Modi must engage with students to quell campus dissent
Sooner or later, the proverbial storm in a teacup following the unsavoury events of February 9 and the following days at Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University will blow over. It is likely that the student leaders arrested and charged with sedition will be released on bail. Or, the courts will reject the charges and drop the cases.
If the charges are indeed dropped or quashed after judicial scrutiny, questions will no doubt be raised over the quality of investigation by Delhi Police. A fresh round of acrimonious recrimination will follow. But that too shall pass.
Activism
There will be no let up in belligerent student activism, either at JNU or other campuses, fuelled by the venal politics of identity and class war and propelled by the cynicism of teachers who place ideology over academics. In brief, little or nothing would have changed for the better. Whether it will change for the worse is something that can only be speculated upon. We can leave that to the commentariat.
Three facts that have emerged from the messy affair at the Hyderabad Central University and the unedifying spectacle of tax-funded students and teachers preaching secessionism and war on the Indian state are indisputable. They form part of the larger debate that never found space in the hysterical television studio discussions which were individual-centric and not about institutions.
First, there is rising ferment across campuses. This is not the usual anti-establishment posturing that the young and excitable are given to. Whether the slowly, but steadily, spreading bushfire is symptomatic of the insecurities of our uncertain times or frustration on account of soaring aspirations unmet by adequate government response is for sociologists and educators to deliberate.
Second, the glaring absence of robust political engagement that transcends party loyalty. Student unions or associations backed by political parties are not the desirable instrument or vehicle for such engagement. Campus politics divides. Political engagement should seek to unite students in a loose coalition of youth, creating a big tent that accommodates all and smoothens sharp, jagged edges of ideology.
Third, what was till now a commonly-held idea of nationalism, something sacred and inviolate across the political spectrum (barring the Stalinist Left and Maoist ultra-Left), is under stress. The stress will only increase in coming days; what are hairline fractures at the moment are bound to transmogrify into yawning cracks with deep crevices. Nowhere is this more evident than on campuses.
It is incumbent upon the Centre and the state governments to acknowledge that ferment is happening. Denial is not an option unless responsible political parties are willing to risk long-term damage for short-term gains. That's a dangerous game. The acknowledgement must begin with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. As India's "pradhan sevak", he has to set the trend. The "sab", or all, in "Sabka Saath" also includes the youth he keeps talking about and it is not an abstraction or imagined identity. It exists on campuses.
It is only after campus ferment is acknowledged can there be a meaningful political intervention and engagement. Once again, it is for Modi to show the way. Here are a few things he can do and encourage chief ministers to do. Modi can visit campuses of the central universities, spend a weekend every month at a campus, share meals with students and have extended Chai pe Charcha.
Yes, there will be dissenting views, there will even be shows of hostility. But Modi is not known to have flinched from wading into the masses in the past. In moving back in time, he can play a significant role in helping students move forward.
The "azadi" they seek can be given by him through patient hearing and dialogue.
Engagement
He can kick off this engagement by spending his Holi this year not in Kashmir or Northeast, or meeting children and greeting politicians at 7, Race Course Road, but with students at Visva-Bharati. He will get to experience a slice of the amazing India he tirelessly talks of and promotes in Mann ki Baat.
No, Mr Modi, visiting universities for convocations does not count. If anything, those choreographed visits are as irrelevant as the speeches made from the rostrum. Even media does not pay heed to them. Try the other route - talk to the students like you once spoke to them at Shri Ram College of Commerce. That evening you had sealed your 2014 victory.
Nationalism
True, you won't have the time for 46 central universities. Why not despatch your articulate and young ministers for this task? Why not take along young leaders from other parties not viscerally hostile to the BJP? Baijayant Panda's name comes to mind. There are many others. Be the leader you are, communicate like only you can. Fight the bushfire from the front.
And, now a few thoughts on nationalism that is being debated and talked about. "Nation First" is no doubt a stirring slogan, but do we, the people, and the government live up to its lofty ideals? The aspirational class is not, truth be told, restrained by either nation or nationalism.
Those waving the tricolour and swearing allegiance to Bharat Mata secretly dream of H1B visas. Or wish their children to go abroad. When the PM calls on the world to hire their workforce from India, he diminishes the nobility of "India First".
When he spends quality time with foreign entrepreneurs and innovators and does not bother to take Indians at home on board, or makes a passing reference to them in his fireside chats, he redraws the contours of national pride. A studio hand wistfully remarked while Modi was addressing an NRI gathering in US, "When will our turn come?"
Invoking Gandhi or Patel does not kindle national fervour. India has changed and is changing. Sub-nationalism was never dealt with, only papered over. That paper has now turned brittle and is fraying at the edges, as is the Indian identity.
When you legitimise, politically, socially and culturally, the notion of a 'global citizen', you also delegitimise the idea of a nationalist Indian. Ponder over that.
(Courtesy of Mail Today.)