JNU Has Brought Into Focus Several Issues
By Dr. Vivek Kumar Srivastava
18 February, 2016
Countercurrents.org
Union communication minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has said that JNU is a medium and source of alternative voice and it should be heard. “JNU is a very premier institution of India, widely respected also. It has produced outstanding civil servants, great academicians and also well known public figures. Its faculty and students also excel well. We all think there is also a very eloquent, powerful and constructive alternative voice in the JNU. The country is equally eager to hear that voice.”
It is a welcome statement and should be taken note by all Indians. JNU and any other university help to liberate human soul from the chains of conservatism and mental knots. Hence any deliberation going on inside the campus should be welcomed. This statement needs to be analyzed in this background. Now government is also ready to respect the pluralism of thoughts. It shows that there is flexibility in its approach in dealing such sensitive matters where the own Indian citizens are involved and they appear to be silenced or crushed by the force and other medium.
This sane approach to any matter will always bring positive developments to such issues. But equally important is for the students of JNU and any other university that they must not sponsor or speak anything which is against to the spirit or unity and integrity of India. The institutions of higher learning are crucial to maintain the intellectual freedom and intellectual expansion to wider public audience. These are places where ideas are generated and are debated but no idea can be of any consequence or related to intellectual development if in its core or spirit or in pith or substance is sponsoring those elements which can lead to destabilization of the state.
It happened in Pakistan where such ideas were fed and promoted often by the support of the government that today these have attacked to the state in return. The birth of terrorism in Pakistan is result of support of such ideas in public domain.
JNU since its establishment in 1969 was a bastion of the communist ideas and in later years the growth of another groups started to take place in strong manner when Hindu oriented organizations started to play a role in the politics of the university. This was soon concerted into an enmity when the student affiliations to two different ideologies were sharply crystallized. Its consequence was the increasing rivalry between these organizations. The role of the political persons from different political parties is also under question as they could never teach their ideological off springs that any dividing issue is not and can never be part of the debates. This idea was never entertained by any political person that one day the intellectual liberty may even endanger not only the existence of JNU on the intellectual level but also may bring several problems to the students, country and society at large.
Another point which requires deep analysis is related to the freedom of the academic staff of the country. JNU history faculty is often tagged as communists and major attack is on the historical books and material written by these scholars. These attacks are not in consonance to the true spirit of Indian nation state where plurality of ideas have been always been respected. Everyone needs to know that history written by the JNU scholars is well grounded. It is dependent upon the high quality research and there is much involvement of the high quality focused research which is based on the documentary records. The history writing is not the result of a layman speaking but it is product of quality research. Hence these attacks have no merit and should be contained although in the recent past this has come into light that such attacks have become common. These also create ambience of sadness among the faculty of the JNU, in fact politicians should remain away from dictating the terms and knowledge in the areas of scholarship.
The issue of JNU has another connotation which relates to the violence being conceptualized by some people. This development is against to the rule of law but one must understand the psyche of mob which has no brain. Hence any violent orientation is against to human survival but the issue of violence has brought issue of polarization in the Indian society which is likely to percolate to the political world. This development will definitely affect the country in longer term. Hence every politician must appreciate the gravity of the issue and should make genuine, nationalist efforts to preserve everything which has been given by constitution and which are the part of Indian people’ existence. Minster Prasad’s statement therefore assumes importance JNU has emerged as a symbol of a highly polarized Indian society. It needs to be thought by all that right course of action is the right way of progress and survival, otherwise nation hood may come under danger, along with the human liberty and academic freedom and finally the country as a whole. This idea should not be allowed to proliferate at any cost.
Dr. Vivek Kumar Srivastava is Assistant Professor, CSJM Kanpur University (affiliated College) and Vice Chairman CSSP, e [email protected]