Unsettling Amount of Venom Being Spewed in the Name of JNU

Former journalist and mother of a JNU graduate writes about the recent incidents inside JNU.

Students agitating for the release of Students’ Union President Kanhaiya Kumar at JNU. (Photo: PTI)

My first brush with Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) was when I joined the newspaper Patriot. Before that, while in college, I had heard of this university which was ‘different’. Where students only debated and protested and classes were incidental. Where you couldn’t have a normal conversation without getting into a heated argument. Where there was no defined day and night and where the dhabas were meeting points for discussion because every student had an opinion on everything.

So when I joined the Patriot and found that a number of my colleagues were from JNU I was quite eager to find out more about the university. Much to my chagrin, I found they were like us. They didn’t sprout horns when they began to discuss an issue. On the contrary, some of them were very clear in their viewpoints.

Many years later, my daughter took admission in JNU for her Masters in international relations. She, at the best of times, is very emphatic in her ‘debates and discussions’.

My worry was how much more emphatic JNU would make her and what that would mean for us parents. But instead of making her more aggressive in her arguments, JNU opened her to world views she hadn’t encountered before.

She enjoyed debating with her JNU mates whatever their political leanings. She enjoyed her tea sessions at Ganga dhaba, her lunches at Babu Bhaiyya’s canteen, staying overnight with a friend at the hostel because she wanted to attend a meeting that was to take place at night. Never in her two years at the university were we ever worried about her getting into or creating any trouble.

We knew her friends, many of whom came and spent time with us or stayed at our home and many others whom we knew by name. They were like any other students: Discussing issues, political or otherwise, having very definite views but always speaking about bringing good changes in the country.

Ever since the JNU news broke a month ago I have been vacillating between horror and fascination at the way the events have been unfolding. Horror because suddenly the entire university has been branded anti-national. Does that make my daughter and her friends anti-national as well? For speaking their mind? Fascination because the media is playing judge. When I started my career as a journalist, our brief was that a reporter’s job is to just report, not to sit on a judgment. The analysis of a report was left to the experts. And here were news channels openly calling these students anti-national and terrorists.

Most everyone has joined the bandwagon to malign the university. Many of them do not even understand the issue but because everyone is calling for a ban on the university, so should they. I was appalled when one of the WhatsApp groups that I am part of began to rave and rant with some people even going to the extent of calling for these students to be shot. Really? I would like to know if their stand would have been the same if a child of theirs was studying at JNU.

A university, an institution of learning is where students begin to voice their opinions. They learn to become responsible adults. And JNU, amongst the top universities in social sciences, is considered excellent for academic research. Yes, there are many there with strong leftist leanings who hold protests on anything and everything, there are some who support the cause of Kashmir and even the North East. But protests, demonstrations, ‘chai par charcha’, they are all part of the JNU culture.

Lawyers can beat up Kanhaiya and journalists. They are arrested after three days and then let out on bail after questioning. They can go around openly threatening to beat, burn and kill Kanhaiya but that is fine because they are flaunting their ‘patriotic’ emotions. And now Gyandev Ahuja, BJP MLA from Rajasthan, claims to have found 3000 used condoms and 500 used abortion injections.

His latest claim is the most bizarre: 50 percent of rape and molestation offences in Delhi were committed by students of the university. This is an elected representative. If I go by what the illustrious Mr Ahuja has to say, then my daughter was studying in a debauched world for two years! Surprising that I never caught onto it.

So do these upholders of nationalism practice the basic tenets of nationalism? Do they not litter on the road, help to keep their colony, state and country clean or do they simply ask for Swachh Bharat? Do they respect women? Do they pay their taxes on time, not take bribes, clear files in the office on time, help in nation building? Do they critique the government when necessary so that it can improve its governance? That is true nationalism. Merely holding up the national flag and raising slogans isn’t.

Last Sunday, we heard sloganeering and found that the Arya Samaj temple in our colony had organised a protest rally against JNU. Supporting the hate speeches against the university were elderly gentlemen, priests and other members of the temple. Of young men and women, there were none. How quickly we give an issue a religious overtone was once again evident.

There is an unsettling amount of venom being spewed in the name of JNU. With so much hatred, I am worried for Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid, Anirban Bhattacharya and the others. I hope and wish justice is done and this justice is just.

Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya were sent into 14 days’ judicial custody on 1 March 2016. (Photo Courtesy: ANI screengrab)

(Seema Kumar is a former journalist who now writes and provides editorial solutions at www.90caps.com)