Categories: opinion

An open and shut case of sedition in JNU

With JNUSU president Kanahaiya Kumar being arrested by the Delhi police on charges of sedition, many leftist intellectuals, political leaders and journalists have opposed the arrest and condemned the BJP government for doing so. But what has triggered the arrest of the AISF student leader?
On 9 February, JNU witnessed an event that could not have probably taken place on any of the university campuses of the country. A function was held to mark the “martyrdom” of 2001 Parliament attack convict, Afzal Guru, who was convicted by the Supreme Court of India and hanged to death. At the said event, for which recordings and evidence are available, slogans demanding the secession of Kashmir and the destruction of India were openly raised. Naturally, the event snowballed into a major controversy. BJP MP Maheish Girri complained about the event and the police registered an FIR under Sections 124A and 120B of the IPC and arrested the JNUSU president.
Clearly, three issues or questions come to one’s attention immediately.
The left has no moral right to talk of free speech. After all, Lenin had said “all truth is partisan”, which has since then led the leftists to demagogy and false propaganda. JNU comrades have always believed in stuffing their “truths” on all.
One, is it right, morally and legally, to celebrate or commemorate the “martyrdom” of someone found guilty of terrorism by the highest court of the land? By the same logic, it is possible that JNU could see the “birthday” celebrations of known anti-India terrorists Dawood Ibrahim and Hafiz Saeed in the future. Can the state then be a mute spectator and allow the open veneration of such anti-nationals?
Two, the event also witnessed loud and open slogans supporting the secession of Kashmir from India. To be fair, the slogan shouters and rabble rousers demanding Kashmir’s “independence” are not pioneers in this regard. JNU has been open house to Kashmir secessionists in the past too. Can we allow open threats to India’s unity and integrity to go unchallenged right in India’s capital city? Could the Narendra Modi government have been a silent spectator to India’s position becoming precarious in Jammu and Kashmir?
Three, the worst and most dangerous of all was the raising of slogans to the effect that “one would not stop till the destruction of India”. It may have been possible to skirt the incident had the frustrated and disgruntled communists raised slogans of, say, “destruction of RSS or BJP or the BJP-led NDA government” or even their hated bugbear Narendra Modi, but “destroying India” is a very serious matter. In fact, JNU has been a systematic training and breeding ground for the propagation of insidious ideas like that India has done a jugaad of “multinational” entities and “cobbled” up a nation, etc. Clearly then, the most important question is : Could the Home Ministry have kept silent at the open declaration of war against India and its people as the crowds were hell bent on “jang karein gay Bharat ki barbadi tak”?
In a nutshell, the issue is not one of free speech and expression. The issue is can the state sit back and watch silently at threats aiming at the “destruction of India”? And in any case, the left has no moral right to talk of free speech. After all, Lenin had said “all truth is partisan”, which has since then led the leftists to demagogy and false propaganda.
And the JNU comrades have always believed in stuffing their “truths” on all. A recent case in point is when the Marxists objected to the Sanskrit centre in JNU inviting Baba Ramdev for a purely academic programme.
C. RAJASHEKHAR

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