Tag: jnu teachers attacked

Rethinking Education in the Age of Totalitarian Politics

The time has come to reinvent our classroom transactions and move towards the spirit of liberating education.

In these ruthlessly violent times – particularly, when like many other universities, our own university too is in turmoil – I have realised that as a teacher, I can no longer come back to the classroom and pretend that everything, as the administration wants us to believe, is ‘normal’.

I can longer just accomplish my ‘professional’ duty – covering the syllabus, giving my students all sorts of routinised assignments, and eventually grading and hierarchising them.

With the psychic wound all of us are inflicted with (just think of the traumatic moment – the police firing teargas shells inside the Jamia Milia Islamia library, or goons with rods and weapons breaking the head of a professor inside the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus), the meaning of the transaction of ideas in the classroom has acquired a new dimension.

We can heal ourselves only through the practice of liberating education – the education that opens our eyes to see the rising authoritarianism makes it possible to comprehend the psychology of violence through which it haunts us, and enables us to experience the culture of learning as a reflexive process of self-transformation. This is like relating the ‘texts’ we decipher in the classroom to the politico-ethical practice we engage in to create a better world.

Also read: It’s Time to Tell Amit Shah and Narendra Modi, ‘Hum Sab JNU’

Yes, it is an exceedingly difficult task. With the rise of totalitarian politics, what emerges is some sort of linear thinking: the normalisation of the ‘one-dimensional’ mind. And hence, all liberating ideas are suspected, or castigated as inherently ‘anarchic’ and ‘anti-national’. Yet, if we dare to see education as a therapeutic art of resistance and liberation, it is important to redefine ourselves – the very meaning of being a teacher or a student in these troubled times.

Beyond the fragmentation of specialisation

Yes, as teachers, we sharpen our specialisation, we write research papers and academic books, and we disseminate bodies of academic knowledge in our classrooms. Yet, there is something more we ought to do if we really hear the call of the vocation – it is about seeing ourselves as awakened citizens carrying the lamp of truth. This means that we begin to appreciate the art of teaching as the cultivation of ‘soul force’ or inner conscience.

No, this politico-ethical practice need not diminish the rigour of academics. Ironically, there are teachers who seek to retain some sort of abstracted ‘objectivism’ or ‘value-neutrality’. In the name of ‘specialisation’, quite often they fragment their consciousness. No wonder, it is possible to find, say, professors of molecular biology or nuclear physics who would seldom come out of their insulated labs, take a position, raise their voice even when the storm outside, or societal violence, enters the corridors of the university.

The irony is that even some professors of social sciences prefer to isolate ‘theories’ from the lived reality. It is like saying that you keep teaching Marx, Gandhi and Ambedkar with ‘textual rigour’, but never utter a single word about the rising authoritarianism in our society. In a way, this silence – even though legitimised in the name of ‘neutrality’ – is an escape from one’s engaged responsibility

I am not saying that a teacher has to be necessarily an ‘activist’. But then, beyond the ‘apolitical/professional’ teacher and the ‘ideologically charged /activist’ teacher lies yet another possibility – a dialogic teacher filled with the poetry of inner conscience, and experiencing the pursuit of knowledge or research not merely as a cognitive skill, but also as an act of awakening.

Also read: An Open Letter to Parents Bringing up Children in the Time of the CAA-NRC Protests

We live in an age that has already desensitised us. While the psychology of fear (something implicit in the practice of totalitarian politics) robs us of our voices, the culture of narcissism – yet, another consequence of the phenomenon of neoliberal utilitarianism or consumerism – insulates us from any project of collective struggle. And even as teachers, many of us behave no less differently than an average ‘consumer’: playing our ‘official’ roles with docile bodies and minds, watching toxic television channels, and entertaining a myth that somehow we are ‘safe’. The problem exists only in the distant Kashmir Valley, or among a bunch of ‘urban naxals’!

It cannot go on like this. As teachers, we have to reinvent ourselves. We ought to emerge as inspirers and communicators.  If teachers disappear, a university would be reduced into something like a factory or army barracks for manufacturing either ‘disciplined nationalists’ or ‘ideal consumers’.

Questioning the conventional idea of a ‘good’ student

What does it mean to be a student in our times? Well, it is repeatedly said that they should not engage in politics; they should only study, and think of their careers. While the market-driven discourse seeks to reduce education into a mere technical ‘skill’ dissociated from all politico-ethical and socio-philosophical questions, the aspiring middle class further promotes the commodification of education.

Hence, a ‘good’ student is often seen to be one who sees politics as a ‘diversion’, remains insulated from people’s struggle and resistance, and only ‘studies’ for a lucrative career. A ‘good’ student is linear in thinking, ‘focused’ as far as ambitions are concerned, and loves the ‘system’. Is it what Sunil Gavaskar meant when the other day he urged the students not to come to the streets, and like ‘ideal’ boys and girls enter the sanitised classrooms, and only ‘study’?

Also read: The Attacks on Universities Represent an Agenda to Eliminate Safe Spaces

However, what is promising is that in recent times we are witnessing the arrival of yet another kind of students who defy this ‘goodness’, come out of their comfort zones, see themselves beyond ‘placement and salary package’, raise critical questions, and refuse to be fooled by the state’s ideological apparatus. These students are emerging from JNU and Jamia, Jadavpur University and Aligarh Muslim University, and even from the ‘apolitical’ IITs and IIMs.

