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JNU always had an anti-national character

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Rashmi Das
Rashmi DasFeb 17, 2016 | 20:05

JNU always had an anti-national character

Traditionally, JNU has had a dislike of India. No proselytising missionary in the imperial age could have hated a heathen with such ferocity as the Left intellectual of JNU hates India and her place at the global high table. Thus, the Left on the campus has few pet intellectual targets: First, government of India. Any government, (barring the left front governments in states) is the bad brutal Indian state and a fit case for disaffection.

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Second, India, since it is predominantly Hindu, it has to be painted in pitiable terms. Third, Indian industry, they are crooks and criminals. That's why reforms have to be stalled. Poverty is glorious.

Fourth, there is no such thing as nationalism; it is a jingoistic, almost barbaric state of being. Disunity has to be promoted and the academia gives it magnificient terms: sub-nationalism, self-determination, peoples' movement and the kindred political jargons. The object is clear: Propound theories to destruct India and make them fashionable.

This is a thread of academic behaviour that runs through social sciences, international relations and even the sciences.

All those freedom of expression wallahs, (both students and faculty), who berate and stigmatise the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) on a daily basis, just think back to your past and present conduct. When ABVP swept the JNU Students' Union election in 1996-97, the SFI, AISA, DSU and leftist organizations of all hues, took out retaliatory processions heaping abuses on us and threatened wreckage of the functioning of the Students' Union.

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Was that democratic conduct? That year, when Proffesor Vasant Gedre wanted to invite LK Advani to the campus for the launch of a Spanish grammar book that he had written, the leftist ultras went ballistic with their language of militant gheraos, bandhs and massive disruption. Finally the programme had to be held in JNU City Centre in Connaught Place to avoid a situation of violence on campus. Such is the face of red terror on campus, the "Jala do, Mita do" brigades.

To be an ABVP activist on JNU campus was to suffer the racism of the worst sort. ABVP activists were spat upon, academically victimised, boycotted and jeered at, in hostel messes. We, the ABVP activists, were the Shudras of the university caste system.

But the Shudras have risen. You cannot plot and campaign for dividing and destroying India and then claim immunity in the name of freedom of speech and expression. The seditious meeting and procession that was organised in JNU on February 9, 2016 is fit for the harshest punishment. The arrest of the JNUSU President, Kanhaiya Kumar was most deserving. He knew these insidious anti-India elements were on the campus; instead of alerting the JNU administration, he facilitated these characters.

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The Left student's movement may think that raising slogans pledging India's dismemberment and destruction is as hip as having tequila shots in a rock concert, it is not. It is a serious law and order issue with severe consequences. The university cannot claim autonomy from the processes of law. No Indian, whether individual or institution can.

Last updated: February 17, 2016 | 20:05
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