Three leaders of JNU’s ABVP unit have resigned to protest the government’s iron-fisted – and ham-handed – response to the entire row.
Pradeep Narwal, Joint Secretary of the JNU unit of ABVP, Rahul Yadav, president of the ABVP unit of JNU's School of Social Sciences (SSS) and its Secretary Ankit Hans quit Wednesday, saying they could no longer countenance being “mouthpieces” of the government.
I am not surprised. As someone who was a member of the ABVP in JNU, at a time when to be right wing was to be a political untouchable, I have also experienced first-hand that no matter your ideological leanings, no student ever violated the unspoken code of JNU. That meant you practise your politics in a non-violent, intellectually-challenging environment, where elections could be fought and friendships forged and maintained despite deep ideological differences.
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It is in this spirit, then, that the resignations of the three ABVP leaders must be seen. The government’s crackdown is a blow at the very heart of the JNU ethos, which, unlike other most other universities in the country, including Delhi University, encourages settling differences by debate rather than blows. And that is something that was followed by all parties, right or left.
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That is also what allows for personal friendships to trump ideological differences. Personally, some of my closest friends from my time at JNU are persons who are ideologically at the other end of the political spectrum, as faithfully committed to the Left as can be, or a Free Thinker (yes, that is a real political party in JNU, that comprises students who do not wish to ally with either the Left or the Right). And while I may not agree with their political views, I would never dream of circumscribing it.
The underlying bond was always that we were all JNU-ites, a bunch of diverse youth from all parts of the country thrown together in an oasis – literally and intellectually – in the heart of India’s capital, where everyone outside the walls of this red-bricked institution in Punjabi-Jat dominated Delhi saw you as outsiders. And deep down, we knew that we all belonged here and at the end of the day, we were all in it together.
Living together in this world meant that everyone imbibed the so-called ‘spirit of JNU’, and lived by it, and had each other’s back. The few times you heard of violence on the JNU campus was when students across party lines would beat up the odd outsider who made the mistake of harassing a female JNU student on campus or even on the lone 615 bus that took us into the outside world.
When I was struck by chicken pox during a campus outbreak, my roommate, ostensibly an ABVP supporter, fled in fear. My best buddy, avowedly to the Left, moved in with me and looked after me.
At this time, then, when Kanhaiya Kumar is being persecuted for sedition, and all of JNU is being labeled as a hotbed of anti-nationals, we must applaud the actions of these ABVP members who have broken ranks with their party to stand up for what this institution is about and against the government’s overreaction.
This is as it should be. There can be no doubt that while the sloganeering calling for breaking India was unacceptable, the government’s reaction to the entire incident has been grossly disproportionate and misjudged. Worse, turning a blind eye to lawyers attacking students and teachers inside the court is utterly unacceptable. And it is entirely in keeping with the JNU spirit that these ABVP members have made a stand.
In their resignation letter, the three ABVP leaders wrote “We can’t be mouthpiece of such a govt. which has unleashed oppression on student community, legislator like O P Sharma, govt. which has legitimized the action of right wing fascist forces either in Patiala house court or in front of JNU north gate. Every day we see people assemble at front gate with Indian Flag to beat JNU student, well this is hooliganism not nationalism, you can’t do anything in the name of nation, there is a difference between nationalism and hooliganism.”
Any sane person would agree.