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.