The coercive apparatus of the state has not yet succeeded in demoralising them. And they are protesting against the discriminatory character of the Citizenship Amendment Bill; they are reminding us of the intensity of damage the ruling regime has already caused to the spirit of public universities: the philosophy of inclusion and justice, the epistemology of pluralism ,and the logic of persuasion or art of listening.

In this awakened studentship I see a new possibility. First, I see a promising language of resistance filled with critical thinking, creative consciousness and aesthetic imagination. They are rediscovering the ideals that the emergent authoritarianism seeks to repress: the visions of Paulo Freire and Rabindranath Tagore, and M.K. Gandhi and B.R. Ambedkar. The values of the constitution, the spirit of religious diversity and cultural pluralism, and the aspirations for peace and harmony are rediscovered once again.

Second, I see a new orientation to the pursuit of knowledge. They are conveying a powerful message. There is no ‘sanitised’ classroom; and the ‘texts’ they study have to be examined in the streets through a quest for collective emancipation. In their practice, I have begun to see Gandhi’s satyagrahis hugging Gramsci’s organic intellectuals.

Also read: Why the University and Its Questions Worry the State

Well, given the kind of administrators (or the deputies of the ruling regime) who run our universities, it is quite obvious that the Establishment would abhor the birth of this new studentship. The goons would be allowed to enter our universities and cause terror, the police would move around our campuses, the noisy anchors of the ‘nationalist’ television channels would further spread the idea of the ‘tukde tukde gang’; and all sorts of disciplinary actions would be taken against the ‘handful’ of ‘misdirected’ students.

However, to refer to the specificity of the JNU, we would be bombarded by the ‘circulars’, and the university administration would direct us to give our consent to the ‘normalcy’ it has restored.

The question is whether as teachers we would succeed in debunking this ‘normalcy’, work with these awakened students, walk together, reinvent our classroom transactions, and move towards the spirit of liberating education.

Only then is it possible to have the real rigour in academics.

Avijit Pathak is a Professor of Sociology at JNU.

World Over, a Spate of Students Protests Over Campus Violence in India

With no sign of backtracking from the government, global protests in solidarity with the movement in India are becoming much more frequent.

The brutal attack on students at the JNU campus on January 5, has had a spine-chilling effect on students and alumni across the world, reigniting the horror of the brutal violence in Jamia Milia Islamia University and Aligarh Muslim University last month. All these campuses were attacked to curb the constitutional right of students to protest, whether it’s against CAA-NRC or the fee hike. The state has left no stone unturned in its high-handed attempt to muzzle dissenting voices.

It has been over two months since the student movement against the fee hike in JNU started. The movement has seen violence by police on the streets and by security guards on campus in an attempt to break the strike. But students have been fighting, unfettered by the police violence and administration’s apathy to even engage in a dialogue with protesting students. For over two months, this hostile atmosphere could not dampen the spirit of the students.

The attack in JNU on January 5 was the latest attempt to break the movement, but the sheer scale and intensity of the violence and the manner in which it was unleashed in the presence of the police, who gave goons free run for hours and then escorted them out royally, has left students shattered and everyone else numb. The video and visual evidence sparked immediate outrage in India and across the world, and many universities across the globe gave a protest call immediately in solidarity with JNU students and against violence.

Protest at SOAS, London. Photo: Author provided

In the UK, protests took place at Oxford University and London. In London, protesters gathered at SOAS on January 6. Protesters condemned the attacks on JNU, Jamia and AMU and extended their solidarity with placards saying “First – Students, Then – Teachers, Then – Doctors, Then – Books’. The people also rejected the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizenship which is at the heart of protests erupting across India.

Also read: London: Indian Students, Diaspora Organise Sit-In Outside High Commission

In Oxford, university students called for a protest on January 6 at Redcliff Camera and extended their solidarity to the students of JNU. The protesters expressed their shock over the continuous violence in universities and in the state of Uttar Pradesh and demanded an independent enquiry over these incidents. The statement signed by 74 scholars from Oxford also called upon the government to pay heed to the demands of the protesters and amend the anti-Muslim clauses of CAA.

Protesters at Redcliffe Camera, Oxford, UK. Photo: Author provided

In the US, protests were organised at New York, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Washington and Philadelphia. In New York, university students and civil society members gathered in crowded streets outside the Indian consulate, in a demonstration and march organised by ‘New York Stands With JNU’.

Protest at John Hopkins University, Baltimore. Photo: Author Provided

Protest in New York. Photo: Author Provided

Protest in New York. Photo: Author Provided

The organisers read out the statement released by the JNU Student Union, and the entire gathering recited the preamble to the Indian constitution. Chants of “Whose streets? Our streets!”, a slogan from the Black Lives Matter movement, echoed alongside strains of “Ham Dekhenge” and demands for azaadi from Sanghi violence, CAA-NRC, and the Modi-Shah government, showing the unity of people’s and students’ movements.

Students and professors from the University of Pennsylvania, in their statement, condemned the violence at JNU and extended their solidarity with protesters against the CAA-NRC in India. The statement demanded an end to state violence in India and the release of Chandra Shekhar Aazad.

