NEW DELHI: Truth, as they say, will out. More so when a series of lies and fabrications have formed the narrative used by government and the police force to storm a University, arrests its students union President, make cases against a host of young people, and then use the incident to dub the central University as a hotbed of terrorism, jihadism and anti-national activity.
There were two narratives to February 9: one carved together by the police, the trolls on social media, the Home Ministry, the Human Resource Development Ministry and the BJP spokespersons. In short the entire might of the state, in its formal and informal form. This was supported by sections of the mainstream media, and lawyers in the very court where the cases lodged were to come up for hearing.
And the second narrative by the Jawaharlal Nehru University students under siege, the faculty, that initially were traumatised with the turn of events but gradually found their voice and growing support from the Opposition parties, the mass organisations, 40 of the 41 central universities in the country, scholars, public intellectuals, lawyers, and finally the journalists.
Needless to say the viciousness of the attack, the loud decibels of the abusive slogans, the arrest and the sedition charges were all intended to frighten academia and to tie JNU in the ropes of the ‘anti national’ propaganda unleashed with ferocity on television channels and on the social media. The first hours of the attack on JNU by the police seemed as it the tactics could work, as the confused and terrified students ran for cover, and the faculty looked for direction.
Within hours, however, the top Opposition leaders visited the campus and the still terrorised students emerged. The faculty took charge and the environment shifted from initial fear to a strong assertion of freedom and justice.
The story began on February 9 when posters announcing a meeting to observe the Afzal Guru anniversary appeared on the campus under the signature of a few students. This is not the first time such a meeting was being held, with Guru feeding into the larger discourse of those against capital punishment. As well as the narrower concerns arising from the manner in which he was executed, the death of night secrecy, the delay in informing his family, the subterfuge under the then Congress government in power. The JNU authorities gave permission, and then suddenly the permission was withdrawn. Why the change of mind?
The question remains unanswered as rumours that the Vice Chancellor received a call from the government continue to make the campus rounds. However, this could not be verified.
The First Lie: the silence of the University authorities that in the prevailing atmosphere of terror at the time amounted to an indictment of the students, and an endorsement of the police action. Who gave the instructions to the police to enter the campus? The VIC says it was not him. The government claims, of course unofficially, it was. Who was it?
The Delhi Police falls under the Union Home Ministry with Rajnath Singh seen to be personally supervising the entire episode. Did he give the orders? Silence
The Second Lie: First off the mark was the Home Minister maintaining that there was a link between the JNU students and Pakistan terror mastermind Hafiz Saeed as he had supported the young people. It was subsequently found to be a fake account, denied by Saeed and also by intelligence sources to a newspaper. This was not a statement by Saeed, said the sources, but came from an account that was known to be fake.
So why did the Home Ministers say this? Who had briefed him?
Delhi Police Commissioner ----and now the Opposition is determined to have him sacked---repeated this. And when asked why he had made the claim without verifying it fumbled for an answer.
The truth was exposed, despite the Home Minister of India and the Delhi Police Commissioner.
The Third Lie: Kanhaiya was shouting anti-national slogans.
This lie was countered by the students of the campus, with even APVP members in JNU some of whom resigned from the BJP’s student wing. But since this was at the centre of the attack on JNU with a BJP editor and ideologue even writing that the government should close down the University, this lie persisted till almost the very end. Morphed videos were released to prove the BJP point, showing Kanhaiya against a morphed background. And distorting the Left slogans --used for decades now---that ask for Azadi from poverty, from casteism to insist that these were being raised for Kashmir independence. This lie has been plugged with the media, that went along with the police version initially, finally recovering its conscience to state the truth.
The Fourth Lie:Journalists and students were beaten up at the Patiala courts by lawyers and BJP legislator OP Sharma. The violence was recorded, although again sections of the media preferred to ignore their own video grabs initially. However the second day of violence brought a major shift, with the media finally joining the students in speaking the truth. In that the violent lawyers and Sharma both insisted that they had thrashed those who were raising pro-Pakistan slogans in court. Not a single such slogan was raised, according to journalists and others present.
So the effort to justify the violence on the basis of slogans not raised, has also been exposed.
In the process a conspiracy to muzzle dissent by using an educational institution that has valued its independence, its freedom and a certain level of academic proficiency as the target. At whose behest? This becomes the main story with JNU VC, Delhi Police Commissioner, and even the lawyers becoming just pawns in what appears to be a larger game being controlled from the very top echelons of government.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi maintained complete silence at the all party meeting before the budget session of Parliament, in which JNU was brought up by all the Opposition leaders. He did not condemn the attack on the journalists, in fact since then the lawyer who reportedly instigated the violence as per his Facebook posts, has been facilitated and garlanded. The Delhi police has not filed a case against him or the others, most identifed on camera, and they were left free to attack the journalists again for a second day at the Patiala courts. Even now, reporters claim that they are receiving threats and being told not to show their faces at the courts.
The Delhi Police Commissioner cannot act on his own. He follows orders as even the cub beat reporter know. He works under the Union Home MInistry. Today he is as responsible to the Prime Ministers Office that is in direct charge of governance under the present dispesnation, with all major decisions being cleared at this level. Bassi was summoned to the PMO before the Cabinet meeting on Feb 17, just a couple of hours before the second attack on the journalists at the Patiala court. Again the police on duty was clearly instructed to look away, and not come to the help of the scribes who have all recorded this. In fact several reporters met the President of India and apprised him of this as well. It was the same time that the lawyers beat up Kanhaiya as he was being brought for his bail hearing to court. Again no action by the police.
Now a TV channel is airing a video clearing Kanhaiya of sedition. But what about the days before when TV channels carried an unclear, hazy video obviously supplied by the police agencies under banner headlines accusing him of sedition, and along with him dubbing the University as anti-national? The Supreme Court has kept the bail petition pending and asked Kanhaiya Kumars lawyers just as one writes this, to move the Delhi High Court first.
(Photo credit: ‘Stand With JNU’)