Now that the five accused
including Umar Khalid are back on JNU campus, lets expect that everyone will
act as per the experiences (and the learning) that JNU has thrown – since the
row broke on February 9 when some students organized a protest event to
commemorate Afzal Guru and Maqbool Bhat, two terrorists convicted and hanged by
India.
Umar Khalid and some other Jawaharlal
Nehru University (JNU) students surfaced (or resurface) late last night. Apart
from its political facets – like making a flash appearance and speaking of surrendering
in full media glare so as to keep the police and the opposing groups on a watch
– the simple principle of continuity makes it a logical decision. Let law takes
its course.
Yes, there is nothing called an
ideal scenario in our country – or in fact anywhere in the world - just degrees
of relative ease and complexity – amply highlighted by the double standards
shown here by the Delhi Police – but as it is India’s national capital – and it
is in full media glare – and as the issue has already generated reflections
internationally with Noam Chomsky, Orhan Pamuk and others writing appeals (Noam
Chomsky, in fact, shot an email yesterday to the JNU vice-chancellor (VC) questioning
why did he allow the police inside the JNU campus) – and as it has divided the
people in urban India in pro and anti camps – it is not easy for the Delhi
Police and the establishment elsewhere to continue the way it has worked so
far.
And they have a significant development
to back them – the Jadavpur University VC, in Kolkata, didn’t allow the police
inside the campus in spite of the pro JNU students protests and sloganeering.
Hope sense now prevails on the Delhi
Police and those opposing groups.
Or is it so?
It doesn’t seem the Delhi Police
has learnt any lesson. After committing a social hara-kiri by acting unnecessarily
tough on JNU students and conveniently ignoring O P Sharma and the rioting
lawyers at the Patiala House Courts Complex, they did another such mistake.
The Delhi Police failed us again
the last night. It couldn’t dare to touch O P Sharma and the accused lawyers for
full three days even if they were out there, brandishing their hooliganism on
cameras. The Delhi Police didn’t try even once to reach them and apprehend
them. Instead, it kept on sending summons and summarily released them on bail even
if they responded to the summons after two-three days.
But it reached the JNU campus in
the middle of night to arrest the accused students – when this whole sedition
case and the ‘anti-national Vs national’ debate is based on some video clips
the authenticity of which were never established. In fact, the clips are being
said doctored now.
It is good and logical that the
JNU VC didn’t allow the Delhi Police inside the campus this time.
Let law takes its course. Let
fight be at the ideological level. Let JNU be JNU. Let's realize the gap between
students and terrorists. Let's not overreact anymore. Let's now say no to hashtags
like #JNUCrackdown or #CleanUpJNU or #StopAntiIndiaCampaign.
Let's hope no more firecrackers
later in the day – with sense prevailing inside JNU and outside its environs.
The nation comes first – for the
JNU students, for them, for us – for everyone taking sides. Healthy dissent,
ideological differences and vertical divides in societies are must-haves for
any country if we don’t violate the Constitutional norms.
Now, who will decide when ‘a Constitutional
norm’ is violated? Well, we have courts for that and a robust judicial system
and a vigilant Supreme Court. Let’s base our trust there.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the Indian cricket
team captain, made a ‘to the point’ remark yesterday when he said that we must
keep in mind that our armed forced are making supreme sacrifices at borders so
that ‘we can keep debating things like freedom of speech’. We must respect
that. Nothing goes beyond that sacrifice – we all, politicians and society,
must keep that in mind.
And this remark came in the
context of the Pampore encounter with terrorists in Jammu & Kashmir that is
in third day and is still ongoing with six lives already lost, including five
security personnel. And one of them, Captain Pawan Kumar from Jind, Haryana, a
23-year old Jat, wrote a thoughtful note on another issue that people are wrongly
trying to impose on India – the violent protests by Jats in Haryana and Uttar
Pradesh – to forcefully usurp something that is supposedly not for them – the caste-based
Reservation.
Captain Pawan Kumar wrote in his last
Facebook post before being martyred in Pampore (from a Press Trust of India
report) – “Kisiko reservation chahiye to kisiko azadi bhai. Humein kuchh nahin
chahiye bhai. Bas apni razai. (Some want reservation and some independence, I
don't want anything, brother, I want only my quilt).”
It should haunt everyone – those in
JNU – those outside it, maligning it – politicians, police and society – and the
people demanding Reservation and trying to force their way in.
And as Pawan Kumar graduated from
the National Defence Academy, he is also a JNU degree holder as NDA has collaboration
with JNU for degrees.