When senior-most teachers and administrators of the JNU can be so brutally harassed, one can imagine the plight of nationalist students who are fighting in the communists den against the very ideology of violence and oppression
Saurabh Jha
Vinaash kaale vipreet buddhi (wisdom erodes as destruction nears) is an apt phrase for the self-proclaimed Liberals whose epitome is identified with the Communists of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).
While the Left Liberals are first to advocate idea of free speech, they’re the foremost to deny it to others wherever they are in power.
The latest example of this comes again at JNU, where over the last five years, the Left domination is being challenged by nationalist forces. ABVP has been continuously emerging as the single largest party in every JNUSU elections in terms of vote share since 2014-15, which has become a cause for worry and frustration of Communists.
Latest expression of this frustration emerged with a physical attack on Dr Buddha Singh, Associate Dean of JNU around 3 am on April 29, 2017. The reason for attack was in response to a condolence meeting that he organised for the martyrs of Sukma and Kupwara attacks in Chhattisgarh and Jammu & Kashmir, respectively.
The condolence meeting was held exactly at the same spot where the infamous February 9, 2016 event had been organised and Communists along with Islamists had called for “Bharat ki barbadi tak jung rahegi. Insha Allah!” in opposition to hanging of convicted terrorist Afzal Guru.
If this wasn’t enough to irk Communists, a very large participation of common, politically unaffiliated students, teachers and non-teaching community of JNU indeed upset anti-India forces here. On top of it, programme also saw patriotic speech by defence expert Maj Gen (Retd.) PK Sehgal.
Dr Singh had bravely organised the programme in broad day light. However, his attackers cowardly attacked his house by pelting stones and damaging his car parked outside with a large rock around 3 am. Hearing sounds, when Dr Singh came out of his residence, attackers cowardly whisked away.
Dr Singh does not identify himself with the Leftist ideology and acknowledges that as well. Since his student days at JNU, Dr Singh, who hails from a very small village of UP, has struggled and relentlessly worked hard establish nationalist voices here.
While an attack on senior faculty of JNU ought to have been condemned by all sections of JNU society, particularly Left liberals, who claim to champion the universality of free speech, response of JNUSU on this entire affair, nevertheless, was plainly disgusting.
Far from condemning the shameful attack, JNUSU in a release called Dr Buddha Singh “attention seeker”, who was engaging in a “cheap tactics to grab attention”! This isn’t surprising as Communists have a disgraceful history of attacking non-Communists’ voices, especially nationalist forces. Dr Singh is not an exception in JNU.
Attack on a female Professor
Earlier, in Oct 2016, a lady Prof of JNU, Prof Amita Singh, Dean of School of Law and Governance, was attacked by leftist students after an Academic Council (AC) meeting on October 7, 2016 which continued till very late at night.
While Prof Amita Singh was on her way back home, she was waylaid by a group of students. Her car was forced to stop, surrounded and pounded, and she was abused. To prevent her from leaving students laid down in front of her car. They claimed that they were protesting against her for a stand on some academic matters she took in JNU AC which was not liked by the Leftists there. The attack was again neither condemned by JNUSU or JNU Teachers Association.
Taking entire Administration hostage
Strategic silence of JNUSU and JNUTA translated into tacit support to goondaism and encouraged Islamo-
fascists later in the week to indulge in rowdyism and take law in their hands.
These ‘students’ on October 20, 2016 laid a siege to the administrative building for more than 15 hours and confined Vice-Chancellor (VC) M Jagadesh Kumar, Rector Prof Chintamani Mahapatra, Registrar Pramod Singh and many other senior administrative officials inside the Ad Block building.
Demanding a conclusive response on the whereabouts of a missing scholar Najeeb Ahmed, students blocked all exit points in the building. Prior to this, VC Jagadeesh Kumar was personally manhandled in May 2016 because of his insistence on following due process of University’s statutes while dealing with perpetrators of February 9 programme and thereby serving justice.
All student organisations, except ABVP, took part in the blockade and vented out their anger at the University officials. Even food and medicine was denied to these senior officials, nor were they allowed to meet their family members. Most of these officials were diabetic or had some other age-related medical complications.
Reputation and Career of a Serving Dean Ruined
Communists may like to paint that this spike in students versus non-Left teachers/administration confrontations is because of rise of PM Narendra Modi and his crackdown on those who are perceived as anti-nationalists. However, this is untrue.
Prof Kulbhushan Warikoo, a renowned scholar of Central Asian Studies, Shaivism and Vedic philosophy, who was certainly not close to the BJP, was appointed Dean, School of International Studies in 2013 owing to his seniority .
JNU had around eighty faculty positions vacant then. Communists feared that Prof Warikoo as Dean of SIS may not appoint communist cadres as JNU faculty. Hence, a dirty politics of machinations was plotted against him.
A fake case of sexual harassment was filed against him on the day when he was not even in Delhi. Later, in the complaint copy, date was manually struck down and changed. Enquiry process was initiated against him with the Gender Sensitisation Committee Against Sexual Harassment (GSCASH) office. GSCASH is a body akin to a naxali kangaroo court or Shariat court of Taliban which is used to silence all those opposed to Communists.
Meanwhile, a smear campaign was initiated publicly against Warikoo by GSCASH student representative Dipti Taman, who happened to be PhD candidate under immediate benefactor of this conspiracy Prof Anuradha Chenoy. Prof Chenoy is also wife of Prof Kamal Mitra Chenoy, a well-known Communist turned AAP leader, who was named in Ghulam Nabi Fai controversy by CIA of working in United States against Indian position on Kashmir under patronage of Pakistan’s ISI.
Prof Warikoo under immense pressure of JNUTA and JNUSU was forced to resign until enquiry was pending against him. After resignation, Prof Chenoy was appointed the new Dean, as planned and she duly obliged by fulfilling of vacancies by appointing chosen Communists.
Two years later, no evidence was found against Prof Warikoo and he was acquitted of all charges. Acquittal could not restore his position and he retired with a black spot painted, as result of Communists’ scheming.
Whereas these attacks on teachers are not only politically motivated, but it is a method adopted by Leftist to terrorise teachers who have independent opinion on academic matters. Unfortunately, JNUTA is hand in gloves with JNUSU and other Communist and Islamist organisations to intimidate teachers in the name of protests. When senior-most teachers and administrators of JNU can be so brutally harassed, one can imagine the plight of nationalist students who are fighting in the communists den against the very ideology of violence and oppression. I salute these students.
In times to come, these contestations are only bound to grow in JNU and elsewhere between forces of nationalism and anti-nationalism as Communists and Islamists are losing public trust and space everywhere: globally, in Kerala and Bengal as well as in JNU. Vinaash kaal is indeed leading to vipreetbuddhi!
(The writer is a Software Architect
having interest in Socio-Political Affairs)
