Are We in Our Country?

Truthhas become yet againcausality in the implosion of frenzied emotions. Pakistan had orchestrated serial bomb blasts in Mumbai through its stoogesand massacred300 innocent Indians in cold blood.  YakubMemon, who played a major role in the massacre,was hanged last year after two decades of procrastination. All Indians are happy with the dispensation of justice, though delayed. But the minions of Pakistan, moldy minded pseudo- intellectuals and some crooked politicians in India howled at the top of their lungs for hanging a convicted traitor.

            Hyderabad Central University has come into focus in the wake of protests staged by the fans of YakubMemon in the university campus for his hanging.In the sanctum sanctorum of the temple of learning, they held prayer meetings forthe traitor who slaughtered hundreds of innocents, they howled and wailed beating chest condoling his death in funeral processions holding placards displaying ‘if one Yakut Memon is hanged every house will have a YakubMemon’. This made the onlookersdumbfounded.

A student from the same university took a serious umbrage to these activities. He did not hinder or block the actions of admirers and fans of YakubMemon. He did not physically assaultany one. He did not even scold any one. He had simply posted on his face book expressing his anguish in his own way as to how heinous it was for these rowdy elements to indulge in violent protests in the university campus for this cause. There is nothing objectionable in it. If a traitor can be openly supportedand can be eulogized as a martyr by a group of students, why does this student not have a similar freedom of expression to condemn it?

            Yakub’saficionadosdid not think so. In a midnight attack on his room in the hostel assault, a gang of thirty fanatic followers of Yakubassaultedthe student. How grievously was he hurt is immaterial here. It is admitted by these student leaders themselves that the student was dragged out his room, beaten black and blue , dragged him to the security post and made him apologize for the post in the face book and forced him to remove his comments from his face book page.

Is it not high-handedness and tyrannical? One can understand if this incident happened in Hyderabad in Pakistan and a Pakistani was hanged by India and if an Indian student there supported the hanging and Pakistani students assaulted him. It is the state of affairs there and it may be seen as a reflection of fierce nationalist sentiments of the people of Pakistan.Don’t we have the freedom to express nationalist views and condemn the anti-national elements in universities in our country?  Are the human rights and constitutional rights meant only for anti-nationals and not for nationalists?

            The particular student who was attacked is form an ordinary backward class family. He belongs to a caste that qualifies him for the so called ‘social justice’ sloganeered by our great intellectuals day in and day out. His mother tried to get justice for her son from the university.  The antinational elementsin the university obstructed her efforts to get justice.  She was forced to knock the doors of court of law, which sought an explanation fromthe university. University suspended five of thestudents form the hostel. When the protests weregoing on against the suspensions, one of them unfortunately  committed suicide.

            Whole of India focused its attention on the University since then. Everybody is expressing freely their own views on the happenings in the university and the background of the unfortunate suicide. There is nothing wrong in it. One cannot overrule ones expressions. One cannot insult one’s sentiments and emotions. The merits and demerits of those arguments are not a point of debate.

Mother of the student who committed suicideconfirmed that their caste is ‘vaddera’. His father confirmed that this caste falls under BC communities. If this is true, the dead student wasnot a Dalit. Media propaganda that the studentwas a  Dalit scholar is undoubtedly false.

            Well, it is not appropriate to say that the brewing agitation regarding the injustice to Dalits is not correct just because the dead student Rohit was not a Dalit. The same sense of social injustice and inequality that is bothering the Dalit students elsewhere in the country is also acutely paining the Dalit students andfaculty of this university too.There is no doubt that these feelings have to be understood with necessary sympathy and solidarity by all those who strive for the welfare of the society and try tomollify their mental agony.  There are many reasons for this accumulated impatience and dissatisfaction among Dalits. There could be many mistakes by university too and some of its decisions and actions may be inappropriate. The manner in which Dalit students were suspended is not beyond suspicion. All these matters should be investigated thoroughly. Culprits, whoever they may be, should be punished. The atmosphere of unrest dominatingin the university campus should be put to end and the undesirable tendencies must be stopped.

