We are going through painfully worrying times, where the voice of academics could be in danger of getting stifled. There are direct or indirect relays for academics to follow the ‘official’ stand.
Last week, O P Jindal Global University asked Professor Achin Vanaik to express regret over a teach-in session on the history of Palestine. And IIT Mumbai cancelled his proposed talk on the Israel-Palestine conflict. Why? Probably because this retired professor of international relations and global politics at the University of Delhi, is known here, in the country, and internationally for his forthright views on the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territory.
Why shouldn’t we get to hear his views? Why should we be deprived to hear frank, undiluted and honest views and opinion of this much respected academic? In fact, earlier this year, around April, I had contacted Professor Vanak, requesting him to comment on the Israeli-Palestinian issue, in the backdrop of assaults on the Palestinian civilians by the Israeli forces in the holy month of Ramazan and the storming of the Al Aqsa Mosque by the Israeli forces.
He’d detailed that the assault on Palestinian worshippers at Al-Aqsa Mosque differs from similar past actions at the holy site. “For the first time, Israel has a far-right coalition that includes Jewish religious extremists in government. This section has always wanted to destroy the mosque and replace it with a Jewish temple.” Vanaik had also commented that very large numbers of Jewish citizens have been protesting the Israeli government’s attempt to erode the judiciary’s independence. “However, the overwhelming majority of these very citizens routinely support brutal anti-Palestinian actions in Jerusalem and the Occupied Territories… Therefore, the Israeli government hopes the latest round of brutalities against worshippers at Al Aqsa can serve as a political diversion and enable the wider Jewish public to rally behind it against the natural Palestinian anger and retaliatory actions, given what has happened.”
As it is, Vanaik said, “The settler-colonial apartheid regime is out to extend illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Terrorising Palestinians through armed actions will make this effort that much easier.”
With academics facing a tough time, can the students be left un-affected? In fact, in these recent years college and university students have been facing tough situations with politics having invaded campuses.
The students I have been meeting and interacting with during my travels have told me rather too categorially that they are extra cautious not to pick up arguments or get involved in political discussions. Why? Because it gets easy to throw anti- national charges on them together with a ‘terror angle’ that could have a bogus head and tail to it. They pointed out that for the Right-Wing establishment there could be a hundred definitions of terrorism and terrorists. They pointed out instances of the ‘disappearance’ of the likes of JNU student Najeeb Ahmad who has been ‘missing’, after he had picked up a fight with Right-wing students on the JNU campus.
What had taken place at the Hyderabad University campus, campus of Jawaharlal Nehru University or even at the Delhi University, Jamia Millia Islamia, Allahabad University and Aligarh Muslim University campuses, were all grim reminders of the level to which the State machinery could be used to crush and silence and throttle young rebellious voices. This compels us to: Where is that democracy which promises that each one of us can raise our voice as freely as possible?
Right-Wing’s intrusion right inside the campuses of the Universities was more than writ large after Rohith Vemula’s suicide death on the campus of the Hyderabad Central University. It carried offshoots; students protesting outside the RSS headquarters in New Delhi were assaulted by not just cops but also by the so-called ‘unidentified men!… And in the spring of 2019, it was obvious that Right-Wing factions wanted to create ‘mischief’ on the campus of the Aligarh Muslim University. Having failed in their earlier demands to open an RSS Shakha on the university campus, this time they choose another alternative – grounds of the alleged misbehaviour with the staff of a ‘nationalist’ television channel on the university campus.
List of State intrusion into educational institutions is long. One is well aware that illegal detentions and arrests of the young students are not new governing tactics but what seems worrying is the rising level of insecurity and apprehensions hitting the young.
Latest news reports have come from the Kashmir Valley, where seven students of the Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology (SKUAST) have been arrested under UAPA for raising “objectionable slogans” and “celebrating the loss of the Indian Cricket team.” To quote senior CPI leader of Kashmir, M Y Tarigami on this: “It (students arrest) is wrong. They should not have been slapped with the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in the first place as we are a democratic country… Sports should not be politicalised… It is not a good thing to link sports and politics…. Are they (students) terrorists? If the government has an objection, there are other laws. But why slap UAPA on students.” He also stated that “just like Indian sportspersons are popular outside the country, cricketers from other parts of the globe are popular in India.”
It is time we realize that our youngsters, school, college and university students, need rounds of counselling sessions and also ample guidance along with discussions, talks and interactive sessions. This holds out especially for students born and brought up in conflict zones where they have witnessed much violence and strife.
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Ending this week’s column with this verse of Pramod Subbaraman (Amity Peace Poems, Hawakal Publishers):
‘Which road should we take?/
It is that time again
To think about options/
Which path lessens the pain? /
I hate these decisions/
To think about options/
In this time of crisis /
I hate these decisions/
No God here to help us /
In this time of crisis /
Twenties’ Thirties’ full fury/
No God here to help us/
Which is this century?/
Twenties, Thirties full fury/
Thought it was in the past/
Which is this century?
Do not think it would last/
Thought I was in the past/
They even told us so/
Did not think it would last/
Painful to see them go/
Thy even told us so/
We were fed with those lies/
Painful to see them go /
Watch as another dies/
We were fed with those lies/
For this country we bled/
Watch as another dies/
Rivers of blood, he said/
For this country, we bled/
In so much fear, we shake,/
Rivers of blood, he said/
That blood, is in a lake/
For my family’s sake/
It is that time again/
Which road shall we take?/
Which path lessens the pain?’
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