It seems that the ‘New World Order crusaders’ know that it is better to control people and nations with the scientific applications of fear and lies rather than the more unpredictable and expensive methodology of bullets and bombs. The slogans raised on the campus of JNU have not remained within the confine of intellectual debate and dialogue but it has transformed into a discourse on further division of India. If necessary steps are not taken to nip in the bud the recurrence of such incident, a great disaster is imminent
Amid unrest triggered by the arrest of JNU students on the sedition charge, mob frenzy in Haryana by Jats demanding OBC status, and the consequent polemical discussion about patriotism and sedition, here are some issues that need to be addressed and introspected.
The debate around Afzal Guru and JNU row
On February 9, 2016, former members of Democratic Students Union (DSU), an ultra-leftist group which propagates the ideology of Maoism, had convened a “cultural” meeting on the JNU campus to protest against what they called “the judicial killing of Afzal Guru and Maqbool Bhat” and in solidarity with “the struggle of Kashmiri people for their democratic right to self-determination”.
It is alleged that during the meeting slogans like “Hum kya chaahteIJ Azaadi!”, “Har ghar se Afzal niklega!” were raised. Afzal Guru — who was executed after the Supreme Court upheld his conviction in the Parliament attack — was addressed as a “martyr”. However, JNU students have claimed that the anti-India slogans were raised by only outsiders, who shouted, “Bharat ki barbaadi tak, jung rahegi, jung rahegi”.
But those who parry the questions related to the anti-India event on JNU campus need to answer — Was Afzal Guru a martyrIJ Was he innocentIJ Was his execution unjustifiedIJ
Interestingly in none of the interviews the students said that they believe Afzal Guru was innocent. Still they produce implausible theories, albeit abortively, to prove Guru was innocent. If they don’t know whether he was guilty, how they can say he was wrongly executedIJ The students have already assumed that he was innocent. Where is the room for debate thenIJ
Perhaps the students are shy of calling Afzal guilty, but as they are against death penalty they have peddled a new narrative. Instead of condemning the death penalty, they are carried away by certain political ideologies to hail the traitor as a “martyr”.
The issue of Kashmir has always been sensitive and problematic. The Indian Government has always tried to provide special assistance to Jammu & Kashmir to promote its growth and maintain peace and harmony. Will liberation of Kashmir from India really solve the problem, given the expansionistic agenda of Pakistan and ChinaIJ They should debate what will happen to Kashmiris then.
Apparently some students favour revocation of the ASFPA, but were misled to shout slogans against the Indian Army. True, no one is above criticism, be it the Government or the Indian Army. Also there have cases of excesses by some security personnel, and they need to be punished by law of the land. But for a few corrupt officers, one should not throw the baby out with the bathwater. The entire Indian Army cannot be demeaned nor their sacrifices belittled. Sadly, good stories about them are sent into oblivion. One should not forget that during the devastating floods in Kashmir, it was the Indian Army personnel who risked their lives to protect the Kashmiris.
Even if they harbour enmity towards the Army, there is an analogy. Many Kashmiris either participated in or at least were silent supporters of the ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Pandits. Will that brand the entire majority community in Kashmir as killersIJ The sanity says, No.
