Recent Events

There had been lots of developments in the last fifteen days in various spheres in the country.  First there was an agitation ostensibly against the present administration lead by BJP but turned out to be an event to commemorate the memory of a terrorist who was hanged after a due process of law and also raising anti national slogans by organizing the students.  Second some of the professors crying that the academic freedom is being trampled upon by the administration by the police raiding the campus for arresting the organizers.  The opposition leaders from the VP of the GOP to the tall leaders who were alumni of the university to sit in dharna in support of the students claiming that what they expressed was their Freedom of speech and Freedom of expression as defined in the constitution.  Thirdly there is an agitation going on in a nearby state to the country's capital by a section of the population demanding reservations which is turning violent as the days go by.  Fourthly two young army captains one of whom is a Jat from Haryana and a graduate of the JNU were gunned down in a battle with the terrorist in Kashmir.  News is coming out in drips that the hand of major opposition party is suspected in the agitation in Haryana.  

The agitation by the students of the JNU and its culmination in the arrest of the JNUSU president with the other person in hiding has all the hallmarks of a pot boiler of a Bollywood movie.  The president of the student union is arrested and taken to court and the lawyers assembled there start attacking the students and the journalists in the court premises.  The student who went into hiding comes out in midnight a few days later and claims that he is a person from a minority community and hence the government is after him.  There are reports of a professor of the JNU gave him shelter and kept him safe from the police all these days when the police were searching for him all over the country in a wild goose chase.  Was the event organized with the aim of discrediting the present government and went on shouting slogans of anti national ones or the students were directed to be a facade for some ulterior motives of some powers that be is a moot question which begs some serious answers.  The media's obsession with the news that are against the government or the party in power seems to have gone overboard in this issue with a leading journalist claiming in an article in the Op-Ed page of a leading daily earlier known for its anti establishment track record, that he is an anti national.  Another leading TV anchor writes an open letter to the PM which gets numerous open replies to the anchor pointing out the lacunae in her assumption and argument. 

Some of the professors of the JNU and the politicians from all walks of the political spectrum sans the BJP and its allies, have claimed that the police action is excessive and not warranted;  the students have Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Expression.  Are we living in utopia?  Freedom of speech and Freedom of Expression have to be exercised guardedly so that it does not create an unrest in the country.  As the saying goes, your freedom to swing your arm stops when it nears my nose.  Likewise the FOE or FOS stops when the same hurts the national integrity or unity.  None can claim that was enshrined in the constitution as FOE or FOS.

A section of the population of the state of Haryana who never bothered about reservation all along suddenly woke up and started demanding the same now (in Feb 2016).  The agitation has turned violent and the state is enforcing all sorts of restraints to stop the agitation and arrest the culprits in the violent agitation.  In a state where the agitation is turning violent and virulent the opposition is finding it a rightful place to ward of the cold in the heat of the moment and not bothered to work with the government to nip the same in the bud.  But in Indian polity we never had any opposition working with the government to get the work done for the benefit of the people.   But does it have the blessings of the people in high level in opposition?  It appears so as the opposition is totally silent on the issue with the leading opposition leaders keeping quiet.

Two young captains of the Indian army had lost their life in a gun battle with the terrorists in Kashmir.  One of them is a Jat from Haryana and a graduate of the JNU to boot.  If you look at the history of the NDA you will find that the degrees of the cadets on completion of their training is awarded by the JNU.  This is applicable for all the officer cadets inducted into the training through the 10+2 entry scheme.  Now the agitation in Haryana for reservation of Jats and the anti national slogans from the students of the JNU sounds ironical.  

