It would strike anyone as perverse that an inquiry committee set up by the authorities of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) should recommend rustication in the case of the five students, including the charismatic student union president Kanhaiya Kumar, who was released on interim bail recently, and also Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya — whose bail plea is expected to be heard today — who have been charged with “sedition”.
It is now vice-chancellor Jagdesh Kumar’s call what to do with the absurd recommendation, but it is evident that those who have advanced the rustication proposal appear cut off from reality. If the rustication was ordered for holding a meeting circumventing the university’s directives, then it is way out of proportion to the alleged infringement. On the other hand, if the proposed move is meant as a punishment for raising “anti-national” slogans, then the V-C must consider that the matter is before a court of law and the university must not proceed on the assumption that the students in question will be held guilty.
In any case, so much discussion and debate has taken place in the country on the issue of the colonial-era law of sedition, and the appropriateness of its continuance on the statute book, that the top-shots of the university will be deemed guilty of close-mindedness if they ruined the career of the meritorious students.
JNU has two distinguishing features. One, it has made a name for itself internationally for promoting scholarship of a high order, and this is because free discussion is encouraged, without which the production of knowledge is impossible. Two, a majority of students are from a disadvantaged background and they have shown that handicaps can be successfully overcome if the environment is favourable.
The V-C is new to his job. His actions must not threaten the ecosystem of a famous university. Dr Kumar must be under considerable pressure to condemn the students and punish them. Observations of Union Cabinet ministers when the JNU crisis broke just over a month ago, and more recently of the RSS brass that “anti-national” thinking must be rooted out of our universities and only “nationalistic education” (whatever that means) must be imparted, place the V-C on trial. Will he stand up to be counted as a genuine educationist, or will he prefer to be a servitor of the state? Dr Kumar must consider the fact that videos to establish the students’ guilt were shown to be doctored.