Protest at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Photo: Author provided

Protest at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Photo: Author provided

In Los Angeles, students of the University of California, Los Angeles organised a protest which was attended by students from Los Angeles and concerned citizens. The protesters called upon the government and the university administration to stop violence on the campuses. Furthermore, students extended solidarity to the ongoing protests against CAA-NRC with a slogan, “No Human is Illegal, No CAA-No NRC”.

Also read: CAA Protests: Indian Students Worldwide Raise Voices in Solidarity

In Baltimore, students of John Hopkins University, organised a protest. The statement from the protesters said, “We demand the student safety and academic freedom are ensured. We also demand the resignation of home minister Amit Shah, JNU Vice-Chancellor, Jagdish Kumar, and the JNU Registrar, Pramod Kumar, as they failed to ensure the safety of the students. Further, we demand an impartial enquiry that documents how the attacks transpired and brings those responsible for justice”.

In Washington, a protest was organised at the Bobby Morris Field. Sagar, one of the protesters in Washington said that “It’s important to send a message to protesters back home that we stand by them and we are thankful to them for standing up against the legalization of discrimination against the constitutional value of multiculturalism and secularism”.

Apart from these, students and civil society also organised protests across the world in cities like Toronto, Philadelphia, Kathmandu, Karachi and Lahore.

Protest at the University of California, Los Angeles. Photo: Author Provided

Students and citizens across the globe have recognised the anti-student character of the current regime in India, which is at the centre of violence and is instrumental in giving a sense of impunity to the miscreants. Since 2014, this government has been at loggerheads with students starting with the Film and Television Institute of India, the Indian Institute of Technology – Madras, Hyderabad Central University, JNU, Jadavpur University, Manipur University, Panjab University, Jamia Milia Islamia University, Delhi University and Aligarh Muslim University and so on. All these premier institutions of learning have been at the receiving end of state violence and fund cuts.

The violence in the campuses is thus a result of the high-handedness of the government in repressing the students’ democratic rights. Universities in India and abroad are responding to this crisis and making their presence felt along with the citizens’ protest happening across India.

Also read: JNU Violence Stirs Protest Waves From Pondicherry to Oxford Campuses

Indeed, many of the demands of students from AMU, JNU, and Jamia resonate with the situation abroad, where, particularly in the US, rampant privatisation has created a student debt crisis, and the mass detention of immigrants and non-citizens is a preview of the even greater horrors that will be unleashed with the CAA-NRC.

Protest at the University of California, Los Angeles. Photo: Author Provided

International media has taken note of the high-handedness of the Modi-Shah government’s actions against students. As the BJP’s false promise of economic growth is revealed, even former Modi cheerleaders abroad have changed their tune. Meanwhile, with no sign of backtracking from either the government or protesters, global protests in solidarity with the movement in India are becoming much more frequent.

In New York alone, the protest on December 6 was the fifth such event since the attack on Jamia students. As both the government’s repression and people’s action continue in India, more protests are planned in coming weeks against the CAA-NRC. It remains to be seen how the Indian government will respond.

Mukesh Kulriya is a PhD student at Music School, University of California Los Angeles, USA.

Watch | Media Bol: The Truth Behind the Attack on JNU by Masked Goons

Catch Swaraj India’s Yogendra Yadav, former JNU professor Purushottam Agarwal and senior journalist Sheetal Singh is in conversation with Urmilesh on Sunday evening’s brutal attack on JNU.

On January 5, the attack on students from Left parties by masked men, allegedly by the right-wing ABVP  continued for nearly three-and-a-half hours while the police kept watch and did nothing. Campus security too could hardly be seen, and was seen giving way to the masked attackers.

Swaraj India’s president, Yogendra Yadav who was present at the campus in support of the protesting students, was also attacked on Sunday night.

Catch former JNU professor Purushottam Agarwal, Yogendra Yadav and senior journalist Sheetal Singh is in conversation with Urmilesh in the latest episode of ‘Media Bol’.

‘Leftist’ Assaulter in Video Shared by JNU VC, Prasar Bharati Now ID’d as ABVP Student

Other BJP office-bearers – national IT cell head Amit Malviya and BJP spokesperson Suresh Nakhua – promoted the claim through retweets.

A video of a man in a red jacket beating up another person in green clothing is widely circulating on social media to espouse the claim that students associated with Left parties attacked ABVP members thus triggering the violence in JNU on the intervening night of January 5-6. Journalist Sumit Kumar Singh was the first to tweet the video. Kumar wrote, “This triggered clashes in #JNU campus. Students associated with Left parties bashed up #ABVP members when they were facilitating admission process. Students from #Left parties wanted to cancel admission process in #JNU.”

Prasar Bharati tweeted the video with a similar allegation. The public broadcaster wrote that the video bears witness to JNU VC Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar’s statement that “those opposing registration for Winter session of #JNU are behind violence to scuttle the academic process of varsity.”

This was retweeted by JNU VC Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar

It is noteworthy that the violence was triggered at the backdrop of protests against hostel fee hike that has been going on for around three months. The JNU Students’ Union decided to boycott the process of registration for the winter semester which began on January 1.

