This Kanhaiya Kumar guy didn't deserve to be arrested. At least not from the evidence in a badly shot video. He should be slapped for being stupid, confusing issues, and aiming for a career in politics using JNU as a base.
The sedition charge is a bit high handed, but is not unworthy. If you bring up names of known terrorists and somehow hold the nation responsible for them showing up, that's definitely going to invite the government's investigation. What was he expecting? If the people shouting "Pakistan Zindabad", etc. were not of his ilk, and the claim is that they were 'others' who we know nothing about, then why is this punk the head of the student union? Add incompetence to the charges, but end it with a resounding slap, nothing more.
Is security at JNU in terms of entry and participation in events so lax that a group of people shouting slogans that are clearly anti-India can't even be located, even though they were clearly present for a long period of time? How concerned our politician baba is! And how it is expected that the government do nothing in the face of such taunts!!!
In the educational institutions I attended and universities, both in India and the USA - supposedly two big examples of democracy and freedom, there hasn't been any pretense of self importance, that would lead students to think their protest on their campus should get such importance and coverage as to be able to challenge governments. Somehow, for good or bad, JNU has that pretense. But the people protesting are not only non-experts in anything, they are not even the affected party in the issues they're apparently bringing up.
To me, this automatically begs the question - which is more important to these people? Getting an education or wanting to do work to change the nation as activists and protesters, with or without political leanings? Nobody ever needed a degree for the latter, but everybody is here for the former. This I have a problem with. If you have true passion for something, nothing else should really matter. Which of these two is the goal and which is the distraction?
The appearance of this guy Kanhaiya Kumar is clearly one of someone setting up a career in politics. Here's where it gets lucrative in India - It is easy to get funds, plenty of funds, for being ready to stand in elections. Build some sort of noise value, become significant, get a party going, and all of a sudden, you're worth wooing. This is the trick this punk is playing, and it's obvious as daylight.
Courting arrest is a very popular tactic of such people. It's what gets someone in the news, makes them appear extremely dedicated to some cause, and attractive to political investments.
The BJP has plenty of enemies, particularly the cash rich Congress Party. After looting the nation for decades, they have a war chest of riches, that they can use to support anybody who can challenge or usurp the BJP. The BJP on the other hand, has plenty of resources at hand, but they're interested in nation building, and getting rich through business. They're legit, and they have a plan that is not bad for India.
Back to this Kanhaiya Kumar, I'd like him to grow. It's the best way to challenge pretenders - let them grow to a size they cannot manage. He's brought up the caste issue, even though his family is quite well off, like many people in India who are leeching off the benefits and reservations packages the government after government have doled out, and taking advantage without contributing.
JNU is a ready made platform for making noise. This Kanhaiya Kumar is smart to simply plug and play.
It appears that the students of JNU take themselves way too seriously. It can happen, and it can happen to the best of us. But to imagine they're significant enough to cause tremors to the integrity of the nation, to the fabric of India, etc., is way over the top.
The other thing about JNU is that if its students are able to focus on so many things outside their study area, and student affairs, they basically have no real issues. This is a privilege, and I'd call them privileged pricks if they abused this state of well being to cause ruckus.
Protests have moved well beyond physical arenas, and a lot of petitions online have achieved remarkable results. It is dignified, doesn't use unwanted energy, causes no disruptions, and involves a lot of people who are gathered merely by what they believe. But these low thinking fools can never be satisfied with that, because they want the attention. They crave the attention, and the significance that the media gives them.
The battles have well moved onto newer paradigms. The government under Modi, is pushing its own governance into the digital realm, and that's going to affect over a billion people. It has already started taking effect, and it's only going to accelerate.
What it is going to do is leave these old paradigm fools in the dust. That's what they're most scared of. Reality will show up, through billions of connected people unconcerned with shrill TV voices, for their truths are in their lives, being quietly informed about the collective's every move on their personal devices through the internet. The revolution has already reached them, and it is huge.
It is paving the way for something truly democratic, where not just who have the time and means to stage protests on calculated platforms can be heard. It is putting an honest and countable measure to what the quiet billion plus want. Let's sign on to that, and ignore the punks. We have a nation to build.
We know what being nationalistic is. We know we need to be safe. It's the government's job to keep us safe, and the BJP led government is very hawkish about that. It has every right and every duty to check on elements that talk about breaking the nation, and become belligerent about some protracted justice, outside the means of all that we hold sacred under the Constitution.
The Constitution stands for equality and justice for all. Along the way, we have had many arguments, and made adjustments to the way this justice is delivered. We have recognized the traditionally downtrodden, and provided them a leg up to do better. But we shouldn't mistake this for an excuse to keep asking for more, like reservations in the private sector. There's a reason it's called the 'private' sector. It means each private enterprise can be run according to the judgment of those who start them. They have every reason to try and succeed by being as productive as possible.
While that's a whole other debate, fools like Kanhaiya Kumar need to realize that the nation has progressed fast due to private enterprise, and the overall benefits to the economy have indeed been passed on to the lower classes of our society.
JNU or any university campus should hardly become the arena of any manufactured agitation. Universities are meant for education. There is nothing to indicate Indian universities don't provide enough ground for plenty of healthy debate, but to exacerbate that into a movement that causes disruption to the very purpose of having a university, fully funded by the tax payer's money no doubt, clearly tells me this punk is anti-national to the core.
I'd slap him for just the stupidity he espouses, and the disrespect he shows to the nation that is facilitating so much in education despite not being an economic superpower. What he should ask for is higher quality of education, especially his own. But for that one would need a higher mind.
- BSK