There can be no second thought on this. However, the common man who is witnessing how the university campus has become a political battle field has simple questions.  Aren’t the misdeedscommitted by the admirers of YakubMemon responsible for the wholeproblem?. Why nobody is talking about it? Don’t we have to punish the perpetrator for destroying the sanctity of  the university campus? Don’t we need to condemn the attack on the student who questioned these? When Islamic terrorism is spreading its wings worldwide through ISIS agents and some of those agents are caught in Hyderabad and many other places and when Pakistan’s direct attack on Pathankot stunned the country, if institutions of higher learningbecome arena for terrorist supporters, shouldn’t we consider this as a seriousnational security issue?

            If bad policies of  university officials are detrimental to students’ interests, they can protest for resolutions. Student bodies have every right to fight for taking strong action against the officers responsible for the injustice;they can go to any extent within their limits.

One fails to understand why to drag the union  ministers in to it? If a student union brings to his notice the anti-national activities of the supporters of YakubMemon what is wrong on the part of   Minister Dattatreya to write a letter to the concerned ministry to verify facts  and take steps to stop such antinational activities? Isn’t it his responsibility asa Member of Parliament representing the local people? Has this letter anything to do with the legitimate agitations by the Dalit students and Dalit faculty for their grievances and rights.Is it not a treasonto eulogize and take out demonstrations in praise of a condemned terrorist who is responsible for massacre of hundreds of people?  Isn’t it the bounden duty of Human Recourses minister to instruct the university to examine the complaint by the fellow minister and take necessary action? Considering the importance of the matter, is it wrong to follow upperiodically after six months on the status? How can it be termed as applying pressure on university  toinitiate inappropriate decisions? Is there a proof to show that the minister asked to take specific action against specific person? If that is not the case, why should thecentral minister be criticized?. When the entire episode is wrongly portrayed as injustice against Dalits, is it wrong if the Ministerclarifies  that it is not a Dalit versus non-Dalits issue?

            When the student in his suicide note itself  clearlyindicated that no one is responsible for his death and asked not to bother anyone for his death, what kind of logic it is to insinuate that the central ministers are responsible for his death and demand for the inclusion of their names in the FIR and fortheir resignation?

            We should note that Rohit who committed suicide was not a coward. He was brave enough to proclaim that he wouldtear away any saffron flag that he sees and that he hates ABVP, RSS and Hinduism. He wasa wise man who could find out that Vivekananda is a pseudo intellectual. It is difficult to believe that such a person committed suicide frightened by a single letter from Dattatreya and by normal reminders form ministry to the university. It is hard to believe that he would have decided to stop his just fight abruptly and commit suicide. It is preposterous to assume that SmritiIrani or BandaruDattatrya came in an invisible form to put a noose to his neck. There must be some strong reason behind his desperate suicide. What is it?

            “ASA , SFI anything and everything exists for its own sake. Seldom the interest of a person and the organizations match’. (ASA- Ambedkar Student Association, SFI – Student Federation of India)”

This is what Rohitwrote in his suicide note and struck itout on his own!. When the student unions are insisting for inclusion of names of  two central ministers in FIR, is it not appropriate to look into the role of those student unionswhose names were referred in the suicide by Rohit?The Hindu reported that the sim card used by Rohit was missing. Did SmritiIrani came down form sky and took away the sim?

Is it not necessary to have a thorough investigation on all these doubts onthe suicide? Is it that even the criminal punishments should be handed own people as desired by the student unions even before the investigation?

            Kejriwal may have several political issues and hostilities with SmritiIrani in Delhi politics. He may have seen this issue as a good opportunity to express his resentmentagainst her and Modi government and grabbed this like a loaf of fish by a hungry cat. Part time politician Rahul Gandhi may want to bring down Modi government before goes to jail in National Herald case and get power back. Other political powers, which were ‘impatient ‘before Bihar elections may want to bury BJP in the coming election in the state. There is nothing wrong in assuming that all these are craving to get political mileage from the unfortunate death of the student. Whatever may be the plans of the political vultures waiting for opportunity to bring down Modi government, how can the university students and student unions allow themselves to be pawns in their political games? Is it appropriate to demand for removal of the central ministers without investigation even after the suspension of students is revoked?  Do student agitators determine who should be the ministers in the central government?

            We cannot foresee what twists and turns this matter may take at this stage. It is true that if writing a letter by central a minster to another minister itself  is a crime punishable under SC, ST AtrocitiesAct and if it is an offence to  saysupporting and eulogizing  a Pakistani traitoris wrong, where will this lead us to?  The situation begs the basic question – Are we in our country?