Protesting peacefully, even in a group, is an inherent democratic right, but our police clearly believes otherwise. This was evident on Monday when a large body of JNU students, marching peacefully to Parliament on the opening day of its Winter Session to present their demands — which have been making national news lately — were thrashed by the police. What does it say about the quality of the direction given to them? Surprisingly, in Parliament, no party raised the matter.
JNU is India’s foremost university in terms of the quality of its knowledge production. Its research is acknowledged internationally. This year’s Economics Nobel has gone to a JNU alumnus, who in his time on the campus was once sent to Tihar Jail (along with others) for protesting. Not long ago, the Cabinet Secretary, foreign secretary, and the chiefs of the country’s internal and external intelligence agencies, were former JNU students. The present finance minister and the foreign minister also went to JNU, besides the leader of one of the two Communist parties in Parliament.
JNU is also likely to be the only university in the country where the library overflows with students even after midnight, and there is waiting. In sum, as a centre of learning, this university is worth nurturing on the lines on which it has grown. Ideally, higher education policy in the country should be aimed on similar lines instead of letting a moribund body like UGC bureaucratically dictate the form and content of curricula.
JNU’s most attractive feature is a long-standing culture of restless intellectual, political and artistic debate, not street violence, dadagiri, or goonda-style politics common on other campuses. Another key feature is the nurturing of personal and intellectual freedoms by teachers and students.
And yet, since 2014, the government and the ruling party have made every effort to malign JNU and dismantle the structures — the rules, regulations, facilities, teaching and research requirements, and eligibility levels for teachers and students — that have sustained it. This is being sought to be done through a vice-chancellor who is widely seen to behave like an unbridled commissar. To inculcate militarist nationalism, a tank was once proposed to be placed on campus.
The family income of the median JNU student is likely to be in the lower middle class or lower, and the student herself is likely to be from a non-English medium school background, and from the remotest rural communities. Here the value systems of the entire world, including the ideologies and grammar of current Indian politics and government, are sought to be closely interrogated. Is this the cause of the BJP establishment’s antipathy towards the very idea of a place like JNU? The protests over hostel rates is the trigger for the massive students’ agitation. The real cause is the severe curtailment of freedoms of every kind, most notably academic.
