[Reader-list] JNU: This Time The RSS/BJP Has Bitten Off More Than it Can Chew

[Siddharth]

PLEASE DO NOT CROSS POST

On Tue, Feb 16, 2016 at 6:49 PM, Samvit <samvitr at gmail.com> wrote:

> On JNU protest...
>
>
> One day in Soviet Russia, a parrot flies over a village squawking loudly:
> 'The Soviet Union is shit! Death to the Communist Party!'. The KGB is
> rapidly informed, and they start to investigate who owns a parrot in the
> area. They find out that there is only one parrot owner in the area, so
> they go and knock on his door.
>
> KGB agents: Hi, do you own a parrot? Man: Yes I do. KGB agents: Could we
> see it? Man: Certainly, please come in.
>
> They walk in and follow the man to the kitchen. He takes his parrot out of
> the freezer. The parrot is shivering but still alive.
>
> The startled KGB agents ask: Parrot, what are your views on communism and
> the Soviet Union? The parrot answers: Long live the Soviet Union, long live
> the Communist Party!
>
> The KGB agents do not quite know what to make of the fact that the man kept
> the parrot in the freezer, but since it says nothing controversial they
> decide to leave it at that.
>
> Once they're gone, the man turns to his parrot and says: One day in Siberia
> and you have changed your tune Comrade.....!
>
> Let us put our parrots in the glacier!
>
> On Tue, Feb 16, 2016 at 4:38 PM, anupam chakravartty <c.anupam at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Tax payers' money has been utilized to raise critical questions. I am
> very
> > happy that any tax i pay is going to shape new politics and nurturing
> > alternative viewpoints as opposed to tax sops given to some corporate
> > crooks who loot this country. Proud of you JNU, keep dissenting and bring
> > them down to their knees.
> >
> >
> >
> > On Tue, Feb 16, 2016 at 4:11 PM, Samvit <samvitr at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> Only time will decide that. But for now we know we have anti nationals
> >> living off tax payer's money.
> >>
> >> On Tue, Feb 16, 2016 at 3:55 PM, Asit Das <asit1917 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> > JNU: This Time The RSS/BJP Has Bitten Off More Than it Can Chew
> >> > SEEMA MUSTAFA
> >> >
> >> > Monday, February 15,2016
> >> >
> >> > NEW DELHI: Delhi police stood by and watched as a handful of BJP
> >> > lawyers attacked all those who had gathered at the Patiala courts for
> >> > the hearing of the case slapped against JNUSU President Kanhaiya
> >> > Kumar. The lawyers---not more than 10 or 12---took the law into their
> >> > own hands, assaulted the JNU faculty and students and then set about
> >> > beating the reporters, snatching away their mobile phones (cameras are
> >> > not allowed inside) to prevent them from filming the attack, tore
> >> > their shirts and shouted at all to get out, “go to Pakistan.”
> >> >
> >> > Journalists said this was completely unprecedented, the ferocity of
> >> > the attack left them completely shaken, while the large contingent of
> >> > police stood by as silent bystanders making no effort to intervene. A
> >> > young TV journalist said that when she tried to ask the cops to
> >> > intervene they asked her to leave the court, as they could do nothing
> >> > to control the situation. All others confirmed this, with the initial
> >> > un-doctored reports from the ground establishing the presence of the
> >> > BJP supporting lawyers, the assault with the violence continuing for a
> >> > while with a “anti nationals go to Pakistan” slogans and warnings,
> >> > while the police watched. The lawyers took control of the courtroom,
> >> > and the premises.
> >> >
> >> > The day started with what many construed as a green signal from BJP
> >> > president Amit Shah who clubbed the JNU faculty and students under the
> >> > “anti national” brand in a fiery blog targeting Congress vice
> >> > president Rahul Gandhi. Shah made it clear through the blog that the
> >> > party was pushing the nationalist versus anti-national agenda, with
> >> > JNU being used deliberately as the fulcrum to accelerate the BJP/RSS
> >> > campaign and raise the decibels to strident levels.
> >> >
> >> > The five questions from the blog reported by NDTV and others as well
> >> > centre around :
> >> >
> >> > 1.Has Rahul Gandhi lent his voice to separatists in the country? Does
> >> > he want another Partition?"
