Arrests at JNU could harm our democracy

The recent JNU-related incident of arresting the students’ union president Kanhaiya Kumar and charging him with sedition is a completely botched affair, made infinitely worse by Union home minister Rajnath Singh’s thoroughly misconceived intervention.

The entire episode casts our democracy in the darkest shades which underlines that it is intolerant of protest, that it suppresses debate and discussion even in the context of a university, and that it is eager to accept only the Hindutva view of nationalism and patriotism.

Without a shred of proof, Mr Singh chose to make the implausible claim on Sunday that the action of a section of the student body — which was protesting the hanging of Afzal Guru, convicted for the attack on Parliament, three years ago — had received support of Lashkar-e-Tayyaba chief Hafiz Sayeed.

This is evidently intended to raise the “nationalist” pitch shortly before Assembly elections in five states and days before the opening of the Winter Session of Parliament when the government is expected to face severe criticism on a range of issues.

The Left parties and the Congress have challenged the home minister to offer proof in Parliament. If he fails to do so, he would be deemed to be highly irresponsible. The most charitable view is that the government is seeking to divert attention from its many failures by taking refuge in patriotism. Mr Kumar was despatched to prison without an inquiry, but recent claims and allegations suggest that a section of the ABVP, the student body of the RSS, acted as agent provocateur, and raised pro-Pakistan slogans at the protest meet for which Mr Kumar has been punished.

The intention was evidently to discredit and penalise ABVP’s opponents in campus politics. The allegation must be thoroughly investigated.Something similar had happened at Hyderabad University last month when dalit students were demonised, leading to the suicide of Rohith Vemula. In the case of both Hyderabad and JNU, a BJP MP acted as trigger by falsely representing non-ABVP student politics as “anti-national” to the Union HRD minister and the upper echelons of the government.

n the JNU case, the HRD minister and the home minister have both come out using language lacking in balance against students and even indulging in a reference to “Mother India”, as Smriti Irani did. JNU teachers and students went on a day-long strike on Monday to demand the release of Mr Kumar.

The demand has found endorsement across the spectrum, except from those linked to the Sangh Parivar. However, the teachers and students would do well not to resort to a prolonged strike. Let teaching and knowledge-production not suffer. The issues raised by them — and by the home minister — point to the dangers of majoritarianism in a democratic society, against which the country must guard itself.