It is a sad commentary on our governance that we believe in resorting to agitations to get our demands met. What distresses more is that it is not the illiterates, unemployed and hoodlums who go on rampage, but the socially, politically and economically empowered individuals who weaken the state by fighting on streets and paralysing institutions. The recent developments in JNU amply justify this worry. On the eve of Afzal Guru’s death anniversary on February 9, a group of students plastered the campus with inflammatory anti-national posters, asking their friends to join in a march to support Kashmiris’ right to self-determination. They also raised various seditious slogans, couched in violent words. The police had to reluctantly intervene. They arrested JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar, who allegedly spearheaded the ugly spectacle, and conducted raids in the campus looking for other miscreants.
The reaction to the police action has been baffling. Hundreds of Left-leaning students, teachers and alumni are on war path, describing Kanhaiya’s arrest as a ‘cover for political witch-hunt and a vicious attack on JNU’s democratic culture of debate, dialogue and dissent’. Nice-sounding jargon, borrowed straight from Communist lexicon. Rahul Gandhi, Arvind Kejriwal, Nitish Kumar, Sitaram Yechury and their likes smell an RSS conspiracy behind Kanhaiya’s arrest and have demanded his immediate release. For them, chanting of anti-national slogans and battle cry for revenge against India are irrelevant issues. They do not think that pleading with courts for outright dismissal of Kanhaiya’s case is a good idea and firmly hold the view that continuing with protest is a better strategy. And why not? History is on their side. The fragile Indian state, they know, will soon succumb to their pressure.
SAR Geelani, a former DU professor, who has been charged for sedition, need not worry. He may have facilitated a meeting at the Press Club of India on the following day in which pro-Pakistan, pro-plebiscite and Allah-o-Akbar were chanted, but Left-leaning leaders and India baiters are there to bail him out. The Press Council of India has given him benefit of doubt and it is just a matter of time before the case of sedition against him and others is dropped.
The state’s brittleness was again evident when Rohith Vemula, a PhD student of Hyderabad University, committed suicide on January 11. His activist friends and opportunist politicians promptly converted this into a cry of discrimination against Dalits and organised long-drawn protests. The heady cocktail of caste discrimination, political opportunism, media frenzy and sustained unrest worked successfully. The state caved in. The HRD ministry announced compensation of `8 lakh for Rohith’s family, sent Vice-Chancellor Appa Rao on forced leave, and announced a judicial commission to fix responsibility for Rohith’s untimely death. If the problem was with Rao and his management of university affairs, Delhi should have acted earlier and not waited for a life to be lost. It huffed and puffed and exposed its weakness to withstand pressure of protesters.
The students of Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) in Pune similarly resorted to agitation, seeking cancellation of Gajendra Chauhan’s appointment as FTII chairman. For 138 days, they were on strike, marked by fisticuff, gherao, clashes with police, sloganeering and demonstrations. With Chauhan at the helm, they imagined, their creative ideas would be discouraged and artistic passion curbed. They were convinced that it would not be possible for them to evolve into a Kurusova, a Satyajit Ray or Shyam Benegal if Chauhan’s mythological presence loomed around.
Chauhan still joined amid continuing protests. Obviously, the FTII students miscalculated their gamble. They did sustain their agitation and had vociferous support of usual suspects from political, ‘intellectual’ and film communities. Yet they failed because they could not convert their fight into a case of discrimination against the marginalised section of society or of an assault on their democratic and secular rights. Next time if anyone or any group want their grievances redressed, they only have to hit the street violently, invoke services of politicians and intellectuals with ideological pretensions, and paint themselves as victims of social prejudice and attempts at suppressing their voice. They will have every chance to humble the state and walk away with more concessions.
amarbhushan@hotmail.com
Bhushan is a former special secretary, R&AW