Also read: FIR Against JNUSU President, 19 Others for Vandalism, Attacking Security Guards

IT head and convenor BJP Himachal Chetan Bragta also shared the video with the identical claim as Singh. He wrote in Hindi, “इस वजह से JNU कैंपस में झड़पें शुरू हो गईं। वामदलों से जुड़े छात्रों ने ABVP के सदस्यों को पीटा जब वे प्रवेश प्रक्रिया में छात्रों की मदद कर रहे थे। लेफ़्ट पार्टियों के छात्र JNU में प्रवेश प्रक्रिया को रद्द करना चाहते थे। #LeftAttacksJNU”

Other BJP office-bearers – national IT cell head Amit Malviya and BJP spokesperson Suresh Nakhua – promoted the claim through retweets.

ABVP’s Vikas Bhadauri shared the clip, tweeting, “Leftists first spread anarchy in Bihar, Chhatisgarh and Jharkhand, then massacred, massacred plenty in West Bengal and in 2010, citizens paid their last respects. JNU is their last stronghold. Right now, they have spread anarchy, tomorrow they will try massacres. If you don’t wake up now, it’ll be too late.”

The man assaulting is ABVP Member

The man in the red jacket is ABVP member Sharvender, a third-year PhD student at Centre for West Asian Studies, School of International Studies (SIS), JNU. His identity was confirmed to Alt News by four JNU students, two of whom are from SIS.

Below, a photo of Sharvender wearing an ABVP name-card (right) has been juxtaposed with a screenshot of him from the video (left).

The photo is a part of a larger image where Sharvender can be seen with ABVP cadre.

In the photograph below, Sharvender (who has now deleted/deactivated his Twitter account), can be seen alongside JNU VC Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar and the dean of School of International Studies (SIS), JNU, Ashwini Mohapatra.

The man assaulted is AISA member

A video of the assault was also posted by AISA Delhi University described as, “ABVP’s hooliganism on common students in School of International Studies and School of Languages, JNU. SIS student Vivek Pandey (former DU student) along with others were brutally beaten up by ABVP goons infront of SIS and SL lawns. Dear ABVP, despite all your efforts we will not give up a single inch. We remind you again “NO REGISTRATION WITHOUT AFFORDABLE EDUCATION.”

The person assaulted by Sharvender has been identified as Vivek Pandey. Alt News confirmed with multiple students who informed that Vivek Pandey is a first-year MA student. We also contacted Vivek who sent us a video statement debunking the false claim that he is an ABVP member. “The student who is wearing red sweater is Sharvender. He is a West Asia student…In the video, you can clearly see that I’m wearing a green shirt…but they are circulating the video with the opposite narrative.” Vivek also informed Alt News that he is associated with AISA.

The juxtaposition below evidently shows that Vivek is the person in green who was assaulted.

Another student who was assaulted during the scuffle was Abhishek Pandey, a former JNU student visiting the campus at the time the violence broke out. He can be seen at about 45 seconds into the video. Abhishek had fallen to the ground and several students can be seen picking him up. Sharvender joined the scuffle later however it is unclear if he was a part of the group that attacked Abhishek.

Also read: How ABVP Planned Attack on JNU Students, Teachers on WhatsApp

Speaking with Alt News, Abhishek claimed that he was visiting JNU campus to meet friends when violence broke out. “They chased after a junior from the Chinese centre. The student fell down and we went to save him. But some professors of JNUTF including the dean targetted me as an ‘outsider’. I was only trying to save the student. But I was hit and one of my friends tried to pull me out,” he narrated.

Abhishek has been highlighted in the image below. His identity was confirmed to us by multiple JNU students.

How a lie was amplified

A video of an ABVP member assaulting a student associated with AISA has been spun to portray as if Left parties attacked the RSS student wing. Another person beaten-up, Abhishek Pandey, was also not associated with ABVP. The video of the assault, first shared by journalist Sumit Kumar Singh with the false claim, was amplified by numerous other journalists, among them – Abhijit Majumdar, Swati Goel Sharma, Aditya Raj Kaul and filmmaker Ashok Pandit.

Rishi Bagree, who has been found circulating misinformation multiple times, tweeted the video and wrote, “The series of event in JNU yesterday leading to #JNUViolence1. Leftist students have been trying to stop the registration process in JNU2. They were rattled by the fact that students were registering online.”

It was also shared with the false claim by Chayan Chatterjee, great-grandson of Ashutosh Mukherjee.

The Twitter account Friends of RSS also tweeted the video.

This article was originally published on Alt News.

FIR Against JNUSU President, 19 Others for Vandalism, Attacking Security Guards

The Delhi police said that complaints were filed by the JNU administration on January 5.

New Delhi: Police officials have said that the Delhi Police has registered two FIRs against Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU) president Aishe Ghosh and nineteen others for attacking security guards and vandalising a server room on January 4 at 1 pm, according to a report in The Hindu.

The police have said that the FIRs were registered based on the complaint by the JNU administration on January 5. One complaint was lodged on January 3 for switching off the server while another complaint was registered on January 4 for vandalising the server room, police said.

On the evening of January 5, masked goons, who were allegedly members of the right-wing ABVP, entered the campus of JNU and beat up JNUSU president Aishe Ghosh, who suffered head injuries, and several others.

Also read: How ABVP Planned Attack on JNU Students, Teachers on WhatsApp

The police have registered an FIR for Sunday’s attack against unknown persons for rioting. However, no arrests have been made even though the police was present when the attackers carrying sticks walked out of the JNU campus.