> >> >
> >> > 2. "The kind of statements that Rahul Gandhi and his party colleagues
> >> > have delivered at the campus proves that there is no place for
> >> > national interest in their thinking."
> >> >
> >> > 3. "Rahul Gandhi hobnobbing with anti-national elements at JNU. Is
> >> > this his definition of nationalism?"
> >> >
> >> > 4. "I ask Rahul Gandhi, was 1975 (Emergency) a demonstration of
> >> > Congress commitment to democracy? Was Mrs.(Indira) Gandhi not
> >> > Hitler-like?"
> >> >
> >> > And then he goes on to state that "In the frustration of defeat, Rahul
> >> > Gandhi is unable to tell the difference between anti-national and
> >> > national interest."
> >> >
> >> > The BJP/RSS kidgloves are off with the nationalism debate being made
> >> > to hit Delhi through the premier education institute in a bid to draw
> >> > the lines, and polarise opinion. The rush reflects increasing
> >> > desperation on part of the government, as the protests sharpen in the
> >> > University and across the country with the Parliament session
> >> > beginning next week set to be now submerged under Opposition anger.
> >> >
> >> > The questions, given the severity of the anti-reaction from students
> >> > particularly, thus arise:
> >> >
> >> > 1.Why has this government unleashed what is going to become a huge war
> >> > pitting the students of this country against the Hindutva brigade?
> >> >
> >> > 2. Why has this government---through a series of actions in
> >> > campuses---turned the students against it, more so when the youth were
> >> > its biggest supporters at one time. IIT-Madras, FTII, Hyderabad
> >> > Central University, and now Jawaharlal Nehru University have been
> >> > rocked by direct, undemocratic intervention by the Ministry of Human
> >> > Resource Development in action that has virtually united the students
> >> > against the government, and of course the BJP and RSS it represents.
> >> >
> >> > This constituency, in immediate terms, now includes even those
> >> > sections of the corporate media that had been supporting the
> >> > government position on JNU but whose journalists at Patiala House have
> >> > taken a beating. And the first reports from the ground by the young
> >> > reporters speak of unprovoked brutality by the BJP lawyers, collusion
> >> > by the police, and the severity of an attack on all those who were not
> >> > wearing the black and white lawyers dress.
> >> >
> >> > The attack on the earlier universities ---IIT-M, FTII, HCU---was
> >> > spearheaded, at least for the public, by the Ministry of Human
> >> > Resource Development and Minister Smriti Irani. In that all
> >> > intervention was orchestrated by HRD, with the University authorities
> >> > being pressured directly to act against what was seen as dissent by
> >> > groups in these educational institutions. In the Hyderabad Central
> >> > University little would have been noticed had Rohith Vemula not
> >> > committed suicide. And the persecution of five Dalit scholars leading
> >> > the Ambedkar students Association---the one point of dissent and
> >> > debate in HCU---would have gone unreported.
> >> >
> >> > For JNU, HRD was reinforced by the Union Home MInistry as clearly
> >> > there has been a conscious decision to up the scale. The very fact
> >> > that the Home Minister was managing the ‘operation’ is an indication
> >> > of the importance attached to it. When the protests grew, a shaky
> >> > Rajnath Singh came on to insist that the students had links with
> >> > terror mastermind Hafiz Saeed. He subsequently had to suffer the
> >> > ignominy of a denial by the Lashkar e Tayaba mentor who said that he
> >> > had not issued any such statement and that a fake account was being
> >> > used to put words in his mouth. Interestingly the Indian Express,
> >> > quoting intelligence sources, carried a detailed report of the fake
> >> > account actually being fake.
> >> >
> >> > Along with this there has been a concerted effort to create and push
> >> > the stereotype of the “JNU student”. A musical troupe was detained by
> >> > the police while on way to attend a Urdu festival currently on in the
> >> > capital, and released later after being told by the cops that they
> >> > appeared to be “JNU types.” And judging from their appearance, clearly
> >> > the ‘type’ dresses in kurtas and jeans, sports beards, and thereby
> >> > becomes the ‘dissenter’ that now constitutes the new Wanted list of
> >> > the Delhi Police!
