Now that is exactly what we are witnessing - in increasingly emboldened hues - subaltern is an imperative for an amorphous society that India is - but everyone needs to learn first:
-- that no ideology can survive in isolation,
-- that no ideology can flourish in autocratic domination,
-- that no ideology can propagate itself further if it refuses to engage into healthy dialogue with other ideologies.
Be it the rightist, be it the leftist, or be it the centrist!
No one knew Kanhaiya Kumar outside the JNU precincts before February 9, 2016 and 'Kanhaiya Kumar of today' can only be relevant to the nation if he remains 'a Kanhaiya Kumar' who is a puritan student of an ideology and not 'a Kanhaiya Kumar' who is a mere tool in the hands of the left-wing politicians in the country who are living the last leg of their political life.
And it is unfortunate - because a democracy needs a constellation of differing ideologies and a healthy discourse among them!
Leftism is a logical social-political ideology that would always remain relevant. Left-wing politics has shaped and reshaped many pockets of the world but if it is dying in almost every part of the world today, including in China, it is for its supporters to think why it has come to this. Simply, it didn't move ahead with times and it didn't find resolute followers who were puritan in their hearts.
Shouting at BJP or criticising Narendra Modi or sarcastically delivering views and slogans or brazenly disregarding other ideologies will only caricaturize Kanhaiya Kumar and anyone else who has got into the nation's conscience after the alleged anti-India incident of JNU on February 9 - something that has happened in this whole JNU drama - and something that has intensified after Kanhaiya Kumar was released on bail.
Yes, whatever the administration and police did at JNU was totally unacceptable. There are valid reports of false allegations and doctored videos on which the police based its investigation. We all know the case will never stand in the court. The JNU folks should respect the public sentiment at large that stood with them, that came out in their support, considering that some students were wrongly and harshly targeted, even if they were not on the same page as the ideology of these students was.
That is the discourse India needs - and JNU needs - and Kanhaiya Kumar needs.
Yes, we need leaders. Good leaders are always needed but one needs to qualify for that. The first night Kanhaiya Kumar addressed a huge gathering in JNU can be seen as a natural reaction to the injustice meted out to him. But after that, it has stated sounding hollow - his 'ideological' repetitions (without reverberations now) - a protest or the other in JNU every other day - disregarding everything else in India in the name of 'Brahmanism' or 'Manuwad' - and using 'complex, tough, pregnant words' as Kanhaiya Kumar said - words that sound more like rants now.
It is for Kanhaiya Kumar, the student, to ponder over why the left-wing politics is dying in India. If he starts thinking and acting on it as a left-wing politician of the day in India, he is bound to fail. He will be remembered as nothing more than a political caricature then.
-- that no ideology can survive in isolation,
-- that no ideology can flourish in autocratic domination,
-- that no ideology can propagate itself further if it refuses to engage into healthy dialogue with other ideologies.
Be it the rightist, be it the leftist, or be it the centrist!
No one knew Kanhaiya Kumar outside the JNU precincts before February 9, 2016 and 'Kanhaiya Kumar of today' can only be relevant to the nation if he remains 'a Kanhaiya Kumar' who is a puritan student of an ideology and not 'a Kanhaiya Kumar' who is a mere tool in the hands of the left-wing politicians in the country who are living the last leg of their political life.
And it is unfortunate - because a democracy needs a constellation of differing ideologies and a healthy discourse among them!
Leftism is a logical social-political ideology that would always remain relevant. Left-wing politics has shaped and reshaped many pockets of the world but if it is dying in almost every part of the world today, including in China, it is for its supporters to think why it has come to this. Simply, it didn't move ahead with times and it didn't find resolute followers who were puritan in their hearts.
Shouting at BJP or criticising Narendra Modi or sarcastically delivering views and slogans or brazenly disregarding other ideologies will only caricaturize Kanhaiya Kumar and anyone else who has got into the nation's conscience after the alleged anti-India incident of JNU on February 9 - something that has happened in this whole JNU drama - and something that has intensified after Kanhaiya Kumar was released on bail.
Yes, whatever the administration and police did at JNU was totally unacceptable. There are valid reports of false allegations and doctored videos on which the police based its investigation. We all know the case will never stand in the court. The JNU folks should respect the public sentiment at large that stood with them, that came out in their support, considering that some students were wrongly and harshly targeted, even if they were not on the same page as the ideology of these students was.
That is the discourse India needs - and JNU needs - and Kanhaiya Kumar needs.
Yes, we need leaders. Good leaders are always needed but one needs to qualify for that. The first night Kanhaiya Kumar addressed a huge gathering in JNU can be seen as a natural reaction to the injustice meted out to him. But after that, it has stated sounding hollow - his 'ideological' repetitions (without reverberations now) - a protest or the other in JNU every other day - disregarding everything else in India in the name of 'Brahmanism' or 'Manuwad' - and using 'complex, tough, pregnant words' as Kanhaiya Kumar said - words that sound more like rants now.
It is for Kanhaiya Kumar, the student, to ponder over why the left-wing politics is dying in India. If he starts thinking and acting on it as a left-wing politician of the day in India, he is bound to fail. He will be remembered as nothing more than a political caricature then.
©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/
