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In a relentless
sequence of horrors, it may be difficult to decide what is most
horrible. When three professors and numerous students were ruthlessly
beaten up for defending the right of Ramjas College to invite whomsoever
it chose for its seminar, it was horrible enough. It also revived an
older sequence, which burst into public notice with the Akhil Bharatiya
Vidyarthi Parishad's attack against a group of students of Jawaharlal
Nehru University last year, the leaders of which were labelled
"anti-national" and one of whom was invited to Ramjas College. The ABVP
has since flourished in its career of violent suppressions. Its efforts
to silence different voices - rather, any sign of critical thinking and
intellectual exploration - are spread over colleges and universities in
different states and has now exploded in Delhi in a thundering claim of
patriotism - predictably - with the threat that anyone who raises a
finger against 'their' country will have his finger cut and "will not be
allowed to speak". Resistance to the ABVP's bullying was led by
Gurmehar Kaur, labelled a "martyr's daughter" to remind her that she is
failing her father, who died in Kargil, by defying the ABVP and
upholding democratic freedoms. Apart from being threatened with violence
and rape, for which she has been forced to withdraw from the front line
of protest, she has been likened to Dawood Ibrahim by a Bharatiya
Janata Party member of parliament while a minister has claimed that her
mind has been polluted - presumably by anti-nationals, or the Left or
'subversives', all of whom are now being rolled into one in the rhetoric
of BJP ministers and leaders.
Which of these is the most horrible?
Since the BJP likes 'laboratories' - Gujarat was one - is the university
space a laboratory in which the BJP leadership, through the agency of
the ABVP which the party is openly encouraging, trying out its policy of
silencing difference with violence in the name of patriotism? Also, the
attack on rights is being carried out most blatantly through a
sustained attack on studies. That is most telling. There is nothing
irrational in the goal; only the rhetoric is cannily irrational. In this
apparent chaos, upholding democratic rights will require collective
resistance with the courage of conviction and clarity of thought of Ms
Kaur and her peers.
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