JNU students repression and the shame of the worst face of “Hindutva”

On 9 February, a cultural evening was organised by 10 students, formerly of the Democratic Students’ Union (DSU), at the Sabarmati Dhaba, against the execution of 2001 Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru and Kashmiri separatist leader Maqbool Bhat, and for “the struggle of Kashmiri people for their democratic right to self-determination”. The students organising the event had pasted posters inviting people to gather for a protest march against the “judicial killing of Afzal Guru and Maqbool Bhatt.” Members of the Hindu nationalist student union ABVP protested against the event, and wrote a letter to the Vice Chancellor of JNU, asking to prevent the event. The meeting was cancelled by the Vice-Chancellor of JNU a few hours before the event. But the students insisted on their freedom of speech and went ahead with the event.

According to journalist Prem Shankar Jha, a “fracas ensued,” and, in the end, the JNU Student Union president Kanhaiya Kumar gave a speech, where he came out in support of freedom of speech but condemned “any act of violence, terrorism, any terrorist act, or any anti-national activity.”

Members of the JNU branch of ABVP (a student union belonging to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh family of organisations—the Sangh Parivar) protested at the University demanding expulsion of the student organisers.

The Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (also belonging to the Sangh Parivar) tweeted “If anyone shouts anti India slogan & challenges nation’s sovereignty & integrity while living in India, they will not be tolerated or spared.”  He is said to have reacted following an alert by the Party’s Member of Parliament Maheish Girri.

JNUSU vice-president Shehla Rashid said “We condemn the undemocratic slogans that were raised by some people on that day. In fact, when the sloganeering had been taking place, it was the Left-progressive organisations and students, including JNUSU office-bearers, who asked the organisers to stop the slogans, which were regressive.”

JNU administration ordered a “disciplinary” enquiry into the holding of an event on campus against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, despite denial of permission, saying any talk about country’s disintegration cannot be “national”. The University’s move came in wake of protests by members of ABVP outside the VC office demanding expulsion of students who “misled” the university about nature of the event.

The Delhi Police arrested the JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar on charges of sedition and criminal conspiracy, under section 124 of the Indian Penal Code dating back to 1860, for alledgedly raising anti-national slogans.

The arrest soon snowballed into a major political controversy, with several leaders of opposition parties visiting the JNU campus in solidarity with the students protesting against the police crackdown. Meanwhile, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh reiterated that while the students would not be harassed, the “guilty would not be spared”. Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiran Rijiju said the JNU would not be allowed to become a hub for “anti-national” activities.

University teachers have criticised the arrest as “excessive police action”.  JNU students formed a human chain, demanding that sedition charges against Kanhaiya Kumar be dropped.

Amnesty India, said Kumar’s arrest and the charges against him are “uncalled for” and “India’s sedition law contrary to international standards on freedom of expression must be repealed.”

The Indian National Congress vice-president, Rahul Gandhi said “It seems only the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh have the licence to say who is a traitor and who is a patriot”.

The general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Sitaram Yechury, tweeted “There can be no bigger farce than (Nathuram) Godse-worshippers putting out certificates on nationalism.”

The incident gained International attention with students and teachers of several international universities, including the University of California and Yale, narrating his “seditious” speech in English, and uploading their videos online, with foreign students Dora Zhang and Damon Young, University of California, Berkeley saying in joint video, “We challenge the RSS’s definition of justice…”.

More than 500 academics from around the world, including JNU alumni, released a statement in support of the students, stating that the JNU stands for a vital imagination of the space of a University that “embraces critical thinking, democratic dissent, student activism, and the plurality of political beliefs.”

In a separate statement, over 130 world-leading scholars including Noam Chomsky, Orhan Pamuk, Akeel Bilgrami and Sheldon Pollock called it a “shameful act of the Indian government” to invoke sedition laws formulated during colonial times to silence criticism. Students from University of California, Berkeley, Yale University and University of London showed their solidarity by recording videos reading out the speech of Kanhaiya Kumar which was labelled seditious.

The journalists covering this sedition case were assaulted by the lawyers outside the Patiala House court which led to a protest by the journalists against the violence that took place.

On 16 February 2016, the Supreme Court of India has agreed to hear an urgent plea seeking “free and fair access to justice” to Kanhaiya Kumar, following acts of violence against JNU students and lecturers as well as a number of journalists at the Patiala House Court premises under the watch of police. It transferred to the bail plea of Kanhaiya Kumar to the Delhi High Court to ensure his safety. On February 22, 2016, India today broadcast a video in which three lawyers of the Patiala House court claim that they beat Kanhaiya Kumar in police custody. A six member Supreme Court-appointed panel later confirmed that the policemen present at the Court were responsible for the security lapses, and further stating that police allowed 2 persons to enter the court room, and continued to let the assault take place, in direct violation of the SC direction on Kanhaiya’s safety.

Zee News reported that some of the students from Democratic Students’ Union (DSU) raised slogans such as “Bharat Ki Barbadi” (“Destruction of India”) and ” Pakistan Zindabad” (“long live Pakistan”). The Zee News report was found to be based on a misinterpretation by Zee News. In a letter Vishwa Deepak, one of the Zee News producer at the time, stated “Our biases made us hear Bhartiya Court Zindabad as Pakistan Zindabad.” (“long live Indian courts” as “long live Pakistan.”) Subsequently Vishwa Deepak resigned from the channel after expressing reservations over its ‘biased coverage’. The misinterpretation was disclosed when the Aam Aadmi Party filed a complaint, alleging that ABVP students raised “Pakistan Zindabad” slogans. The ABVP admitted that members of their organisation had been present, but shouted “Bharatiya Court Zindabad” and “Indian Army zindabad,” and filed a counter complaint. The police then declared that “the footage had been tampered with.”

Another video, dated 11 february 2016, which showed a speech by JNU Students’ Union President Kanhaiya Kumar making anti-national slogans, appears to be edited. According to India Today, “In the original video, Kanhaiya is asking to end social ills such as caste and communalism not anti national slogans, experts said.”

On 14 February 2016, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh alleged that the JNU incident has the support of the Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed. Doubts were soon expressed if this was tied to the discredited alert by Delhi Police that used a tweet from a fake/parody account.

Source: Wikipedia

Amnesty International

India Today

Zee News