A disease is
spreading across India, a disease called nationalism! The Brahminical Fascist idea
of Hindi-Hindu-Hindustan is the ‘sacred thread’ within which the Indian
nationalism is trying to get constructed. This is in continuation of their
nefarious design of Akand bharat where there is no place for religious and
ethnic minorities, OBCs, dalits and the indigenous people. For the past 15 days
the disease of nationalism is spreading across India and whoever questions this
Parpania Fascist idea of India is called Anti National. The brahminical
Fascists put forth Hindutva as their ideology and indulge in a deceptive
patriotic sloganeering, projecting themselves as the only alternative. The
parliamentary left as well as the revolutionary and democratic forces who are
steadfast in their struggle against Hindu Communalism, do not clearly demarcate
their ideology and organization – v z. Parpaniam (Brahminism) combined with,
Fascism. With the result, the offensive loses its sharpness gets scatters and
misses the target. Hinduism is not a
religion but it is an ideology of Brahminism that upholds the institution of
socio economic oppression called caste system. If RSS says that we are
imposing Brahmanism, people will reject it. That’s why they are using the mask
of ‘hindutuva’ which is a synonym for Brahminism. That’s why they are imposing a single Brahministic culture of Hindi,
Hindu and Hindustan, the base for the Indian Nationalism. Whoever opposes this
model is called anti national. That’s how Comrade Rohith Vemula and Comrade
Kanhaiya Kumar are called Anti nationals.
On the evening
of 9th Feb, some individuals organised a programme named ‘A country
without a post office’ on two major issues. One is about the judicial murder of
Afzal Guru and the other one about the self determination of Kashmir. As usual
the right wing forces (ABVP) came to disrupt the event, however one must note
that unlike many previous incidents where ABVP would get permissions withdrawn
and create a ruckus, this event was disrupted and attacked in a meticulously
planned manner, in front of the media. ABVP’s roadblock should also be seen as
a part of that. We stand with the democratic right to debate, discuss and organize programs.
As universities are such democratic spaces to question which affects the
country such as AFSPA, land acquisition bills, militarised zones of this
country, oppressed nationalities fight for right to self-determination,
budgets, cutting down of subsidies for farmers, students, and of course
colonial outdated laws like sedition etc.
We see this
witch hunt and state terror on JNU and persecution of student activists under
the baseless sedition charges is just a small step in the RSS agenda of
saffronization of education. Still, since a major controversy has stirred up
due to certain slogans raised in the cultural programme, we will clarify our
position on the same. ‘Pakistan zindabad’- It was never raised by
anyone. This shows how the rightwing backed news channels are party in concoction
of evidence that lead to the media trial. ‘Bharat tere tukde honge, insha
allah, insha allah’ and ‘Bharat ki barbadi tak jung rahegi’- These are unnecessary and unwanted slogans
not backed by any ideology. The organisers should have been more careful
and not let their platform be hijacked by such sloganeering which diverts the
whole issue of ‘judicial murder of Afzal Guru’ and ‘the right to
self-determination.’ However we maintain that such slogans, that can be perceived
as divisive, come from a particular material, historical and social context and
there is a history of oppression that stirs up this anger. Also such
sloganeering, which is an expression of dissent can never be criminalized. ‘Tum
kitne Afzal Maroge, Har Ghar se Afzal Nikalega’, ‘Kashmir maange Azadi’- this
expresses anger over the state violence and long struggle of Kashmiri people.
The violence and militaristic presence has led this anger to exist and survive.
The ‘right to self-determination’ of
nationalities is nothing new, and has been there against this monolithic idea
of ‘nation’ and sloganeering by students who come from various parts of this
country represents contending views, and expression of dissent can never be
criminalized in a real democratic country.
