 "JNU a den of seditious anti-nationals? This 1984 episode suggests otherwise")
JNU, anti-national? Think again!
Indira Gandhi’s assassination on October 31, 1984, brought forth tales of cowardice but also unparalleled bravery.
Violence broke out almost immediately. Shekhar Gupta recalls the scene in Delhi: “Along the radial roads emanating from Connaught Circus, fires blazed as if in a choreographed show. Furniture shops on Panchkuian Road were set on fire...at a glass-and-mirror shop, a Sikh...was impaled by shards of large glass sheets that rained on him as the shop was looted...”
The violence spread almost geographically. In upscale areas of Vasant Vihar, homes of affluent Sikhs were targeted.
Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) is not far from Vasant Vihar. From the campus, you could see smoke rising. The teachers banded together and worked out how to protect Sikhs — both employees in the administration and students. Faculty members patrolled the campus and made sure no students and faculty were harmed.
One professor invited Sikh families to take shelter in her home. She dispatched her son, also a student, to the hostels to locate and bring her Sikh students to safety to her home. The son returned with a student in tow who stayed with his teacher’s family for two days, until it was judged safe for him to return to the hostel. He was traumatised and confused but his teacher comforted him. The episode was a testament to the spirit of JNU teachers as well as students.
That boy was named India’s Ambassador to the United States last month.
JNU, a den of sedition and anti-nationals? Really, PM?
Indira Gandhi’s assassination on October 31, 1984, brought forth tales of cowardice but also unparalleled bravery.
Violence broke out almost immediately. Shekhar Gupta recalls the scene in Delhi: “Along the radial roads emanating from Connaught Circus, fires blazed as if in a choreographed show. Furniture shops on Panchkuian Road were set on fire...at a glass-and-mirror shop, a Sikh...was impaled by shards of large glass sheets that rained on him as the shop was looted...”
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Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) is not far from Vasant Vihar. From the campus, you could see smoke rising. The teachers banded together and worked out how to protect Sikhs — both employees in the administration and students. Faculty members patrolled the campus and made sure no students and faculty were harmed.
One professor invited Sikh families to take shelter in her home. She dispatched her son, also a student, to the hostels to locate and bring her Sikh students to safety to her home. The son returned with a student in tow who stayed with his teacher’s family for two days, until it was judged safe for him to return to the hostel. He was traumatised and confused but his teacher comforted him. The episode was a testament to the spirit of JNU teachers as well as students.
That boy was named India’s Ambassador to the United States last month.
JNU, a den of sedition and anti-nationals? Really, PM?
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