EXCLUSIVE: Rajdeep Sardesai Talks ‘Nationalism’ to The Quint

On the JNU Row, his recent blogpost and the government crackdown on issues like anti-nationalism and sedition.

Rajdeep Sardesai talks ‘nationalism’ with The Quint. (Photo: The Quint)

Rajdeep Sardesai recently published a blog post in Hindustan Times, after which he was called an anti-nationalist. The Quint’s Aabid Shafi spoke with the journalist on what prompted him to write the column, what he makes of the government crackdown and the apparent cracks in the media.

I would like to see a country where every Indian, irrespective of caste, religion, gender, is given equal citizenship and equal rights in the truest manner.

Read: Rajdeep Sardesai Writes “Anti-National” Rant, Starts Twitter Trend

Sardesai, The Anti-Nationalist

Rajdeep’s column was trying to convey an important point, and that was to ‘stop dividing people’ in the name of ‘nationalism’.

Samuel Johnson once said “Patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels.” Sometimes I fear it’s the first refuge. I think the time has come, whether it’s in JNU or in any other place in the country, to apply the law in an equivalent manner. Patiala House (Court) cannot be treated differently from JNU.

He went on to explain how patriotism had become a certificate to be freely handed out or denied to people. In his blog post, he expressed the importance of letting readers know that if one is resorting to violence in the name of nationalism, then one is not a nationalist, but a pseudo-patriot.

You are a patriot, you are not; you’re anti-national, you’re not. 

Journalists at a protest march from Press Club of India to the Supreme Court protesting the attacks on mediapersons. (Photo: PTI)

It’s a constant tug-of-war between one side and the other. Sardesai says beating up defenceless people in places where ordinary citizens go to receive justice is just wrong. One’s religion, food habits and views cannot be the reason for prosecution, he says.

You can’t tell someone to go to Pakistan simply because they’ve eaten a beef steak, just because someone’s food habits are different from yours. You cannot prosecute someone simply because you do not agree with their point of view.

Sardesai exclaimed that in his view, the right to dissent is a fundamental right. He believes that if someone is in the wrong, then the law must make the ultimate decision. People cannot and should not take the law into their own hands.

Divided Media

When asked about the two varying JNU videos making the rounds on social media and why media channels are being biased, he spoke about various tendencies that have crept into the media wherein protagonists and antagonists are decided beforehand.

Media trials worry me, unverified videos worry me, the media’s constant attempt to paint every issue as black and white rather than look for the complex shades of grey worry me. The noise in the media worries me. The manner in which we convert studios into courtrooms worries me.

Kanhaiya Kumar, the President of the students’ union at the country’s premier educational institution, Jawaharlal Nehru University, was produced at a Delhi court on Wednesday. (Photo: AP)

Sardesai went on to reveal that, in his perspective, the real enemy lies within society.

Society in a sense, is getting polarised between us and them. Maybe some of that polarisation is reflected in the media as well.

A middle ground needs to be discovered in the media, a place to discover the truth on complex issues like the JNU sedition row. Issues are not black and white, there are definitely shades of grey, Sardesai exclaims.

Government Crackdown

Sardesai made a point to say that the government has ‘every right to apply the rule of law’ and if anyone violates the rules, then they must be prosecuted.

Prosecution must apply to lawyers who assault journalists they seem to get away with it and be felicitated, even as the students who are accused of seditious slogans go into hiding or are immediately arrested or not given bail.

In India, there seem to be two rules of law, he said. Sardesai ended by saying that there must be one rule of law and that it must be applied to every Indian, equally.