> >> >
> >> > There is a visible strategy by the Hindutva brigade to crush dissent
> >> > in educational institutions. The opposition to this has been factored
> >> > in, at least to some extent, by the Nagpur strategists to achieve the
> >> > goal of ensuring that the new generation of students enter campuses
> >> > with possible reprisal for dissent in mind. And are thus more pliable
> >> > and thereby more controllable. The effort is also to win
> >> > over---through the threat of violence if not debate---the fence
> >> > sitters by ensuring that they do not cross over to the dissent and
> >> > debate side, but are “convinced” with the display of power and the
> >> > brand of nationalism JNU has always been a pet peeve of the Hindutva
> >> > brigade, following its inability to penetrate the University despite
> >> > all out effort. This has clearly been a sore point that BJP leaders
> >> > have never really bothered to disguise.
> >> >
> >> > After HCU and the protests across the student community, the BJP/RSS
> >> > was expected to change course. At least momentarily. That this has not
> >> > happened, but that the government has moved from Hyderabad to hit a
> >> > major central university like JNU is a clear signal of a decision to
> >> > clear campuses of ‘dissenters’ and kill debate and freedom of
> >> > expression, so close to the campuses of Universities known for
> >> > academic excellence.
> >> >
> >> > Will this intimidation work? Momentarily, but not for long as swathes
> >> > of Indians are being alienated. Students, teachers, Dalits, Women,
> >> > Scientists, Writers ---certainly not from just the Left or the
> >> > Congress but largely independent----have come together to form a major
> >> > resistance to the efforts to bludgeon the democratic rights made
> >> > available to the people through the Constitution of India.
> >> >
> >> > The reasons why JNU could prove to be the Sangh’s Waterloo:
> >> >
> >> > 1. It is recognised the world over as an educational institute of
> >> > excellence and has a faculty and students used to high standards of
> >> > freedom; its students are teaching in Universities across the world
> >> > and the adverse response to the current developments are very visible
> >> > already on the social media and in international media reports.
> >> >
> >> > 2. The blowback will be felt in the very states that the BJP is keen
> >> > to control---Uttar Pradesh and Bihar---from where most of the students
> >> > of JNU are drawn. A majority are from the backward and scheduled
> >> > castes, again the constituency that the BJP had earlier claimed to be
> >> > wooing but seems to be giving up on now.
> >> >
> >> > 3. The violent response by the state to a meeting inside JNU has
> >> > stunned even those who had been critical of its politics. This is
> >> > visible again from columns, articles and responses with the government
> >> > fast acquiring the reputation of being anti-student. The unrest
> >> > created by the government in the above named campuses is fast
> >> > coalescing and it is highly unlikely that the strong arm tactics will
> >> > subdue the youth of this country to a point where opposition is
> >> > stifled into asset.
> >> >
> >> > 4. The government has run into trouble---because of a series of
> >> > omissions and commissions ---with ex-servicemen, kisans, women,
> >> > Dalits, minorities as clear disaffected constituencies. This
> >> > constitutes a large section of the Indian population of which sections
> >> > had supported the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections.
> >> >
> >> > 5. JNU will reverberate in the budget session of Parliament. The
> >> > government will have no alternative to climb down from the violence it
> >> > has escalated. Unless it moves to impose Emergency and crush all
> >> > dissent within---that too temporarily as in 2016 the world is far more
> >> > connected than it was in 1975.
> >> >
> >> > Interestingly, the lawyers at Patiala court have managed to alienate
> >> > the one constituency that had been supporting the BJP and the
> >> > government on the JNU issue till early this morning: the media.
> >> > Journalists representing television channels and the print media were
> >> > threatened, assaulted and in some cases severely beaten. Their mobile
> >> > phones were snatched and as one of them said, “we were given a taste
> >> > of brutal medicine.” TV journalists were interviewed by their own
> >> > channels with a particularly shaken NDTV reporter in trembling voice
> >> > narrating the sequence of events that together spelt a concerted
> >> > effort to terrorise all inside the courtroom. At least one news
> >> > channel that uses the word anti-national as freely at times as the BJP
> >> > brigade, was also on the receiving end with its reporter at the spot
> >> > intimidated by the BJP lawyers, as well as by the police that was
> >> > present in large numbers but refusing to take protect those who were
> >> > being openly assaulted.
> >> > _________________________________________
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> >
> >
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