In JNU, government is playing with fire

India is no stranger to student protests. Indeed, the culture of protests can said to have its origins in our freedom movement. But it continued in independent India as well, at times with extraordinary ferocity. Nevertheless, wisdom has generally prevailed in dealing with young people who, while pursuing their studies, are also learning the ropes of political activity and social responsibility, and are in a phase of their life when everything is up for questioning. This was not in evidence in JNU earlier this week when the university authorities called in the police who arrested the president of the students’ union on sedition charges.

Last Tuesday some students were protesting against the death sentence handed through a proper judicial process to Afzal Guru three years ago in the Parliament attack case, and presumably making hot speeches against the Indian state. In every generation, students have done this sort of thing, but calling in the police to check peaceful protests has been anathema to our university system. This is how it ought to be. If the police become a standard feature on university campuses, the free atmosphere of debate and discussion, so essential to the process of product ion of knowledge, will be a casualty.

There is therefore no surprise that the JNU Teachers Union and the various deans of the university have raised their voice against calling in the police, and slamming the student leader, Kanhaiya Kumar, with the charge of sedition. The action by the university looks to be absolutely grotesque in the larger scheme of things.

It can even be said to be intended to appease the powers that be, for the police moved in after Union home minister Rajnath Singh and HRD minister Smriti Irani spoke threateningly about not tolerating “anti-national” activities. Of course the students were wrong in questioning the judicial process in the Afzal Guru case, which was transparent. But it is hard to see how they were being seditious.

Now the police are going hell for leather and demanding of the vice-chancellor that the university produce some more students so that they too may be prosecuted for sedition. This is not the tradition of any university, leave alone JNU, an iconic institution of education and knowledge-generation respected everywhere in the world.

The government does not seem to realise that it is playing with fire, so soon after what we saw in Hyderabad in the wake of the recent suicide of a dalit student who had been grossly discriminated against by the university. If the denouement there was instigated by BJP leaders, the JNU episode seems to be going the same way. Who knows, Kashmir University could also erupt. What the home and HRD ministers need is a sense of proportion. They must ensure that those arrested are freed.