I belong to a generation which struggled for azadi. We also
witnessed the dawn of azadi. The recent unfortunate incidents at Jawaharlal
Nehru University took me back to my student days at Patna University from 1939
to 1943. Our college fee was only Rs 8 per month. We had fans in college, but
not in the hostel. Research required hours of work in the library after
collecting references from professors. There are now several universities in
Bihar with all modern facilities, but at that time Patna University was the
only university in Bihar. The standard of education we received was much
superior to what is now seen in Bihar.
During my student days, the world was in turmoil. Second
World War was raging. The British suffered reverses in the early years of the
war and we rejoiced at their discomfiture. We were thrilled when the
impregnable British fortress at Singapore fell. Winston Churchill opposed
Independence for India tooth and nail. He called the Mahatma “half-naked
fakir”. We used to call him “Bulldog”.
There was much political turmoil during my days at the
university with Gandhiji’s independence movements, Muslim League’s demand for
Pakistan and the Communists oscillating between imperial and people’s world
war. Yet, there was no agitation or political meetings inside our temple of
learning. Its sanctity was scrupulously preserved. During the Quit India
Movement, I was part of a student procession on August 10, 1942, which was
fired upon by British troops. Seven students were killed. All hostels were closed
and we had to go to our homes. Since railway lines were uprooted, a few hundred
students trekked to their homes. I walked for three weeks covering 300 km to
Purnia in north Bihar where my father was posted. Our college reopened after
three months, when things became normal.
JNU is a leading university in the country, with high
standards of scholarship and large number of foreign students. The university
has always had Left leanings, but now opposing groups are getting violent and
old values have vanished.
In our time, Oxford and Cambridge were considered the Mecca
of higher education. In 1970, Indira Gandhi established JNU in the memory of
her father to provide Oxbridge-type subsidised education for students from all
over the country.
The intellectuals at JNU maintain that Kashmir is not an
integral part of India. People of Kashmir on our side of the Line of Control
have the right to secede, but they are silent about Pakistan and China Occupied
Kashmir. Afzal Guru, who attacked the temple of our democracy in 2001, is
hailed as a hero in JNU along with Maqbool Bhat, co-founder of Jammu Kashmir
Liberation Front, who was hanged in 1984. In 2010, the Maoists killed 75
Central Reserve Police Force personnel in Dantewada. A function was held at JNU
to celebrate this. One wonders if any university in the US will hold a function
in memory of Osama bin Laden and protest against his sea funeral instead of
being given an Islamic burial.
Abraham Lincoln, internationally hailed as a great democrat,
fought the American Civil War for four years, denying the southern states their
legal right to secede. In the process, Americans suffered more casualties than
their total combined casualties in the two world wars, in Korea and in Vietnam.
Our JNU intellectuals uphold the right of Kashmiri separatists to secede when
our Constitution, drafted by B.R. Ambedkar, does not allow this. Separatists’
feelings and support for terrorists are confined primarily to Kashmiri-speaking
Sunni Muslims living in barely 10 per cent of the land space on our side of the
LoC. The rest of the people in the remaining land space are not separatists.
On February 9, 2016, a function was held to eulogise Maqbool
Bhat and Afzal Guru. Slogans were raised, like Kashmir ki azadi tak jung
chalegi, Bharat ki barbadi tak jung chalegi. Kanhaiya Kumar was apprehended by
the police and put in prison. My sympathy was for him as I felt that his arrest
was not necessary. Perhaps, I was parochial as he comes from Begusarai, close
to my mother’s village home. The people of this region gave us free chura dahi
during our long trek in 1942.
After Mr Kumar got bail, he got a hero’s welcome at JNU. He
addressed a large gathering in the campus. He made a thundering, emotional
speech with repeated Lal Salaams. His masterly oratory swayed his audience,
including listeners on the TV and became the talk of the media for long. I
heard his speech on TV and was impressed by his oratory and style, but not with
the substance of his speech. He cleverly ridiculed the highest in the government
with much pun and humour.
The government’s response was that he was at liberty to do
so but should not indulge in anti-national diatribe. Intellectuals are
splitting hair between rajdrohi and deshdrohi. They justify everything under
the sun in the name of freedom of speech. Overnight Mr Kumar has become a hero
admired by Opposition parties for his ability to sway his audience and
potential to garner votes. He has been meeting the top leaders of Opposition
parties craving to interact with him. I wonder if he appreciates that he has
more azadi in India than his counterparts had in his Communist paradise at
Tiananmen Square in China.
Mr Kumar has also been talking of “Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan”,
but has been underplaying the former. There was not a word of sympathy or
reference from him for Siachen brave hearts, like Hanumanthappa Koppad, who was
dying in hospital while he was being lionised at JNU. He made a bizarre
statement at the International Women’s Day, asserting that the Indian Army was
committing widespread rapes in Kashmir. There are more rapes being committed in
Delhi every day than the Army even in one year and the guilty given deterrent
punishment. He is obviously not aware that the Indian Army’s record on human
rights is far superior to that of the Pakistan Army in erstwhile east Pakistan
and Balochistan, or Chinese Army in Tibet or the US Army in Vietnam and Iraq.
Mr Kumar appears all set for a career in politics. One
senior leader has compared him with Shaheed Bhagat Singh when there is nothing
whatsoever common between them. That leader dare not compare him with B.R.
Ambedkar as that may arouse dalit ire and result in loss of votes. It remains
to be seen whether Mr Kumar is a bubble that may soon burst or if he will carve
a niche for himself in national politics. The creed of Lal Salaam has got
marginalised not only internationally, but also in the Communist strongholds in
West Bengal and Kerala. Notwithstanding this, Mr Kumar has all the azadi to
pursue his agenda.
By
A retired lieutenant-general, Vice-Chief of
Army Staff and ex-Governor of Assam and Jammu & Kashmir.
Courtesy: Deccan Chronicle
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