The JNU Controversy – Where do I stand?

The incident after which JNU has been making headlines with every newspaper across the country, every single news channel’s prime time ‘show’ happened on the night of 9th February, 2015. And if you are wondering why am I coming up with this post after almost a fortnight of the incident, well I was waiting to get stories from both sides and not forming an opinion based on the sensationalized media reports.

Please read the complete post and form your own opinion. All that is written is my opinion and you are entitled to have a different view.

Afzal Guru was hanged to death for his act of terrorism and the attack on Indian Parliament on 3rd February in 2013. Students in the JNU, mostly from the political activities group and supporting the leftist ideologies planned to have a cultural event named  ‘A country without a post office – against judicial murder & Brahminism’ and have events like debates and skits. Students from the other political group ABVP were in support of the hangings and took the program organized as an insult to the country.

While the event was on, anti-India slogans were heard, chaos was created all around and the negativity that we do not need in our lives was the prime outcome of that event. BJP MP Maheish Girri and a few members from the BJP’s student political wing ABVP filed a complaint against the anti-national activities with the Delhi Police. The Delhi Police registered a case of sedition against “unknown members” and arrested Kanhaiya Kumar, JNU Student Union President who was also a part of the organized program.
Then started the media trial and you have witnessed it all.

I’ll list down a few things in points.

1. The media came up with videos of Kanhaiya Kumar and a few of his supporters shouting slogans “Leke rahenge azaadi”,“Hame chahiye puri azaadi”,“Pakistan Zindabaad, Zindabaad Zindabaad”. The media linked Azaadi to Kashmir while Kashmir was no where mentioned in those videos. Was it because of Pakistan? Did the media before scandalizing the video try to understand the before and the after of it?
   Arnab Goswami, I need not tell who he is, on his show labeled a student, Umar Khalid, also a part of the program and seen just next to Kanhaiya in the video, was branded as “anti-national”. And more so, because Umar Khalid is a Muslim, Mr. Arnab Goswami inferred that he was against Kashmir being a part of India, brought it up as an insult to the Siachen martyr,Lance Naik Hanamanthappa in his rant.
   The next day, a longer version of ‘the video’ was circulated on the social media where Kanhaiya and his supporters were seen shouting slogans that they do not need nationality certificate from RSS, ‘Azaadi Bhukmari se’,‘Azzadi Punjiwaad se’,‘Hum lekar rahenge azaadi,kuch bhi kar lo’. Another video showed the ABVP supporters shouting the ‘Pakistan Zindabaad’ slogans and not Kanhaiya and his team.
   Dear Mr. Arnab Goswami, why did you not show the complete video on your channel? Why did you now not reprimand the ABVP supporters causing a chaos and then filing a false case? Is it now against the law to oppose the RSS? Who were you to label Umar Khalid as an anti-national?
2. The event organizers were not singing praises of Afzal Guru, they were against the death penalties. This is a discussion which has been going on since many years all across the country, and it was one of those discussions in JNU on 9th February, 2015. If this is against the law, arrest all the people who have ever disagreed to capital punishment.
3. Why has the police now failed to arrest the people actually chanting anti-India slogans?
4. Such was the hate spread against the students of JNU that when a student asked the auto driver to take him to JNU, the auto driver says ‘Why do you want to go to JNU, let me drop you to Pakistan’.
5. Such was the hate spread against the students of JNU that people began pointing out that they were studying on tax-payers money. Would you say that if your child was studying in one such government funded university? Are you jealous that you could not make it to the list of one such college?
   Stop insulting the students who have worked really hard to reach there.
6. I was always an active and a passionate debater. And of what I know about debating is that you need to come up with points to rebuttal your opponents, you need to convince the audience why your point is stronger than your opponents. Debating is not about shouting at your highest pitch, debating has never been about insulting your opponent. You must respect your opposition even when you do not like what they say, that is what is the essence of a debate.
7. We believe in what we see around us. The media, the politicians are using this to control us. Stop trusting in what you see at a glance. Learn more about it, look into various other aspects of it. Do not start shouting because that is what your neighbor was doing. Form an opinion of yours. Respect other’s opinion. Accept when you realize you were wrong.
8. You see a hashtag trending on twitter, but how many of you know that those hashtags are trended by people of their own. Be it Kejriwal or Modi or the JNU anti-national tags trending on twitter. Please understand that they have a section of people on the social media to this. They are paid to trend a topic. So stop believing in a trending topic, that is not all that is happening. There is an other side to a coin, even if you do not want to accept it.
9. How many of you lawyers now attacking the journalists and the JNU supporters tag yourselves as anti-nationals when you take up cases for money and prove that the wrong is right?
   How many of you tag yourselves as an anti-national when you throw garbage on the streets? Don’t you consider this act as anti-national? You are ruining the image of your country, you are against the ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan’.
   How many of you tag yourselves as an anti-national when you refer to the people from North-East as ‘Chinkis’? You do not speak it out loud in the public now because you will be fined for it. But you still do!
   How many of you tag yourselves as an anti-national when you hate someone only because you do not share the same religion? You now do not follow the constitution of India.
   How many of you tag yourselves as an anti-national when you rape a woman/man or do nothing to help the victim but just stand there watching? Where does your morality go then?
   How many of you tag yourselves as an anti-national when you see a child working for your comforts? Just think what if you were in that position.
   How many of you tag yourselves as an anti-national when you disdain gays? Don’t they have their rights to live as they want when you do what you want?
10. India is a democratic country, you are given the freedom to express and raise your voice. Understand the power of ‘freedom of speech’. Please do not just play around this power given to you. Raise your voice against all the bad happening around you, but also learn to raise your voice to appreciate the positives.

Please try to gather more information about an incident before you form an opinion and go out to degrade someone. If you still did not get the gist of this post – These are my opinions, you may tag me as ‘intolerant’ and ‘anti-national’ because I know these are the words in trend now. Well, I won’t be one just because you say so.