Amit Kushari (IAS Retd)
When I first heard the slogans raised in JNU, Delhi and Jadavpur university, Kolkata I was quite dumbfounded. Were these students Indians at all? I wondered. Were the slogans being raised on the soil of Delhi and Kolkata— or was it a mistake— the incident must have happened in Srinagar or Sopore in Kashmir? Later when I saw the live coverage on an English TV channel I realised that most of the sloganeering students were Kashmiris and the other students were bystanders, mostly from JNU and Jamia Milia, who were cheering their Kashmiri friends. Slogans like, “Bharat ke tukre honge,” “Hum kya chahte hain, Aazadi!”, “Kashmir ki Aazadi aur Bharat ki barbaadi tak jung rahegi, jung rahegi”, are very familiar slogans for me since I lived in Srinagar for almost three and a half decades and I am very familiar with the Kashmiri psyche. These slogans may be very shocking for those Indians who have never lived in Kashmir and so severe was the shock that the Government of India went into immediate action, indirectly bringing the Kashmir issue in the limelight, although they would never have liked to do it. The Kashmiri separatists and their sympathisers in Pakistan must be overjoyed.
I noticed that the liberal students and their teachers never raised slogans in favour of the Kashmiri Pandits who had been hounded out of the Kashmir valley by Kashmiri militants. Didn’t they deserve any sympathy from the liberal teachers and students of JNU and Jadavpur? Aren’t the Pandits equal citizens of Kashmir whose human rights were blatantly violated by the Pakistani infiltrators and the Kashmiri freedom fighters? There was not a single word uttered in their support. I still remember when Pandits were mercilessly being driven out of their homes and their women were being systematically targeted, loud speakers from mosques would blare slogans like,” Kafiron, Zaalimon, hamara Kashmir chhod do.” What were the students of JNU and Jadavpur doing at that time? Are they so uninformed about realities? Didn’t their teachers teach them to be impartial? Or were they intentionally and selectively blind?
What is a bit surprising is how the non Kashmiri students could cheer someone calling for the dismemberment of their own motherland. I also noticed that the Hindi media was more critical of these students compared to the English media( Times group being an exception). The English media also condemned the behaviour of these students but in a more subdued note. Those working for the Hindi media have mostly studied in Hindi medium schools where they got an intensive training in Indian literature, ancient Indian epics and mythology, and they grew up to be ‘desh bhakt’ (patriotic) Indians.
Those who studied in English medium schools studied less of Indian literature and mythology and more of English literature, Roman and Greek mythology. Some of them study subjects like History, Political Science in universities like JNU and Jadavpur. By training they learn to be liberal, open minded and analytical — sometimes going against the normal way of thinking of the country. Our English media is full of such people.
Since they have learnt to look at all national and international issues in a non aligned manner, almost like an outsider, most people in India are puzzled by their utterances. They think that the liberals are bizarre and some times quite unpatriotic. In reality no body is unpatriotic, they also love India as much as we do. Their distinction lies in the fact that they can look at the world through Pakistani or Kashmiri or Naga eyes also in addition to looking through the Indian glasses. The ‘desh bhakt’ brand of Indians will find it difficult to do so.
However, it is absolutely true that those students who raised slogans in favour of Afzal Guru on Indian soil did something extremely tactless. Afzal Guru wanted to kill Indian parliamentarians and was sentenced to death by the Indian Supreme court in a perfectly legal way. Looking through Indian eyes, Afzal Guru was a dangerous criminal and a traitor who was correctly hanged by the Congress led UPA govt. Kashmir is still an integral part of India and anyone who tries to cut off Kashmir from India by violent means commits the heinous crime of sedition and has to pay with his life for such a crime. So looking at todays events, one can say that students of JNU who shouted slogans did something gravely wrong and they may have to face punishments from the Indian state.
(Feedback to the author at 09748635185 or amitkus@hotmail.com)
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