Are we as  country not politically matured to accept that the other party who is elected by a mandate of the people to govern the country for a period of 5 years?  Are we still in ages of feudal lords where only certain individuals or chiefs and their descendants alone had the right and authority to rule and none else?  Have we not accepted the concept of democracy way back in 1947 and later when we became a republic in 1950?  The leaders of the opposition parties don't have any right to rise as one with the government in safe guarding the integrity and unity of the nation?  It appears so. that the leaders of the opposition seems to fish in troubled waters even at the cost of the integrity of the nation.  The media seems to be doing its bit by going out of the way to make a martyr out of the student leader arrested and to telecast the midnight interview of the student in hiding.  What is the role of the professors and teaching faculty?  Is it not to inculcate a sense of nationhood in the young minds when they teach them to think and analyse?  When you read in the news that some professors also joined the politicos in protesting the action against the students,  a pall of gloom descends on you as your expectation of the teaching faculty of a premier university was very high.  The journalists covering the events of the last fifteen days have very conveniently stashed the martyrdom of the young captains to the inner pages or a small news item on the first page.

It has taken the Lt General who had retired to stress the point that the soldiers are fighting for the flag fluttering high and you people are raising anti national slogans sitting in the comfort of the campuses and offices provided by the ever vigil armed forces. The happenings in the campuses and the extraordinary support to such anti national slogan shouting from the panel of opposition members made the Lt. General cry.  In another university, where also slogans in praise of the hanged terrorist were raised,  there are reports of refusal to fly the national flag  It is not an insult to the flag but to themselves.  

All these point to one thing for sure.  The present opposition including the GOP, Left parties etc, are not able to stomach the situation that the country is being lead on the path of development by an individual who is an anathema to all of them;  who has very courageously and steadfastly keeping to his tracks without getting diverted or derailed. All these attempts of anti national slogan shouting by students in JNU and others,  Jat agitation in Haryana, the politicos of opposition parties supporting the students despite knowing that they are in the wrong etc, are clear pointers there is an agenda behind all these and that is the forthcoming state elections and preventing the BJP and its allies winning back these states, so that the status quo ante can be continued as for the work of the government is concerned like stopping of the GST bill and some of the other key reform bills.  

Patriotism and Free Speech

The social media is abuzz with lots of information on what constitutes patriotism and free speech in the background of the police crackdown on the students of JNU one of the premier universities of the country.  There are also posts and comments of comparison with the way in which the USA is handling these types of actions of the public be it students or general public. Be that as it may this is an attempt to look at the issue from a common man's perspective and leaving the drawing of conclusions to the readers.

The country is surrounded on all sides with neighbours who are not only envious of the way the country is going forward in its march towards economic superiority but also politically, but are also inimical to the interest both security and economy of the nation.  There has been, even now it continues, series of attempts both overt and covert to infiltrate the people from across the border to the border states and to transfer them inland in an attempt to create a demographic imbalance with a view to subvert the attempts of the country in its march towards economic superiority.  There is also a fear among the smaller neighbours that India will dominate their economies and to an extent this may be true as well as we had seen in the past.  When the long standing feud with the neighbour on the northwest did not yield any long lasting solution to the problem faced in the state of J&K despite all attempts to have a meaningful dialogues be it with the elected civilian governments or the military despots ruling that country, it is but natural to expect that country to be hostile to anything we try to achieve both economically and politically.  The three wars we fought with them and the limited edition of Kargil conflict that we had with them though a costly one for the country,  had made them realise that in any conventional war with India they cannot hope to win and the only way to inflict injury to the country is by guerrilla warfare of repeated incursions through the well trained and armed agents who cannot be directly linked to the neighbour's political and military establishments.  In that context there has been an ongoing attempts to subvert the peace in the border areas. Another attempt is to bring in well trained agents in the guise of students into the country and enable them to create sleeper cells or use them to brainwash other students.  

