DU protests: Modi govt's silence on campus violence is baffling

There is surely something rotten in India if a group of young men owing allegiance to the ruling dispensation can walk into a college in Delhi and beat up students and other participants in a function just because they do not agree with some of them. The group was brazen enough to announce that through their vandalism and violence they were preventing what they perceived to be “anti-national’’ activities. This is not the first, nor, one fears, will it be the last, time that the epithet, “anti-national’’, has been used to suppress free speech and to intimidate individuals and groups who have different views from those who flock to the saffron banner. The saddest aspect is that such bullying is taking place inside university campuses, which are supposed to be sanctuaries for free speech and dissent. The freedom to express one’s views is one of the fundamental pillars of democracy; arguably it is the most crucial pillar. The Constitution, while recognising the right to freedom of speech, does impose certain restrictions on it. But it has become evident that there are outfits in India that believe it is their duty, in the name of the nation, to suppress views that are not in agreement with the Sangh Parivar’s reading of what is national. As a result, freedom of speech has now entered the long list of things that are endangered in India. At the very top of that list are, of course, reason and dissent.

The point about reason, or rather the absence of it, is underlined by the fact that Umar Khalid, the student of Jawaharlal Nehru University whose presence in Ramjas College was the trigger for the violence perpetrated by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), was not going to speak on anything that would have compromised India’s integrity. He was slated to speak on the tribals of Bastar. There is nothing “anti-national’’ in speaking about them. This makes it obvious that the violence was a premeditated attack. What is appalling is that instead of showing regret, ABVP members are proud of what they did and have threatened to continue to use violence against those they perceive to be “anti-national’’. It is manifest that they have no respect for the freedom of speech and the rule of law. They believe that muscle power and bullying lay down the writ in democratic India.

There is one very good reason why loyalists of the Sangh Parivar can continue to incite violence at the slightest pretext: The government takes no action against them. It is not for the first time that the Prime Minister and the entire leadership of the Bharatiya Janata Party have been eloquently silent on the violence in Ramjas College and its sordid aftermath, including the shameful hounding of Gurmehar Kaur. Through their silence, they condone and even applaud the violence. It is also worth noting that such incidents of violence occur at particular conjunctures during election time — they are used to whip up primeval passions. As the ruling party, the Bharatiya Janata Party has to make sure that the shadow of violence does not loom large over Indian democracy.