How many of these secular politicians even remember Martyr lance Naik Hanamanthappa of Madras Regiment, or Pampore Martyr Captain Pawan Kumar who laid down their lives for IndiaIJ While there were pro-Afzal slogans and candlelight march for the “convicted” terrorist, no one bothered to show their solidarity with these soldiers. Doesn’t Captain Pawan, a former JNU student, deserve a candlelight marchIJ
Kamlesh Kumari, an Indian constable, sacrificed her life while successfully preventing a suicide bomber from reaching Parliament during the 2001 attack. She is survived by two daughters. Unfortunately not a single JNU student or the so-called “secular” mediaperson mentioned her name. Doesn’t she deserve a candlelight marchIJ
Question of freedom of speech
Our Constitution gives us the right to exercise freedom of speech. Students can question the Government, disagree with the decision of the Supreme Court, and debate Kashmir, but within the confines of a debate. However, there is a difference between freedom of speech and threat to the nation. To criticise is freedom of speech; to threaten is breaking law. “Bharat ki barbaadi tak, jung rahegi, jung rahegi!”, “Kashmir ki azaadi tak jung rahegi”, “Har ghar se Afzal niklega!”, “Bharat tere tukre honge”, “Go Back India”, Indian Army, go back”, the slogans raised on February 9 on JNU campus are not at all freedom of speech. Who are the pseudo intellectuals trying to foolIJ What does the phrase “Destruction of India” meanIJ Doesn’t destruction of a nation mean destruction of its peopleIJ Isn’t it a dangerous ideaIJ The words uttered, the ideas propagated by the “elite” intellectuals are translated and transformed into weapons and violence by the mass outside the university campus. Shouldn’t they have any sense of responsibilityIJ
Even if we accept the students’ assertions that only the outsiders raised the anti-India slogans, why the organisers didn’t try to stop themIJ Why didn’t they inform the administration or the securityIJ
Following the crackdown, these elements are ceaselessly trying to brand India as “intolerant”. Is India really intolerantIJ Can the majority, who profess the most plural religion of the world, be intolerantIJ At same time some people, completely ignorant of JNU and its culture, try to malign the whole institution as the den of anti-nationals. This is ridiculous! They are as bad as those branding India as intolerant.
China is a communist nation with the highest number of execution in the world. Will the left-leaning students raise slogans against ChinaIJ In America, anyone who calls for the destruction of the union are immediately scooped up by FBI, declared a potential threat and put under surveillance.
Sedition law in India
Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code criminalises a person who, through speech or writings, “brings or attempts to bring into hatred or contempt, or excites or attempts to excite disaffection towards the Government.”
Deepak Nayyar, a former vice chancellor of Delhi University and professor emeritus of JNU, in his article in The Indian Express on February 20, mentioned an incident when the editor of The Economic and Political Weekly was slapped with the sedition charge for criticising the then Rajiv Gandhi Government. Recently, in 2012, the activists of Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project were also charged with sedition.
Similarly in 2011, Aseem Trivedi, who exhibited his political cartoons from “Cartoons Against Corruption” in the anti-corruption protests under the leadership of Anna Hazare, was charged with sedition by the Congress-led Maharashtra Government. However, these are forgotten stories for those whose protest is aimed at attacking the Government, not debating the misuse of sedition Act.
However, any form of violence meted out to innocent students is unjustified. Thus the unruly act of some lawyers at Patiala House Courts is deplorable.
Constructing public opinion
In the entire unedited interview published in most newspapers, Umar Khalid says for the first time in last seven years at JNU he has realised that he is a Muslim; he has been reduced to his religious identity. How the son of a SIMI activist never thought about his religious identity is a different issue, but where does the question of religion comes fromIJ “I am Umar Khalid, and I am not a terrorist” does speak of an ulterior motive. Aren’t Kanhaiya Kumar and Anirban Chatterjee too arrestedIJ Should they say they have been forced to realise their religion after the crackdownIJ
A section of the media with their preconceived notion selectively gives colour to stories, and a student’s suicide is painted as a suicide by a Dalit. It reminds us how CNN, a US Government propaganda machine and an organ of CIA, was appropriated to control all public opinion in the erstwhile USSR to create discontent among its citizens and cause its downfall. It seems that the ‘New World Order crusaders’ know that it is better to control people and nations with the scientific applications of fear and lies rather than the more unpredictable and expensive methodology of bullets and bombs.
The selective dementia of the particular section of the media, its construction of notions and distortion of facts reinforces its propagandist agenda. The influence of FDI in media channels and European funding in constructing public opinion cannot be ignored. The way they construct the idea of nationalism and freedom of expression in India is completely different from what they do in America.
The slogans raised on the campus of JNU have not remained within the confine of intellectual debate and dialogue but it has transformed into a discourse on further division of India. If necessary steps are not taken to nip in the bud the recurrence of such incident, a great disaster is imminent.
(Anish Gupta and Aaleya Giri teach Economics and English respectively at Delhi University. They can be reached at pioneer.article@gmail.com. Views expressed are personal)