The JNU row has become the
talking point of the nation. The controversy is spreading like a wildfire now -
from Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi to Jadavpur University in Kolkata to
University of Hyderabad to Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi - almost across
India - and if something concrete is not done - it may soon engulf the nation.
And when and if it happens so -
it may upset many equations - apart from destabilizing the society - because we
must not forget that even a China cannot control students from coming together
and organizing a Tiananmen protest that resulted in the Tiananmen Massacre -
one of the most horrific and most talked about dark chapters of the 20th
Century.
There has been intense buzz and
every related development makes for news headlines. There are versions, counter
versions and more versions. There are claims and counter claims and there are
related developments.
And in all this, one development
stood out for its creativity - on presenting some ugly faces in this row - of
goons in the garb of people next door and of Delhi Police - clearly on the
back-foot here - by making a 'big something' out of almost nothing and the way
BS Bassi, the Delhi Police Commissioner is reacting, he is sounding more and
more empty.
The Telegraph's front pages of
February 16 and February 17 are right at the point in capturing the essence of
the developments in the ongoing row.
The February 16 front page has a
cover story talking about BJP MLA OP Sharma and the unruly mob of lawyers who
were worse than goons who attacked supporters of Kanhaiya Kumar, the JNU
Students Union president who has been arrested for sedition, and journalists
including women journalists - in the court premises - in India's national
capital.
Its headlines ''The Patriot' with
'riot' in red colour hits right chords. Yes, we cannot allow anyone to abuse
law like these bunch of lawless lawyers and OP Sharma did - even if we knew 'how
law would take its due course' in dealing with these goons.
The February 17 front page was
again rightly and very sensibly headlined 'The Thought Police' - on Delhi
Police and its 'now controversial' chief Bassi. Bassi has clearly failed here -
himself and us.
People had thought he would be the
first Delhi Police Commissioner in many years to have completed his term
without a major personal controversy - until this JNU row happened. We don't
know what are his reasons to act so - but his attitude has raised unanswered
questions - and he has consistently failed to justify his 'discriminatory'
stand - on coming down heavily on Kanhaiya Kumar - and on conveniently ignoring
the goons in the garb of lawyers and OP Sharma - when everything happened in
front of press cameras - when the Delhi Police filed the sedition case against
Kanhaiya Kumar on a video clip from a
television channel.