Students As Torch Bearers

student protest india jnu

We live in times when students act as torch bearers while the senior citizens act like idiots, cowards and opportunists. A country or society is shaped by education and education itself acts as a boat which travels large distances for people who battles with the waves and paddles the anchor! It is often said that an educational institution should not have politics in it. But it is a farce. Politics exist,

along with the faults of those who monopolise politics. It becomes necessary for the growing intellectuals to criticise the moves of those who are ruling on us. Because of this it becomes necessary to observe the attitude of those who are on the throne to decide how our education system should be run. It is unfortunate that the education minister from last few years have got no idea about how proper education should be implemented. It is also unfortunate that all the leaders of the present time have got a negative attitude towards those students who are fighting with rationality in mind, constitution in the soul , justice as the motive and democracy as the almighty.

It becomes necessary to site some basic situations where the government ruined the value of an educational institution and tore apart the constitution by force.

** In 2016, when the famous gathering of students took place in the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University to discuss on the ongoing oppression on the tribals of East India, the imprisonment of Kashmiris in their own home with the help of military rule, and also on the issue of capital punishment (whether it is right or not). This university has seen Sitaram Yechury standing against Indira Gandhi and criticising her policies. It has seen huge crowd coming out of it in support of Medha Patkar of the Narmada Bachao Andolan. The Adivasis of East India were able to fight against the evil Green hunt movement for its students protested against its implementation. That very university was scandalized by the present government for its own benefit by sending its own hooligans to raise slogans which were not acceptable. Police were instructed to arrest Umar, Kanhaiya and Anirban for they doctored the video of them raising the slogans of “Ved Bhao se Azaadi”. After they were arrested the court found them not guilty and hence were released. But with the help of paid media, they inculcated the narrative of the students being anti national and they made it strong by quoting them as urban naxals and communist terrorists! They did it to distract the whole country from its failures and to go on implementing its own unconstitutional policies. Even today, most of the people find the university which is ranked as the number one institution of India, as the hub of anti nationals as the narrative is fueled by the paid media.

** To dismantle the spine of the leftist and liberal students of JNU, AMU, Jamia Millia Islamia, JU, BHU, they took every step possible. They started spreading the narrative of the students being characterless ones since they have found a large number of condoms in university campus. They also started increasing the hostel fees and barred the girls from going out after seven. Vandalising university properties became handy for them to have the students in fear. Troll army of the right wing still are busy in sharing the pictures of homosexual students and wrapping them with homophobic remarks. Pictures of girls wearing shorts still become viral once they participate in any kind of protest against the right wing. It is clear that when they fail by logic and facts, they use sidelines to disrespect the students who are against them. We cannot deny that the top officials aren’t involved in these acts. The ones who perform the acts are mere students who have got no money power and once they get money they become bound to sell their soul to the leaders busy in ruining this democracy. They troll for the leaders get the benefit of it. They vandalize so that the people get diverted from the massive mistakes of the leaders.

** Right after the implementation of demonetization and GST, when the students protest started, they dismantled the protest by killing Gauri Lankesh, Govind Pansare, Kalburgi and Dabholkar: the icons of liberal literature. They also vandalised JNU and ordered lathi charge on the students making the issue bigger and distracting all the focus from a scam like demonetization to religiously and politically motivated murders. Arrests took place and they yet again ordered their hooligans to shame the students of JNU and to spread bigger lies on the writers and also on the students of liberal universities. In the meantime, Uri attack happened followed by Pulwama last year killing several of our soldiers. It is interesting and disgraceful to see that for the political benefits students are being shown as anti nationals and parasites while the soldiers are seen as pawns on the chessboard of notorious leaders.

** The hike in the fees of students have a lot to do with this democracy. It is said in the Constitution of India that every student should be given proper education with less money. It is being said over and over that JNU has got 40% students belonging to economically backward community. If the fees are raised, then JNU would become the costliest university of India which is not good for our democracy. Right before they scrapped the Article 370 and yet again imprisoned the Kashmiris by taking away all kinds of communication from the valley. The valley is now locked from past three months. The history of Kashmir is known to all, about how their freedom is their basic right. Yet the right wing alleges those who demand for freedom of the valley as terrorists. The students who now stand for human rights, freedom of those who deserve freedom are called as traitors and terrorists. The negative attitude of the government is pretty clear for the narrative of students being anti nationals has been built from the lens of Hindutva and its wings of islamophobia. The students are called whores, naxals just because they are feeling the pain of Kashmir. They know what democracy stands for.

** The protest against CAB, CAA, NRC and NPR has seen the dawn of youth protest yet again from all over India. But here too the vandalism and violence of the right wing is a weapon to dismantle the protest. They instructed the JNU administration that the exams would now be held through virtual platforms like WhatsApp, which benefits them only. It being unacceptable to the students of JNU, they started a protest on all the issues of this country making the protest bigger. But the right wing took law in their hands, like they always have, by sending goons in the protest marches to make the peaceful protests violent. They also beat up students to forcefully break them. After all of these they make a narrative that the protesters themselves attacked the students. They say that 25 students of ABVP were attacked by the left wing students. It is funny that the ABVP students were attacked but they didn’t file any report against them rather the students of left wing are demanding for the resignation of VC of JNU, they are demanding for neutral investigation while the right wingers do their evil politics. Later, the members of ABVP confessed in a sting operation by India Today, that they channelised the violence making the picture even more clear.

From all of these, we can clearly see the harmful attitude of the government towards those students who are questioning the government. They are asking the leaders to follow the Constitution. To not discard the nation by raising a Hindu Muslim debate every single day, to work on the falling economy, to provide jobs since the nation has seem the highest number of unemployed and unemployable youth after 2014. What the students demand is the development of the people of this nation but the negative attitude of the government is the proof that they are the real anti nationals!

Kabir Deb is a published writer and poet. Born in Haflong and completed his Masters on Life Sciences from Assam University. His work has been published from different national and international magazine like Different bTruths, Counter Currents, Reviews, Cafe Dissensus, Spillwords magazine and his works rely on political activisvm. He recently won the Reuel International Poetry Prize in 2019


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