The FIR against Ghosh says that a large number of student agitators, including Aishe Ghosh, Saket Moon and 18 others, allegedly entered the Communication and Information Services office located in the admin block from the back door by “breaking” a glass door. The FIR says that they illegally trespassed and damaged the fibre optic cables, servers and biometric devices.

The police say that the case has been registered under IPC Section 323 (Punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 341 (Punishment for wrongful restraint), 506 (Punishment for criminal intimidation) and damage to public property Act at Vasant Kunj North police station.

JNUSU vice president Saket Moon has alleged that the administration is selectively targeting some students and denied any involvement in the vandalism of the server room.

(With inputs from PTI)

Sunday Evening Mob Attack on JNU ‘a Pre-Planned Exercise’, Alleges JNUTA

At a press conference, several teachers gave first-hand accounts of the attack on JNU and several examples of why they believe the university administration played a direct or indirect role.

New Delhi: The Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers Association (JNUTA) on Monday alleged that the university administration, Cyclops, the private group in-charge of security, some right-leaning faculty members, and Delhi police may have directly or indirectly helped the mob put the campus under siege.

This claim of the administration’s complicity comes a day after a group of around 100 people, armed with sticks, stones and rods, most wearing helmets, unleashed a spell of violence at the campus, ransacking property, vandalising vehicles and hostel rooms, and beating up students and teachers who supported the ongoing student’s movement against the administration’s decision to sharply hike tuition and hostel fees.

Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Shukla Sawant, a professor at the School of Arts and Aesthetics (SAA) who suffered injuries, said it was during the peace march called by the JNUTA at 6 pm that the “goons” attacked them indiscriminately. She said her trauma did not end at the university. “When I was taken to AIIMS, some people heckled me there,” she said.

Also read: ‘They Were Banging the Door With an Iron Rack’: Students, Teachers Describe JNU Violence

Several teachers spoke about the security lapse. “How could so many outsiders enter the campus? What was the security doing,” asked one teacher at the press meet. One said that she had submitted her write-up about lapses to the security-in-charge, and expects a response from him.

Bikramaditya Choudhary, a former JNUTA office bearer, narrated the ordeal his wife went through on Sunday evening. “My wife as usual had left for a walk around 6.30 pm. A mob of around 100 people suddenly charged at her. She started screaming for help and rushed to our new transit house quarter.”

He said that he must have made at least 50 calls to various people, including the registrar, security-in-charge and other officials. None of them responded.

“Soon the mob entered the new transit house and banged on the doors of each of the 25 houses in the premises. A faculty member who is not from India opened the door thinking a student must have come to consult her. The mob ransacked her house completely,” Choudhary said.

“I am frightened not by the mob but by the JNU administration and the government of India,” he said, adding that the plan was to “completely terrorise people”. He alleged that despite multiple efforts, the private security personnel have not registered his complaint yet.

He claimed that when he went to the security group’s office, the names of the guards who were on Sunday evening duty were absent from the roster, alleging that various circumstantial evidence indicates that the administration and the police could well be complicit in the violence.

Ameet Parameshwaran, a faculty member at the SAA, said he was the one who took Professor Sucharita Sen, one of the most grievously injured teachers, on a motorcycle to AIIMS. At the north gate from where he drove out of campus, he said a bunch of outsiders stopped him in front of the security guards to check his identity.

Some students and teachers also claimed that the Delhi police stood as mute spectators when the masked mob was “unleashing its terror”.

Also read: The Message After JNU Attack Is Clear: No Space Is Safe

Vikas Bajpai, a faculty member at the School of Social Sciences, said that when he was taking one of his students, Kamlesh, to AIIMS, JNUSU presidential candidate Manish Jangid, who was himself injured in a scuffle preceding the mob violence, threatened him. “When I was at the AIIMS parking lot, a stranger came up to me and spoke in a threatening way. I drove away without listening to him.”

He said that the BJP IT Cell is now using Kamlesh’s image to wrongly portray that he is an ABVP activist who suffered injuries at the hands of protesting students.

He added that he got a call from one of his students on Sunday afternoon that a van had stopped outside the house of one of the professors who is seen to be close to the administration and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s student wing the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). He said that many outsiders stepped out of the van and entered his house, suggesting that that the whole incident could have been coordinated with the help of ABVP supporters in the campus and the university administration.

D.K. Lobiyal, a former JNUTA office bearer, also alleged that the mob attack on JNU was “a pre-planned exercise”.

Living Through JNU’s ‘Bloody Sunday’: A University in Grave Crisis

There is a clear failure of the leadership – let alone leading from the front, no responsible official of the administration was to be seen anywhere.

As a teacher of history, I have taught about Bloody Sunday, the event which sparked off protests in Russia in 1905.

Yesterday, I lived through Bloody Sunday right in very the campus I teach at: Jawaharlal Nehru University.

It was a balmy afternoon when my research group met at my house. A student presented a chapter of her thesis, on which there was an extensive discussion. One of the students took photographs of the meeting, saying she would post them on her Facebook page with the ironic caption “lockdown in Jawaharlal Nehru University” to emphasise that academic activity continued.

The students dispersed at around 5.30 pm, mostly headed to nearby dhabas for tea.

One of them, along with my niece, stepped out towards Sabarmati Dhaba. The Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers’ Association had given a call for a meeting at 4 pm and a sizeable number of teachers were around even at 6.30 pm.

