Govt bid to muzzle youth: Jyotiraditya
Govt bid to muzzle youth: Jyotiraditya
The raging Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) controversy rocked Lok Sabha proceedings on Wednesday with an emotionally charged human resources development minister Smriti Irani saying the university’s student union president, Kanhaiya Kumar, and other students were found indulging in anti-national activities by the varsity authorities themselves.
She also made an emotional pitch on Hyderabad Central University student Rohith Vemula’s suicide, saying that her ministry had no role in his death and that the deceased himself had said in his suicide note that nobody should be held responsible for his action.
Replying to a discussion on the JNU row and Vemula suicide incident, Union home minister Rajnath Singh assured the Lok Sabha that no innocent student would be harassed and said the issue of the sedition charge slapped on some students should be left to the courts to decide. The home minister also told the House that those found guilty of attacks on the media in the Patiala House courts would not be spared.
Sparks flew as soon as the House started a discussion on the JNU row and Hyderabad Central University student Rohith Vemula’s suicide, with both the Treasury benches and the Opposition playing a game of one-upmanship to present their credentials as “nationalists”.
Initiating the debate, Congress chief whip Jyotiraditya Scindia alleged “undue interference” by Union HRD minister Smriti Irani and labour minister Bandaru Dattatreya in Vemula’s case. “Bandaru Dattatreya in his letter had called Rohith a castiest and an anti-national. Where in the world can you see a HRD minister writing five letters in any case,” Mr Scindia said. The Congress MP from Guna also raised the issue of FTII, IIT Madras and JNU and said “the government was trying to muzzle the voice of the youth”.
Lambasting the government, Mr Scindia attacked external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, tribal affairs minister Jual Oram and Ms Irani for emphasising that Vemula was not a dalit.
Criticising the role of the Hyderabad University administration, he said protests and fights are the part of academic institutions but in this case the vice-chancellor should have tackled this issue in a better way. However, he instead suspended the dalit students and compelled them to stay in an open tent because of the “politics of the RSS and BJP”, the Congress legislator said.
“The Prime Minister speaks of demographic dividend of the youth. But what do we see in the country In Madhya Pradesh, we see Vyapam in Madhya Pradesh, the problem of drugs in Punjab, the way the voice of students in FTII was muzzled. The government machinery is being misused and is trying to crush the voice of the dissident and those having a contrary view,” he said.
He also questioned the silence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying, “He tweets on every other thing, but it took five days for him to speak on this matter, only after a worldwide uproar. There is no reference in Mann Ki Baat.”
Later the home minister in his reply to the debate also told the House that those found guilty of attacks on the media in the Patiala House courts would not be spared. The home minister also answered criticism for making a remark that LeT founder Hafiz Sayeed had expressed support to the JNU students, saying he never makes any comment which is “baseless or not backed by any direct or indirect evidence”. He, however, refrained from going into details citing confidentiality.
Replying to a day-long debate on the JNU issue, he said the government had no hand in the action taken against the students and that the police was taking action with regard to allegations that anti-India slogans were chanted there. “If slapping of sedition charge was right, the court will uphold it, if it was wrong, the court will quash it. But let the court take a view on it,” he said, adding, “Under no circumstances will any innocent student be allowed to be harassed.”
HRD minister Smriti Irani came out all guns blazing while replying to the charged day-long debate. She said she was being targeted by the Congress for contesting against Mr Rahul Gandhi in Amethi parliamentary constituency. “I will not seek forgiveness for doing my duty... You (Congress members) never wanted to listen to my reply,” she said aloud as the Congress members, Left parties and Trinamul Congress staged a walkout as she was speaking.
During the last 20 months as minister, Ms Irani said, she had tried to do justice to students by trying to address their complaints without asking for their “caste or religion”.
Rejecting the charge of saffronising education, she said she would quit politics if it was established she had made any attempt to do so.
Most of the vice-chancellors are Congress appointees, Ms Irani said, adding she had asked them to listen to students who come from different backgrounds and address their issues.
Citing documents, she said a report by JNU’s security people observed that some students were indulging in anti-national sloganeering even though the students had sought permission to hold a “poetry” event. Those involved in the programme, including Umar Khalid, Kanhaiya Kumar and others, she said, were suspended by the JNU authorities though they were allowed to stay on the campus till completion of the inquiry.
Sugata Bose of the Trinamul Congress accused the government of being “heartless” in dealing with the students and said the situation in JNU should have been handled with sensitivity. Observing that similar problems were witnessed at Jadavpur University, he said the West Bengal government did not over-react but tried to defuse the situation. He said people could disagree with students, but it would be incorrect to brand them anti-national and slap sedition charges on them. “They too have the right to make a mistake,” he added. Nobody, Mr Bose said, should claim a monopoly on nationalism and the government should respect the right of everyone, including that of students, to freedom of speech and expression.
Quoting his grand-uncle, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, he said it would be wrong to pursue nationalism which is “narrow, selfish and arrogant”. He suggested that laws dealing with sedition should be repealed as they were enacted by colonial rulers to subserve their ends.