The current political scenario after the present group of political parties lead by BJP formed the government in the center there had been lots of heart burns among the people who had been enjoying the fruits being very close to the establishment all along for the last almost seventy years.  The very fact some of those allotted houses in the most coveted part of the capital had continued to occupy beyond the date up to which it was originally allotted to the occupants and were very recently evicted and the retinue of the media that used to accompany the ministers and Prime Minister had been cut down drastically with the most of the MSM except the state owned ones are permitted to accompany them are enough fodder for being upset and left out.  They having been part of the government process (Remember the Radia Tapes wherein one of the journos tried to get a plum post of a minister to one of her recommendations) felt that the present dispensation had left them in the cold and that it is high time to teach those in the political establishment who care nothing for them a lesson or two.  With that as the sole aim, anything done by the present dispensation or outside of it by any one else be it the EAM permitting a POI in UK get a visa to visit his ailing wife in a hospital in another country, or  be it a very small issue of a farmer being lynched for cattle theft or a student committing suicide being unable to stand the pressure etc. are being made into a national news debated ad nauseum for days on end.  There is a shouting match in the media and also a Machiavellian attempt to discredit the government by returning the paper declaring the awards (very conveniently the other forms, like monetary and non monetary, of awards are left out).  But there is a total silence when it comes to talking about the achievements of the government in the short term of about two years.  All these attempts are only with the aim of some political gain and the oneupmanship of political game.

In the above back ground, if you look at what is happening in the country at present the picture is more clearer.  The JNU had been a campus known for its leftist leanings and of late there is a casteist colour is being given to it by preventing the students from a particular community celebrating the festivals in the campus. The campus had produced some stalwarts like Prakash Karat, Sitaram Yechury, Brinda Karat and other well known alumni who are either with the left parties or have some soft corner for left ideology   However, the happenings today in that campus with the students rising anti India slogans is something the academic world in general and the administration of JNU in particular have to take note of and nip the same in the bud.  There is already unrest in one another university in Bengal, Jadhavpur University with the students shouting anti India slogans.  This may spread with the active participation of the politicos who are inimical to the present dispensation giving a tacit support by sitting with the students in the campus of JNU.  Unfortunately none of these leaders were seen at the cremation of the jawans who had lost their life either facing the bullets of the enemy agents or in the natural calamity of avalanche in Siachen.  It clearly sends out a message if you are against the present political dispensation then everything is alright even a call for anti national slogan shouting and also actiivties that are inimical to the interest of the nation.  One of the political leaders, while not condemning the students for their anti national slogans within the country, is telling the public through his internet based messages that he is with the students and it is very bad for the present government headed by Mr. Modi.  Another senior leader and office bearer of the GOP says that while it is not right for anti national slogan shouting it is not equally right to raid the campus for arresting the culprits.  What message these political leaders are sending to the common man?  In this scenario the former PM says that the pending bills will be passed if the first family of the GOP is spared of  any legal action for any of their alleged wrong doings. Effectively the message is that the GOP is the only party vested with the right to rule this great nation and no other party or person can be a ruling party or a PM howsoever good or bad they/ he/ she may be.  For achieving this, the political masters will do anything including condoning the anti national slogan shouting in a premier university and sit in dharna with the students for action taken against the erring students. These actions of the leaders speak louder than their words.  

With about half dozen states to go to poll before end of summer this year, it is expected that the heat will rise politically and every attempt will be made to create a disturbance to divert the attention of the public from the achievements or otherwise of the dispensation in the center to the issues created or managed by the political pundits to the strict action taken by the dispensation against even the students.  This again is to what end, except for reaping political benefits at the cost of the ruling dispensation at the center and there is absolutely no qualms if the casualty is the concept of Patriotism and nationhood.  The present issue of slogan shouting and the action taken by the Delhi Police will occupy a major part of the MSM space both in print and electronically for the next couple of weeks if not months and will take some time to fade away from the memory of the public.  The attempts will be made to keep alive the discussion in the MSM channels by repeated discussions/ debates on patriotism, anti national activity, treason or sedition for weeks together so that people's memory will be fresh with these police actions against unarmed students. Unfortunately the social media is also contributing to this by discussing about all these for days together.  In this background my attempt to find an answer to the question What is patriotism then? remain unanswered.