With Rahul Gandhi putting Rohith Vemula (the Dalit research scholar who committed suicide at the Hyderabd Central University campus recently) on a par with Mahatma Gandhi, the theatre of the absurd is complete. What is common between the two individuals? They neither shared a philosophy nor working style. They were poles apart in all respects, but still have been put on the same pedestal! Rahul is the kingpin of the Congress Party, which claims the Mahatma as its lodestar. Non-violence was Gandhiji’s signature tune. He believed in and fought for social justice and empowerment of Dalits along with unity of the Hindu society. Peaceful co-existence was an article of faith for him. Above all, he was a practising Sanatani, God-fearing Hindu, worshipped the cow and was rightly wary of various church denominations for whom evangelisation was the sole mission of their existence.
Rohith was an activist of the Ambedkar Students’ Association (ASA). The organisation has nothing in common with either the philosophy or the values for which BR Ambedkar worked and lived. ASA is known for hosting beef parties and staging shows of strength in support of terrorists such as Yakub Memon, at the Hyderabad University campus.
Here was Rahul Gandhi, trying to pep up the waning fortunes of his sinking party. He was in Hyderabad to reclaim Dalit votes. So, a gathering of friends of the deceased became a ‘function’ for Rahul and he ‘thanked’ the organisers for ‘inviting’ him there. Mourning for the dead is not a ‘function’ and normally, no invitations are issued, only information is given about the rituals following a death. Rahul did not stop at that and found a common denominator between the Mahatma and unfortunate Rohith. He linked the two by pointing out that Rohith was born on the same date (January 30) on which Gandhiji was assassinated decades earlier. The Congress must clarify what values and road the party henceforth will follow, that of Gandhiji or ASA? Between the Mahatma and Rohith, who is their icon? One cannot be with both, at the same time.
However, the moot question is why did Rohith Vemula hang himself? And was he persecuted because of his Dalit origins or some other reasons? The straight question is “has student politics any legitimacy when it endorses terrorism?” Amid so much talk after the suicide of Rohith Vemula and politicians’ usual posturing to hang their coat on it, nobody asked that question. Now, student politics that questions existing order is normal in many higher educational institutions. The JNU is famous for Left-wing students dominating university bodies and many in the faculty are severe critics of the state. But no government sworn to protect the integrity of the state can allow seeding of anti-national and pro-terrorist politics among the young students in these institutions. More particularly, when the international community, including many Islamic nations, are unitedly trying to curb the false and romantic religious appeal of Islamist violent movements. Agencies like the NIA meant for taking counter-terrorism actions are monitoring pro-terrorist activities like recruitment of young people for joining terror groups like Pakistan-based JUD, LeT, JeM etc.
These terror organisations have publicly declared that their goal is to bleed India white through inflicting a thousand cuts continually on the Indian State and thereby, gain for Pakistan what its army failed to do in the course of three real wars. There is no evidence that action was taken against this group on caste basis. Interestingly, the media has failed to ask this question to the agitating Left students who have conveniently labelled themselves Ambedkerites to confuse those who would not back their anti-national support to Pak-based terror groups.
Partly, the university authorities are to blame for the escalation of the event on their premises. They failed to clearly proclaim why action had to be taken against these scholars. This enabled the group to use its caste composition and paint all punishments against them for their illegal and anti-national activities to portray themselves as victims of caste prejudice and make best use of Dr Ambedkar’s name. What should have been a clear punishment for pro-terrorist politics within a university complex was turned into a case of prejudice of the upper caste against the under-privileged scholars. There could be no question that the Indian State should go all out to lift the SCs and STs out of the backwaters into which they were pushed by discriminatory social theory and practice. No political party opposes such positive discrimination in favour of these groups; the Constitution specifically provides for positive discrimination for the uplift of them.
Dishonest as the ‘secularists’ are, they quote selectively from the vast Hindu pantheon. Eklavya’s sacrifice of his thumb is repeated umpteen times to rub the point that Dalits have been targeted in India since times immemorial. King Dashrath (father of Lord Rama) a Kshatriya lost his life following a curse from Sarvan Kumar’s blind parents, who were Dalits. Ravana and his entire clan, all Brahmins, were killed by Rama with the help of an army largely consisting of vanaras; and Lord Krishna (an OBC in modern parlance) was instrumental in liquidating the Kaurava forces which largely included Kshatriyas and eminent Brahmins such as Kripacharya and Dronacharya. Contemporary issues cannot always be explained through an ideologically-coloured prism of mythology.
It is also a fact of life we face on a daily basis that caste prejudices run deep among our people and the entire state power should be used to hand hold and help out the victims of age-old injustice to them. There has been a relentless battle against this social evil from within the Hindu society for hundreds of years. In recent times, starting with Swami Dayanand Saraswati, Swami Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi, Veer Savarkar, Dr KB Hedgewar — the list is endless, a whole lot of social reformers have ceaselessly worked to erase this blot. I have not come across a single person who would defend this evil at an intellectual level. The introduction of provisions for reservation in the Constitution, and subsequent extension till date was possible because the Hindu community has been feeling guilty about it and wanted to undo historical wrongs. Hence the unanimous support for these steps in the Constituent Assembly and in Parliament as well.
This country and several other countries are under threat of sabotage, and experience shows that higher educational institutions are most vulnerable to being instruments of action of Universal Terror Incorporated. For the country’s own survival and survival of the human civilisation across the globe, let there be no compromise, no let up, no romantic ideology on this issue.
The author is a Rajya Sabha member and political commentator.E-mail: punjbalbir@gmail.com