My niece saw a group of students, many masked and holding lathis and rods, assembled outside Periyar hostel. She continued towards the dhaba only to find herself, other students and teachers set upon by this group. She ran for her life and hid under a table at 24/7, a popular eatery outside Sabarmati. She saw students being thrashed and teachers fleeing to escape this armed mob – which included women too.

Also read: ‘They Were Banging the Door With an Iron Rack’: Students, Teachers Describe JNU Violence

Large stones were hurled. To escape, many students ran into neighbouring Sabarmati hostel for shelter. The masked group chased them into the hostel, battering everything in their way, from windows to doors – creating scenes of terror. As many as 15 students took shelter in a room and prevented the door from being broken down by the sheer weight of their bodies.

Later, I met one of the mess workers from the hostel who had escaped being beaten by locking himself in an office room. One of my colleagues, Sucharita Sen, had also been hit by a stone on her forehead and was admitted to the trauma centre at AIIMS. JNU Students’ Union President Aishe Ghosh, clearly a target, was hit on the head, and bled profusely.

I began to receive calls from students who were holed up in their hostel rooms, fearing attacks. Apart from recognised students from left groups, many Muslim students sought advice on what to do. I advised them to stay in their rooms until the situation settled.

But rather than settling down, trouble came from another quarter as militant, Bajrang Dal type groups mobilised from surrounding villages like Munirka and Ber Sarai, amassed at the main gate, and now posed a threat to the safety of all of JNU’s residents.

We rushed to the main gate on a call from the teachers’ association. The situation was ugly. Slogans such as “Goli se uda do saalon ko” (blow them off with bullets), “tukde tukde gang waalon ko” rent the air, punctuated with “Bharat Mata Ki Jai”.

I felt as though I was in a gladiatorial arena, awaiting with dread the bloodthirsty mob which might be “allowed” to push their way in. The popular ‘Azaadi’ slogan associated with Kanhaiya Kumar was inverted to “Naxalvad se Azadi”, “Naxalvaadiyon se campus mukt karo”.

Also read: The Message After JNU Attack Is Clear: No Space Is Safe

While standing at the gate, I had a strange sense of déjà vu. It seemed as if were back in 2016 when popular anger was being whipped up by organisations linked to the ruling party against alleged ‘anti-nationals’ and supposed seditionists at JNU.

It fed into the agenda of the BJP and its cohorts to whip up aggressive nationalism around supposed threats to the nation. JNU was to be invoked as the enemy within, just as Pakistan was the enemy without.

It reminded me of a larger reality – that today was part of a continuum of assaults on the university, which curiously began within days of the present Vice Chancellor taking office. I have been privy, as the head of my centre, to the systematic hollowing out of the institutional edifice of the university, including the highest bodies such as the Academic Council, as well as the ignoring, mocking at and suppression of voices expressing differences, let alone dissent.

I remembered how it was only the courts to which we had turned which gave us some redress. I have spent the last three years as a petitioner in the court and every month, many of us teachers contribute to a legal fund to monetarily support the teachers and students who have moved the courts.

All this while, on Sunday, we were frantically calling those who we knew in the media and in the police to intervene. I wrote in a JNU alumni group that we needed support, including the presence of sympathisers in large numbers. Soon, groups of students and teachers from Jamia and Delhi University began to reach Jawaharlal Nehru University. Gradually, they outnumbered the groups baying for our blood. We could now turn to escorting marooned students to their hostels or outside campus.

In all this, the security personnel were glaringly absent. When my husband came into the campus at 6.30 pm, there were many police personnel at the main gate, but none where they were required. The police later said that they had been asked not to come in by the Vice Chancellor. The police was given permission to enter only after images of the  reign of terror streamed continuously on television channels.

We were somewhat relieved when very senior police officials, including a JNU alumnus, personally directed operations.

This raises many uncomfortable, unanswered questions about the attitude of those responsible for the functioning of the university. Was it merely the apathy of the administration towards the privations of certain sections of students and teachers seen by them as troublemakers, or was there complicity or connivance by the administration as is perceived by students and teachers?

Whatever the answer to that is, there is a clear failure of leadership at the university. Let alone leading from the front, no responsible official of the university was to be seen anywhere.

Then I stop and ask myself: was this unexpected from an administration which has only carried out the wilful destruction of the university? Had not the Vice Chancellor, as perceived by students and teachers, been appointed to do the bidding of the powers that be, namely, to destroy this university, which was seen as a beacon of the values of the constitution?

When I walked back home much past midnight, it was not with an injury from a heavy stone which hit me on my forehead as it did others, but a heavy heart, as if a big stone had settled on it.

Cry, my beloved campus. Cry, my beloved country.

Sucheta Mahajan is a professor at the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Govt Wanted Kashmir Like Rest of India, Ended up Making India Like Kashmir: Yashwant Sinha

Sinha said the attack on JNU students and teachers on Sunday had left no difference in “government goons and government police”.

The government had claimed of making Kashmir like the rest of India but has ended up doing otherwise, former Union Minister Yashwant Sinha said on Monday, as he slammed the Centre over what he called was its policy of “suppression”.

Sinha, who had quit the BJP after being sidelined in the party he served for more than two decades, made the remarks while addressing the anti-citizenship law protestors outside Jamia Milla Islamia here.

He also said the attack on JNU students and teachers on Sunday had left no difference in “government goons and government police”, accusing police of “helping” the anti-social elements and not the innocent.

