I belong to a generation which struggled for azadi. We also witnessed the dawn of azadi. The recent unfortunate incidents at Jawaharlal Nehru University took me back to my student days at Patna University from 1939 to 1943. Our college fee was only Rs 8 per month. We had fans in college, but not in the hostel. Research required hours of work in the library after collecting references from professors. There are now several universities in Bihar with all modern facilities, but at that time Patna University was the only university in Bihar. The standard of education we received was much superior to what is now seen in Bihar.
During my student days, the world was in turmoil. Second World War was raging. The British suffered reverses in the early years of the war and we rejoiced at their discomfiture. We were thrilled when the impregnable British fortress at Singapore fell. Winston Churchill opposed Independence for India tooth and nail. He called the Mahatma “half-naked fakir”. We used to call him “Bulldog”.
There was much political turmoil during my days at the university with Gandhiji’s independence movements, Muslim League’s demand for Pakistan and the Communists oscillating between imperial and people’s world war. Yet, there was no agitation or political meetings inside our temple of learning. Its sanctity was scrupulously preserved. During the Quit India Movement, I was part of a student procession on August 10, 1942, which was fired upon by British troops. Seven students were killed. All hostels were closed and we had to go to our homes. Since railway lines were uprooted, a few hundred students trekked to their homes. I walked for three weeks covering 300 km to Purnia in north Bihar where my father was posted. Our college reopened after three months, when things became normal.
JNU is a leading university in the country, with high standards of scholarship and large number of foreign students. The university has always had Left leanings, but now opposing groups are getting violent and old values have vanished.
In our time, Oxford and Cambridge were considered the Mecca of higher education. In 1970, Indira Gandhi established JNU in the memory of her father to provide Oxbridge-type subsidised education for students from all over the country.
The intellectuals at JNU maintain that Kashmir is not an integral part of India. People of Kashmir on our side of the Line of Control have the right to secede, but they are silent about Pakistan and China Occupied Kashmir. Afzal Guru, who attacked the temple of our democracy in 2001, is hailed as a hero in JNU along with Maqbool Bhat, co-founder of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front, who was hanged in 1984. In 2010, the Maoists killed 75 Central Reserve Police Force personnel in Dantewada. A function was held at JNU to celebrate this. One wonders if any university in the US will hold a function in memory of Osama bin Laden and protest against his sea funeral instead of being given an Islamic burial.
Abraham Lincoln, internationally hailed as a great democrat, fought the American Civil War for four years, denying the southern states their legal right to secede. In the process, Americans suffered more casualties than their total combined casualties in the two world wars, in Korea and in Vietnam. Our JNU intellectuals uphold the right of Kashmiri separatists to secede when our Constitution, drafted by B.R. Ambedkar, does not allow this. Separatists’ feelings and support for terrorists are confined primarily to Kashmiri-speaking Sunni Muslims living in barely 10 per cent of the land space on our side of the LoC. The rest of the people in the remaining land space are not separatists.
On February 9, 2016, a function was held to eulogise Maqbool Bhat and Afzal Guru. Slogans were raised, like Kashmir ki azadi tak jung chalegi, Bharat ki barbadi tak jung chalegi. Kanhaiya Kumar was apprehended by the police and put in prison. My sympathy was for him as I felt that his arrest was not necessary. Perhaps, I was parochial as he comes from Begusarai, close to my mother’s village home. The people of this region gave us free chura dahi during our long trek in 1942.
After Mr Kumar got bail, he got a hero’s welcome at JNU. He addressed a large gathering in the campus. He made a thundering, emotional speech with repeated Lal Salaams. His masterly oratory swayed his audience, including listeners on the TV and became the talk of the media for long. I heard his speech on TV and was impressed by his oratory and style, but not with the substance of his speech. He cleverly ridiculed the highest in the government with much pun and humour.
The government’s response was that he was at liberty to do so but should not indulge in anti-national diatribe. Intellectuals are splitting hair between rajdrohi and deshdrohi. They justify everything under the sun in the name of freedom of speech. Overnight Mr Kumar has become a hero admired by Opposition parties for his ability to sway his audience and potential to garner votes. He has been meeting the top leaders of Opposition parties craving to interact with him. I wonder if he appreciates that he has more azadi in India than his counterparts had in his Communist paradise at Tiananmen Square in China.
Mr Kumar has also been talking of “Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan”, but has been underplaying the former. There was not a word of sympathy or reference from him for Siachen brave hearts, like Hanumanthappa Koppad, who was dying in hospital while he was being lionised at JNU. He made a bizarre statement at the International Women’s Day, asserting that the Indian Army was committing widespread rapes in Kashmir. There are more rapes being committed in Delhi every day than the Army even in one year and the guilty given deterrent punishment. He is obviously not aware that the Indian Army’s record on human rights is far superior to that of the Pakistan Army in erstwhile east Pakistan and Balochistan, or Chinese Army in Tibet or the US Army in Vietnam and Iraq.
Mr Kumar appears all set for a career in politics. One senior leader has compared him with Shaheed Bhagat Singh when there is nothing whatsoever common between them. That leader dare not compare him with B.R. Ambedkar as that may arouse dalit ire and result in loss of votes. It remains to be seen whether Mr Kumar is a bubble that may soon burst or if he will carve a niche for himself in national politics. The creed of Lal Salaam has got marginalised not only internationally, but also in the Communist strongholds in West Bengal and Kerala. Notwithstanding this, Mr Kumar has all the azadi to pursue his agenda.
