‘What Kind of Freedom Is This?’: Reclaiming Azaadi from JNU Admin

The past few weeks have witnessed an unprecedented set of actions by the administration to curb dissent.

Since Kanhaiya Kumar’s arrest on sedition charges, JNU has never been the same. (Photo: Reuters)

“These organisers told me exactly what to say at the gate when I enter the campus. I was given a different name and reason for coming. Why should I do it? Why can’t I enter the way I want? What kind of freedom is this?” a visibly agitated Bezwada Wilson asked, standing at what is known as Azaadi Chowk (Freedom Square) in New Delhi. The irony did not go unnoticed.

The Magsaysay awardee spoke at the Jawaharlal Nehru University during its five-day lecture series on Wednesday, an illustrious campus that has now come to be known for harbouring desh-drohis.

Since the time Kanhaiya Kumar was propelled from the realms of obscurity to that of national (or anti-national, if you like) fame in February 2016, the university has never been the same. 

The months that followed witnessed an unprecedented student uprising at JNU, asking uncomfortable questions and challenging the establishment.

The JNU administration’s next step was predictable – efforts to curtail dissent. It ruled that protests, dharnas and hunger strikes could only be held "at a distance of 20 metres away from administration and academic complexes”. With this diktat, the famous (and symbolic) ‘Freedom Square’ was declared out of bounds for protests.

The notice put up in the campus. (Photo Courtesy: Facebook/Umar Khalid)

Curbing Dissent, Every Way Possible

It was not only Bezwada Wilson, then, who was left unsettled with abrupt changes in the basic ideology of the university and the looming panopticon that was suddenly in order. As somebody who has visited the university on multiple occasions earlier, these changes were both symbolic and disturbing.

Instead of students casually sitting around, thorny plants now greet the steps of the freedom square. Vigilant guards have been strewn all over the campus, with the authority to shoot video footage of any “suspicious” movement, which sometimes means female residents of hostel changing clothes, JNU student Aman Mohammadi told The Quint.

The grilled structure created around the administrative block. (Photo: Hansa Malhotra/ The Quint)

The Quint had first-hand experience of this surveillance during one of its shoots.

Accosted with these regressive changes, one question remains – what was it that made Hamlet’s Denmark such a rotten place?

‘We Won’t Be Easily Cowed Down’

Within the last one week, at least five teachers have been sent notices by the administration asking them to “follow the rules” of the university and not address students at the Administrative Block.

One of the receivers is Professor Nivedita Menon.

“It’s obvious that the new Vice Chancellor has come with an agenda. He has come to end JNU and its democratic practices. The ‘20-metre’ rule will not achieve anything concrete. But symbolically it will achieve the purpose of saying ‘we control this place’,” Professor Menon told The Quint.

In the wake of the spate of notices being sent to the faculty, JNU Teachers’ Association (JNUTA) on Tuesday observed a one-day strike. Menon on Friday told The Quint that the teachers who participated in the strike will lose one day’s salary.

Pots put up at the freedom square. (Photo: Hansa Malhotra/ The Quint)

“They are now deploying all these new mechanisms to stop us. Recently, a group of students were suspended by the university for disrupting a session of the Academic Council. This was done pending inquiry,” Umar Khalid told The Quint. Khalid is one of the JNU students who, along with Kanhaiya Kumar, was arrested in February for raising “anti-national” slogans in the campus.

Aren’t these decisions arbitrary then? “Arbitrary is only an understatement,” Khalid said. “Despite what they do, we will continue to protest. The lecture-series is a part of this protest”

Reclaiming the ‘Azaadi Chowk’

“Azaadi chowk humaara hai (Azaadi chowk is ours)” is what the pamphlet introducing JNUTA’s lecture series reads.

Apart from lectures, Wednesday also witnessed the freedom square come alive in the form of a street play aimed at satirising the administration’s growing authoritarian tyranny. “We are fighting against every measure that is being instituted in the campus,” a student performing in the play told The Quint.

“The new face of the JNU administration is now in an open war with teachers and students to destroy everything that the institution has been known for. The most recent suspension of students is part of this culture the administration has now put in place – the repeated threat of disciplinary action for everything, so no one can dare to question them,” Ranjani Mazumdar, professor in the School of Arts and Aesthetics, JNU wrote in The Wire.

Do Mazumdar’s words, then, become the chronicle of a university’s death foretold, or will the full-throated growls of its students keep its fabric from unraveling?

(With inputs from Shorbori Purkayastha.)