Sinha said he was part of a five-member group which had visited Kashmir amid restrictions and shutdowns there around four years ago and after talking to locals and stakeholders drafted a report for the central government with a proposal for dialogue to resolve the situation.

“Here a top level official told me that I was suggesting talks which is not the government’s policy. We have a doctrine of state — a method and ideology of running the government — which was that anybody opposing us would be suppressed. That is the policy being followed and will be followed in Kashmir,” the 82-year-old leader said.

He said he was disappointed by the government’s approach then and last year also tried to go to Kashmir but was once “sent back” and on another occasion “confined to a hotel room”.

Also read: ‘They Were Banging the Door With an Iron Rack’: Students, Teachers Describe JNU Violence

“Recently when they abrogated Articles 370 and 35A to remove special status of Jammu and Kashmir and divided it into two union territories it was that same doctrine of state at work – suppression of dissent,” he claimed.

Sinha said, “Those in the government had claimed that we will make Kashmir like the rest of India. Today, after five months, Kashmir has not become like any other part of India but the rest of India has become like Kashmir.”

He said if one were to visit Shopian, Baramulla or Pulwama in Kashmir, he would witness the heavy presence of security forces and the situation was now similar in Delhi where police personnel are deployed in large numbers near colleges.

“Wherever you look around, it’s a cycle of suppression. Earlier they would use police to suppress voices but now they are also using goons to this effect. Whatever happened in JNU yesterday, shows this very tie-up … (Sarkari police aur sarkari gundon ka jo farq tha wo sab khatam ho gaya) The difference between government police and government goons is no longer there,” Sinha said.

“And the police here helps the goons and not the innocent people. It’s a strange situation across the country,” he added.

Also read: The Message After JNU Attack Is Clear: No Space Is Safe

Thousands of people, including women and children, are on a protest outside Jamia Millia Islamia and nearby Shaheen Bagh for over 20 days to oppose the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizen (NRC).

Besides Delhi, protests have been witnessed across the country over the contentious law and have at several places led to clashes including Uttar Pradesh, where more than 20 people have died.

According to the amended law, members of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities, who have come from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan till December 31, 2014 and facing religious persecution there, will not be treated as illegal immigrants but given Indian citizenship. The law excludes Muslims.

JNU Violence: Sitharaman, Jaishankar Condemnations Fall Short of Placing Blame

Eminent alumni members Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman and the Union external affairs minister S. Jaishankar condemned the violence but still fell short of pointing fingers at anyone.

New Delhi: The security lapse that enabled a masked mob of over a 100 to enter the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus on Sunday evening will be a matter of debate in the days to come.

The pre-planned, coordinated attack on students and teachers, however, will definitely place the spotlight on vice-chancellor Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar’s sustained refusal to engage with the university community that has been protesting against an unprecedented four-fold fee hike over the last three months. The fee hike, it is said, can lead to almost 40% of the total students dropping out.

Over the last few months, the community attempted to mobilise various alumni groups, civil society organisations and urged political leaders from various hues to intervene.

While most extended their support to the demands of JNU students, political leaders who now hold important positions in the Modi government had remained tight-lipped. It took a mob assault on the students who had been protesting for some of them to speak up.

Two of the most eminent alumni members, Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Union external affairs minister S. Jaishankar, condemned the violence but still fell short of pointing fingers at anyone.

The meek response, of at least Sitharaman, stood out as she has not hesitated in demonising protesting students in the past. Right from when the JNU Students’ Union President Kanhaiya Kumar, along with Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, was arrested on charges of sedition to the recent fee hike protest – Sitharaman has been supportive of the university administration’s hardline positions. And, curiously, has held students accountable for the stalemate at the university.

Also read: How ABVP Planned Attack on JNU Students, Teachers on WhatsApp

While Jaishankar claimed he saw pictures of the attack, Sitharaman described the images as “horrifying”. The available corpus of evidence clearly indicates that the masked assault was planned by the right-wing fringe to attack the protesting students. They raised slogans like “Jai Shri Ram”, “Desh ke Gaddaron ko Goli Maaro Saalo Ko” and “Comradon ki kabr khudegi, Savarkar ki dharti par“. Some eyewitness accounts have also indicated that the mob specifically targeted the rooms of Kashmiri Muslims. Some leaked screenshots from WhatsApp groups like “Friends of RSS” and “Unity against Left” suggest that the attack was also a coordinated one.

“VC apna hi hai, (VC is our man)” said one such text message from the group’s members about the JNU VC. The member almost immediately got a prompt response, saying, “100%”.

The slogans and messages leave barely any doubt about the political affiliation of the so-called “miscreants”. But imagine a situation in which the protesting groups of JNU or say Aligarh Muslim University or Jamia Millia Islamia, may have indulged in such a violent response. Would the honourable ministers have given such a timid response even then?

Their response had in fact encouraged the right-wing machinery on social media to portray the ghastly attack on students as merely a skirmish between the Left and Right. Some videos also emerged that suggested that members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s student’s wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) were also were attacked.

The one-sided narrative sought to be advanced by the right-wing ecosystem appears to be more of an apology for the VC’s intransigence and the ABVP’s own U-turn on students’ issues.

