The debate in Parliament on the situation in the University of Hyderabad (UoH) and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has degenerated. What is happening in the temples of learning is a matter of serious concern. The speech by Professor Saugata Bose in Lok Sabha sought to raise the level of debate. His eloquent statement that ‘the idea of India is not so brittle as to crumble at the echo of a few slogans’ should have been the basis of discussion and debate. Instead, what we saw was a highly partisan and colored debate on nationalism. It is ironical that in a country of 125 crore population, with vast cultural, linguistic and religious diversity, a monolithic idea of nationhood, based on religiosity, is sought to be imposed. Patriotism and nationalism are not a monopoly of any particular group. In an open society committed to secular and liberal democracy, the people who are corrupt and abuse power and authority for personal aggrandizement and those who resort to abusive language against their fellow countrymen and take to violence are actually unpatriotic and anti-national.
The HRD Minister’s reply in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha on 24th and 25th February is a distortion of facts- misleading the nation. We expected the treasury benches to counter the opposition allegations with irrefutable facts and evidence. Her statement that medical help was denied to Rohith and the police access to his body till 6.30 am next morning turned out to be false. The Chief Medical Officer, UoH campus, Dr P Rajshree, says that she reached the room around 7.30 pm, within five minutes of being informed. And as per the video released on the news channels, the police had entered the room around 8.00 pm when the doctor was present. The Telangana Police and the Joint Action Committee for Social Justice, UoH, have denied any reference to the doctor in the Police Report. Besides, Smriti Irani said the Vice Chancellor of HoU was appointed by the UPA government. The Vice Chancellor Appa Rao – who was an ABPV activist during his student days- was appointed in October 2015 by the NDA government. Similarly, as per the statement of Rohith’s friend Dontha Prashad- one of the five students suspended- the decision to suspend the five Dalit students, including Rohith, was taken in the EC meeting on November 16 in which there was no SC/ST member, contrary to what the HRD Minister claimed in the Parliament.
Smriti Irani was silent on the December 16 letter that Rohith wrote to the VC, a month before he committed suicide, asking for rope and poison, indicates how disturbed he was of the prevailing situation in the campus. Why no action was taken on his letter? Had the VC acted on the letter and reached out to Rohith and the fasting students the promising young scholar’s life could have been saved. There is justification in Rohith’s mother Radhika and brother Raja demanding a probe by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) against the Union ministers- Bangaru Dattatreya and Smriti Irani- the Vice Chancellor Appa Rao and the ABVP’s university’s unit president Sushil Kumar for abetting the suicide.
With regard to the JNU situation, the HRD Minister tried to polarise by whipping the religious sentiments and displaying the old pamphlet of October 4, 2014, containing derogatory remarks about Goddess Durga. Nevertheless, Anil Kumar, a JNU PhD scholar, who reported to have organised the Mahishasura event, accused the HRD Minister of ‘lying’ and said that the statement she quoted from the Parliament was not released by him or his colleagues. He said: ‘The pamphlet she is seen holding is a colourful one which is never used in any JNU protest due to high printing costs. It is a fake document. ’
Just on the basis of a doctored video of a news channel, the Union government and the Delhi Police should not have acted in such a high handed manner to crack down on the students of the JNU. Viswa Deepak, a news producer associated with the Zee News channel, has resigned in protest against the doctored News footage. He questioned: ‘A video which did not even have the slogan -Pakistan Zindabad was still aired continuously. How did we blindly believe that these voices which came in the dark were of Kanhaiya or his friends?’
The JNU episode has done irreparable damage to the image and reputation of a premier university and its community. Who will repay for the damage done to Kanhaiya and his fellow students? The police crackdown in the campus has invited a worldwide condemnation across the universities, including Harward and Cambridge. And unless the Modi government retreats its step swiftly and stops encroaching on academic autonomy of universities, the foreign investment in our economy will be affected. The credibility of the government has suffered immensely. The orchestrated violence and physical assault on the journalists, the teachers, the students and the accused Kanhaiya by the lawyers, owing allegiance to the saffron brigade, in the Patiala Court premises on 15th and 17th February is a serious threat to democracy, freedom and the rule of law.
G Ramachandram is author of the book ‘Nehru and World Peace,’ Professor of Political Science and a retired Principal, Founder Secretary, Association of Indian College Principals.
Also Read By The Author :
