Indian government cracks down on student dissent
2016Ahmed Khan 2016-03Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 7 →
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On Feb. 9, several students at Jawaharlal Nehru Uni versity (JNU) in New Delhi organized a protest in sup port of the self-determination of the people of Kash mir and the memory of Afzal Guru, a Kashmiri who was controversially convicted on charges of terrorism and hanged in 2013.
Shortly before the event, students from Akhil Bharati ya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), a student group asso ciated with hard-right nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), currently in control of the Indian govern ment, complained to the university adminstration. Fearing the implied threat of violent confrontation, the university acquiesced and banned the event.
Subsequently, the university erupted into protest; several campus groups and university faculty and administrators denounced the ban. In response, the Delhi police initiated a brutal crackdown on left-wing students in general; they targeted activists including those not even present at the Afzal Guru event. Kan haiya Kumar, president of the JNU Students’ Union, was arrested on Feb. 12 and charged with sedition, criminal conspiracy, and unlawful assembly after giv ing a speech in support of the student protesters that was deemed “anti-national” (the video “evidence” of this was later revealed to have been doctored).
This precipitated a frenzy across India; Kumar was beaten twice, once by pro-BJP lawyers and policemen immediately preceding his trial, and once inside the courtroom itself. Two other JNU students, Umar Kha lid and Anirban Bhattacharjee were also arrested. The (Above) Students rally at Jawaharial Nehru University (JNU) on Feb. 15.
(Left) Karhaiya Kumar, president of the JNU student union, after his release from prison.
and repression; the destruction of the Babri Masjid in 1992, sparking months of rioting was presided over by BJP officials.
Narendra Modi himself was accused of doing noth ing to stop the communal riots in Gujarat when he was Chief Minister there in 1992. Islamophobia in In dia is reaching levels not seen since the 1990s; several states have passed laws restricting the consumption of beef, which is targeted directly at the Muslim mi nority communities that live there. Caste oppression is on the rise as well, in the name of Hindu national ism, as seen in tragic relief through the suicide of Ro hith Vemula, whose mother was arrested by Delhi po lice at Vemula’s own candlelight vigil.
Neither is it any coincidence that it comes at a time when the liberalization of the economy has reached a fever pitch; despite massive privatization and deregu lation, the Indian economy is still suffering from slow ing growth and massive wealth inequality.
The university system itself has become a target, with massive cuts to education funding in the name of “competitiveness;” here, as it was in the United States in the 1970s, the first step is crushing the student movements, and the next silencing the voices who are speaking out against the failure of the BJP’s neoliber alization of India. n