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

Amid protests by students across India to release Kanhaiya Kumar, Rajdeep Sardesai says he is ‘anti-national’.

Students march from Mandi House to Jantar Mantar demanding the release of JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar. (Photo: PTI)

Veteran Indian journalist Rajdeep Sardesai has joined the chorus in support of the protesting JNU students.

In a blog post, Sardesai took an unabashed stance and openly declared “Yes, I am anti-national”. He hit out at right-wing elements saying “desh bhakti certificates were being liberally distributed”, which made him want to scream out he is proud to be ‘anti-national’.

Yes, I am anti-national because I believe in an expanded definition of the right to free speech as spelt out in Article 19 of the Constitution. The only two ‘reasonable restrictions’ are incitement to violence and hate speech. What constitutes hate speech may be open to debate. Is, for example, the slogan of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement <i>Jo Hindu hit kee baat karega vahi desh pe raj karega</i>, which openly calls for a Hindu Rashtra, to be seen as violative of the law or not and does it spread enmity among communities? Is <i>Raaj karega khalsa</i>, the slogan of the Khalistanis, to be seen as seditious or not? In Balwant Singh versus State of Punjab, the Supreme Court ruled in the negative.

Sardesai goes on to say he does not see the JNU protests as acts of sedition but as anti-government tirades which do not make students “potential terrorists” or “jihadis”.

...While I am discomfited by the slogan shouting at JNU in support of Parliament terror convict Afzal Guru, I do not see it as an act of sedition. The sketchy video evidence made available shows the ‘students’ (we still don’t know if all of them were, indeed, students) shouting slogans like<i> Bharat kee barbaadi</i>, and hailing Afzal’s ‘martyrdom’.The speeches are primarily an anti-government tirade but is it enough to see the students as potential terrorists or rather as political sympathisers of the <i>azaadi </i>sentiment? And is that ideological support enough to brand them as jihadis who must be charged with sedition? ...Prosecute all those who break the law, incite violence, resort to terror but don’t lose the capacity to engage with those who dissent. The right to dissent is as fundamental as the right to free speech: shouting down alternative views, be they on prime time TV or on the street, is not my idea of India.&nbsp;

The article goes on to read if support for Afzal Guru is sedition, then half the Cabinet in Jammu and Kashmir would be held guilty. Sardesai also takes on the Hindu Mahasabha for glorifying Mahatma Gandhi’s killer Nathuram Godse.

While I am a proud Hindu who wakes up to the Gayatri mantra, I also like a well-done beef steak, which, according to BJP minister Mukhtar Naqvi, is a treasonous act, enough to pack me off to Pakistan. I celebrate the rich diversity of my country through food: Korma on Eid, pork sorpotel with my Catholic neighbours in Goa during Christmas and shrikhand during Diwali is my preferred diet. The right to food of my choice is again a freedom which I cherish and am unwilling to cede.

Very soon, #Iamantinational was the top trending hashtag on micro-blogging site Twitter.

He did find some supporters.

But his views were not received well by others.

Read the entire op-ed here.