JNU, Jawaharlal Nehru University is the public central university in New Delhi. The homepage of their website reads an eloquent and magnanimous set of words. They speak, “A University stands for humanism. For tolerance, for a reason, for the adventure of ideas and for the search of truth. It stands for the onward march of the human race towards ever higher objectives. If the Universities discharge their duties adequately, then it is well with the Nation and the People.” All would have been good if JNU reflected this in deeds. But off late a number of outrageous acts and set of events are proving it otherwise. A new addition to the set of deeds which add weightage to this view is the protest against judicial the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru. A set of left-wing activists and (anti-nationals) conducted this event despite of cancelation of permission. When the entire nation was mourning over the death of 9 soldiers in Siachen and was praying for the recovery of Hanumantappa Koppad, some STUDENTS of JNU were busy shouting slogans against the nation and were demanding for a free Kashmir.To be precise, they said that “They will not rest till India gets destroyed” and “they will not let Afzal Guru’s efforts go in vain.” Authorities have spoken about taking disciplinary action against the organizers. This move from the university comes after protest from the members of ABVP outside the Vice Chancellors office.
The university authorities have said that ” The permission for the program was sought by giving incomplete information, so it is an act of indiscipline. A committee headed by the Chief Proctor will examine the footage of the event and speak to the witnesses. It is on basis of the report, the varsity will take appropriate action”, the university maintains distance from the acts of the students and calls it interdisciplinary, another official said “There was nowhere mentioned in the permission request that the event will be on Afzal Guru, they just said that they wanted to organize a cultural event. How can any talk about disintegration of a nation be national?” However posters highlighting a protest march against “judicial killing of Afzal Guru and Maqbool Bhatt” and in solidarity with “struggle of Kashmiri people for their democratic right to self-determination” were posted on the walls of a Dhaba in the campus. The members of the ABVP had raised concerns over such peace-disrupting acts but the organizers went ahead with the program despite the cancelation of the permission and held a cultural program, art and photo exhibition on the issue. JNU student union joint secretary Saurabh Kumar said that he was shown a gun when they tried to stop the “Anti-National” event. He asserted that anti-India slogans and the slogans demanding freedom for Kashmir were being raised.
The organizers hold their stands on the act and allege ABVP, saying that they treat everything against their own ideology as anti-national. Anirban Bhattacharya, one of the organizers said that the act of stopping the protest was the replica of events that led to the suicide of Rohit Vemula’s suicide in Hyderabad University.
It is prime time for the think tank to decide on where the youth of India is moving, and why our ideologies are getting tainted, that we fight against our own judiciary, for a culprit who masterminded the attack against the temple of legislature, the parliament of India. We at Readoo India hope that firm steps are taken to curb outrages of this kind in future.
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