to impose its ideology over the entire nation. The PM is silent the Home Minister fully endorses the arrest. So the student is still in jail.

What happened to the students who actually raised these seditious slogans? Nobody could be caught till date and nobody belonged to the JNU. Meanwhile under  instructions the Delhi Police raided all the hostels in the campus even women hostels and  its personnel freely roamed the campus.

This is not the first time that a educational institute has been violated by the BJP Government . In the FTTI, Gajendra Chauhan  whose only qualification is that he is a RSS sympathiser was made its head. Subsequently the protest by the students at the FTTI were crushed by the BJP. Then at the Hyderabad University due to pressure exerted by the Education Minister a dalit student Rohith committed suicide. A Cabinet Minister in the center called the University a den of anti-national activities. The same pattern is repeated here at the JNU. The entire JNU is being described as anti-national by the BJP members. A reputed University which has given a number of IAS and distinguished persons to the nation is being destroyed. Instead of constructing new institutions the present Govt is going ahead destroying established institutions.

Let us be clear on one point. Anti-national elements and real separatist are roaming free. There are many in the Kashmir Valley. Syed Gilani,Mirwaiz Farooq,Asiya Andrabi,Yasin Malik and scores of others. Why the patriotic ABVP is not going there and shooting them ? What is preventing them from doing so ? Incidentally a BJP MP O.P.Sharma just said yesterday he would be justified in shooting JNU students for their activities.  Obviously their intention is not to fight anti national elements but to only spread their ugly Hindutva ideology. If they have to kill students, arrest students,penetrate universities so be it.

There is also one more reason for these revolting exercises by the BJP and its various wings. It is to divert people attention from the fact that no development has taken place under Modi for the last nearly 2 years. But they should not forget the Constitution. They should read it again

WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a SOVEREIGN SOCIALIST SECULAR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC and to secure to all its citizens:

JUSTICE, social, economic and political;

LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship;

EQUALITY of status and of opportunity;

and to promote among them all

FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the Nation

Jai Hind

ASHOK KUMAR