For months now, the JNU Students’ Union (JNUSU) had been agitating against the fee hike. Since the VC has refused to even meet the office bearers, the student’s union gave a call for a total lockdown of the university. They boycotted classes, even as they attended lectures by university professors in the open. The ABVP had also supported the students’ movement against fee hike.

As time passed by, the JNUSU itself started to battle the question of whether or not to continue with the boycott call. It was justifiably worried about the sustainability of such a movement that may impact students’ careers. The VC, during this time, relied on his obstinacy and waited for the movement to die on its own.

Then came the registration for a new semester with the beginning of 2020. The ABVP suddenly withdrew its support to the movement and decided to mobilise its supporters to register, while the JNUSU decided to boycott the registration. On January 3 and 4, some JNU students disrupted the online registration system to prevent the administration from presenting a picture that everything was normal in the university. A majority of students supported the JNUSU in its efforts.

Also read: The Message After JNU Attack Is Clear: No Space Is Safe

The debate between the Left and Right took a violent turn on January 4 and 5. When the students union attempted to prevent a few ABVP activists from registering, a skirmish followed between some of the saffron and Left Unity activists. The students intervened to stop the fight. But through the day, ABVP students rounded up the Left Unity activists at different places of the university and attacked them. Several of them had to be treated at AIIMS. Similarly, small scuffles took place even on January 5.

The university turned into a camp for ABVP activists overnight. At around 5 pm on January 5, there was another attack by the ABVP students on some Left Unity students outside the Periyar hostel. The fight resulted in students from both groups suffering minor injuries. The ABVP’s presidential candidate Manish Jangid and some Left Unity activists were hurt in this fight.

The matter snowballed when ABVP mobilised a mob from outside the university, snuck them in, allowed it to go on a rampage.

The JNU Teachers’ Association had planned a peace march at 6 pm outside the Sabarmati Hostel. At this point, the masked mob, covered with helmets, and armed with rods and stones, began to attack both the teachers and students. The assaulters went to one hostel after another and vandalised rooms, messes, and common rooms for nearly two hours. According to witness accounts, the mobsters were directly hitting students on their heads.

The scale of violence that unfolded on the evening of January 5 was starkly different from what happened the previous day. Those who see any equivalence between the two, like the right-wing supporters, are not only being injudicious but are probably doing so to deflect attention from the criminal assault on JNU students and teachers.

Sitharaman and Jaishakar’s statements condemning the violence are guilty of the same. They fail to make any party accountable and help the mobsters evade culpability.

Also read: ‘They Were Banging the Door With an Iron Rack’: Students, Teachers Describe JNU Violence

Most opposition parties have condemned the mayhem at JNU. While Shiv Sena likened the mob violence at JNU to the 26/11 terrorist attack on Mumbai, Congress has demanded a judicial inquiry on the incident. While a large section of the population sees the perpetual situation of chaos in Indian universities as government-fuelled anarchy, VC Jagadesh Kumar has refused to budge. In fact, he had held the student’s movement against the fee hike as responsible for the violence.

Without uttering a word on the armed mob, his tweets indicate that the university administration may soon initiate action against the protesting students who were beaten up brutally. The press note that the JNU registrar released mentions the masked mob as merely “miscreants” but devotes a large part of its attention to the scuffles between the protesting students and ABVP activists.

In fact, it pointedly states that “a group of agitating students” were responsible for the violent turn of events instead of taking accountability for the “miscreants” who had entered “Periyar hostel rooms and attacked the students with sticks and rods.”

Many would agree that the Modi government, and its agents in Indian institutions, have killed the great Indian tradition of dialogue that has resolved multiple conflicts in the past. JNU is one of the few universities where elections are still fought without money and muscle power; where movements are led solely on students’ agenda.

In a situation where ministers, the university administration, and the police have turned their backs on students, it is plausible why a mob chanting “Jai Shri Ram” in the same breath as “Goli Maron Saalon Ko” went about ransacking the best liberal arts and sciences university of the country with such impunity.

JNU Violence Stirs Protest Waves From Pondicherry to Oxford Campuses

On Sunday night, masked men armed with sticks, lathis and stones, attacked students and teachers of JNU on Sunday night.

New Delhi: Students in university campuses across the country and even abroad staged protests in solidarity with JNU students and condemned the violence that took place in the varsity.

Protests took place at Pondicherry University, Bengaluru University, University of Hyderabad and Aligarh Muslim University. Students staged peaceful marches to register their protest against the violence on the JNU campus. Students of Delhi University and Panjab University also protested against the violence and stood in solidarity with the students of JNU.

“Today it is them, tomorrow it can be us. Violence in any form is condemnable. We stand by our friends in JNU,” Raiza, a Pondicherry University student said.

Protests were also seen at Oxford, SOAS London and Columbia University where students expressed solidarity and took out marches holding posters demanding safety of students on campus.

On Sunday night, masked men armed with sticks, lathis and stones, attacked students and teachers of JNU and damaged property on the campus.

Many were injured and admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi.

JNU Students’ Union president Aishe Ghosh suffered a head injury. All 34 students who were admitted to AIIMS trauma centre were discharged on Monday morning.

The students who were attacked said the attack was pre-planned, adding that the ‘masked goons’ were affiliated to the ABVP. The JNUSU has accused vice chancellor M. Jagadesh Kumar of ‘perpetrating violence’. Several students also accused the Delhi police of not taking any action against the attackers.

(With PTI inputs)