Free Speech And JNU's Kanhaiya Kumar

I don't have to agree or disagree with anything Kanhaiya Kumar said. He has a right to free speech. I am perplexed he was arrested. If the BJP keeps taking steps like this, regardless of the economic performance, it might lose in 2019. This is the first time I have felt that way.

The BJP/RSS is a large tent. But this arrest is official action. The government is responsible. This is a major self goal.

Testing the outer bounds of free speech is true patriotism in the largest democracy. Nobody is more patriotic than an Indian who relishes and practices and preaches and celebrates free speech. No free speech, no India.

What is ABVP, by the way? Pahli baar naam sun rahe hain.



An ominous operetta
The alarming, exponential reach of the ‘anti-national’ can find you out in the most unexpected places.

The design is pretty obvious. A flexible combination of street violence (the ABVP, Bajrang Dal, etc), certain provisions of the penal code (Sections 153, 295, etc), and a compliant police administration, is deployed in order to silence all expression of dissent, and to destroy the institutional locations where critical ideas may be aired — and maybe even shouted. Between easily hurt “sentiments” and the ever-present threat of public disorder, which can be produced on demand, and the ease with which all manifestations even of scepticism, let alone dissent, are being dubbed “anti-national” — still, was hanging Afzal Guru in order to satisfy the justifiably outraged collective consciousness really right, your honour? — the brief pre-election “debate” about imminent fascism appears, well, naïve. Somewhat surprisingly, the semi-literate but still honourable human resource development minister — how “semi-” is a matter of some uncertainty — has even yoked her Saraswati to the cause of her “nationalism”. (Mine is still playing the veena.) But perhaps it is time to reframe K.C. Bhattacharya’s famous question: “Is there an Indian way of fascism?” ....... It is time that the home ministry published a list of all the things that must not be said, or seen — or, apparently, even heard, like “anti-national” slogans. The most sacred is, of course, the sacred cow. But almost nearly as sacred is Prime Minister Narendra Modi — because, one gathers, that being critical of him was the “offence” of the boys of the Periyar Study Circle at IIT Madras. Rohith Vemula’s “offence” has been rather obscured by the pious platitudes prompted by his suicide, but it must have been pretty dire for a Union minister to have declared him “anti-national” and hounded him, via the compliant administration, to his heart-breaking end. ........ The alarming and exponential reach of the “anti-national” can find you out in the most unexpected places. ....... We can’t all only be doing “Saraswati Vandana” all the time — the goddess demands other, sterner forms of worship too: At the very least, a certain minimal commitment to ideas, rather than the pathological fear of ideas manifested by the “nationalists”.

Watch JNU Student Union VP Make A Powerful Speech Against The Arrest Of Their President

Posted by Prashant Jha on Monday, February 15, 2016

JNU row: BJP MLA caught on camera assaulting person; justifies it

BJP MLA O.P. Sharma who was at the Delhi's Patiala House Court on Monday to show his support to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley who had a court hearing in a defamation case. After Jaitley left the court, Sharma and his supporters took to violence, along with lawyers who launched a blatant attack on JNU students, teachers and journalists...... Sharma while talking to a TV channel justified assaulting a person, saying there is nothing wrong in “even killing those who raise pro-Pakistan slogans.” ...... On Monday, lawyers turned violent during the hearing of a bail plea of Kanhaiya Kumar, JNU students union president. Lawyers shouting anti-JNU slogans got into the fight with students, teachers and mediapersons present there...... According to the reports, police has been accused of inaction as lawyers went on a rampage.

‘Defending Bharat Mata’, With Kicks and Punches

The Patiala House court complex was the scene of chaos and violence Monday when a group of lawyers and BJP activists – including one party legislator – attacked and manhandled students and teachers from Jawaharlal Nehru University who had gathered to show solidarity with arrested student union president Kanhaiya Kumar. Even journalists were not spared, with at least five of them sustaining injuries after being set upon by right-wing activists. ....... The charge of being “anti-national” was flung inside and outside the courts at all those who had come from JNU.

In the court room itself, a group of 40 lawyers accompanied by the police tried evicting 10 JNU teachers from the premises, badly beating one academic.

Outside, the lead was taken by BJP MLA from Delhi OP Sharma. Captured on camera assaulting Ameeque Jamai, a leader of the Communist Party of India, he not only justified his action but said he was even prepared to murder someone if he thought they were pro-Pakistani : “If you ask me, there is nothing wrong in beating up or even killing someone shouting slogans in favour of Pakistan,” he said. ......

Asked by Zakka Jacob on CNN-IBN on the 9 pm news on Monday night whether he approved of Sharma saying it was alright to kill someone shouting pro-Pakistan slogans, Sudhanshu Trivedi, national spokesperson of the BJP said he did.

....... Inside the court, Kanhaiya Kumar, who is facing charges of sedition, had his judicial custody extended till February 17. Though Kumar, who is a member of the All India Student Federation – the student wing of the CPI – has flatly denied the police charges of sedition, Delhi Police Commissioner B.S. Bassi claimed there was “irrefutable proof” against him. So far, however, in all the video “evidence” circulating on television and social media, no footage of Kumar shouting “seditious” or “anti-national slogans” has emerged. ......... Legal experts say that

the Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that the charge of sedition cannot apply to mere words

and that an accused person has to have sought to instigate violence in order for his speech to be criminalised. ....... “A group of these people in lawyers garb came into the court room shouting ‘Bharat mata ki jai’. They asked us to leave, and when we questioned this they caught hold of one of our male colleagues, Rohit, and slapped him”, Neera Kongari, professor of Japanese studies told The Wire. Ayesha Kidwai, professor of linguistics, added that several of the female professors present including her, Janaki Nair and Chitra Harshvardhan were molested and manhandled by these lawyers. All this time, police were present but did not take any action, and the professors had to specially request a police escort till the exit. The professors are exploring all legal options available to them. .........

But Kidwai’s main fear was what would happen to Kanhaiya once he entered the room, as all the exits were blocked by BJP lawyers. Since he was their prime target, she was afraid he would receive much harsher treatment.

........ Students and media persons also received the same violent treatment at the hands of the protesting lawyers. Varun Chauhan, a close friend of Kumar’s, said he and his friends were called “Pakistanis”, and when they did not respond they were hit and pushed out of the court room. The All India Students’ Federation (AISF) general secretary Biswajit was also badly beaten, and his clothes were torn. “Look at what they are doing”, he told The Wire. “And they can still call Kanhaiya a terrorist?” .....

While the police told the journalists to leave in order to avoid getting hurt, they did not do anything to stop the lawyers and BJP members.

....... Rahila, a JNU student and friend of Kanhaiya’s who had also been pushed out of the court room, expressed her outrage at what was happening. “I am ashamed that these are the people who are supposed to uphold our constitution. They behave like this,

that too in a public court room

, yet you call JNU students anti-national? And the police are only bystanders, not intervening on our behalf. The entire country should be ashamed”. ....... More than 40 universities from all over the country have now expressed their support and solidarity with JNUSU and JNUTA. Public universities in Karnataka, Osmania University in Hyderabad and Calcutta University have planning action including strikes and public meetings to show their support. ....... In spite of the widespread support they have received from political, cultural and academic groups, the persecution and branding of JNU students continues. A website has created profiles of JNU students who are “anti-national”, in order to “know them and expose them”. In addition to names, the website also has links to their Facebook profiles, exposing these students to online threats and harassment.