On Self-Determination & the Kashmir Issue: India is not a nation
but can be called as a country or sub-continent. It is a prison house of
nationalities like Kashmiris, Tamils, Nagas, and Assamese etc. The Indian
nationalities are forcefully united not by any mutual understanding or
agreement. These borders that mark the territory of India are a consequence of
a transfer of power from the British to Indian elites that actively engage in imposing
its hegemonic Parpania agenda and destroying the various cultures that are
unique to different nationalities within India. One has to acknowledge the
situation specific to Kashmir- the Indian and Pakistani occupation of the
valley has been violent. The Indian state through its army has terrorised the
people of Kashmir. From a situation like
that a demand for self-determination should occur systematically through referendum
as the name itself suggests. As long as the aspirations of the common
people of Kashmir are reflected in the verdict, it will be a fight for
self-determination and not another separatist movement. In this light we should
note that just like the Indian occupation, Pakistan has also occupied a part of
Kashmir. Religious fundamentalists instigating separation from Pakistan/India
should not be mistaken for common people who want self-determination.
One can take the example of Amannullah Khan, who like Maqbool Bhat, was
fighting for self-determination in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir to illustrate this
point further.
Why This Attack on JNU? We argue that
the current attack on JNU was not just a result of a programme on Afzal Guru or
because of pro-azadi slogans; this crackdown can be explained by the RSS plan
to saffronize higher educational institutions in the country. When FTII
protested against the appointment of a sanghi as their director, they faced the
same consequences; when APSC from IIT-M conducted study circles that were
critical of the Modi govt, they were banned too and the exact same end was met
by ASA of HCU as they screened Muzzafarnagar Baqi Hai and protested against
Yakub Memon’s judicial murder. Every time this saffron government sees dissent
breeding in university campuses, they take it as a threat that can expose the
real anti-people nature of the state and it tries to crush the movement with
full force. Universities are such
democratic spaces to interrogate the issues of society and debate the
contending world views. The nation does not mean a piece of “land” or a “map”,
it consists of PEOPLE. These heavy-duty attacks are making things seem more
controversial than they should be and act as perfect diversions from upcoming
RSS agendas that will be reflected in neoliberal state’s policies. Since the
discussion on JNU has occupied center-stage most people didn’t notice the ‘Make
in India’ week that was happening in Bombay or about the 5000 workers
protesting at Honda plant, one can only wait what the upcoming budget has to
offer.
Even after the
so called independence in 1947 August 15, India is run by the Colonial laws. Section
124 A is a regressive colonial remnant (Bhagat Singh was hanged using sedition)
that is put to use by the state as and when required to crush dissent. We have
seen how sedition cases were slapped on 3000 protestors against Kudankulam
nuclear plant, earlier on Dr. Binayak Sen, and then Com. Kovan for his songs
criticising the state run TASMAC liquor outlets by the fascist Jayalalitha government. This happens
in ‘independent’ India. Fascist regimes ban not just freedom of expression, but
also freedom to THINK, and criminalises right to DISSENT. It is clear in the
current case on JNUSU president and two of the organisers of the programme and
others on 9th have absolutely no grounds for forming a sedition case
either. We see how the sanghi project of branding JNU to be a hub of
anti-nationals is hinged upon a campaign propagating Islamophobia and
demonising voices of dissent that expose the same concept of Hindu rashtra.
Just like the RSS has made use of ‘Hindutva’ as an ideology that justifies
violence, it is playing the ‘nationalism’ card in this case. The judiciary is
granting bail to culprits like BJP’s O P Sharma and the lawyers Vikram singh
Chauhan, Yashpal Singh who were seen attacking journalists, while the bail for
JNUSU president is getting delayed over & over again. The state apparatus
is also turning a blind eye to the massive destruction of state property and
disruption to public service delivery, in the Jat agitation for reservations.
Two Grave Threats to India: On the one
side, Modi government is accelerating with the anti-people policies like shut
downing welfare schemes; handing over the higher education to Global capital
(WTO-GATS), fund cuts (17%) to the higher education (college’s fees are
increased by more than 200 times, fellowships and research scholarships are
scrapped, research funding reduced drastically) and selling out the public
sector unit shares. The reforms in the labour bills seem to install slavery
legally for the interest of global and Indian ruling classes (refusing to
implement five ILO conventions). Buzzwords like “Smartcities”, “Make in India”,
“Digital India”, “Teach in India” and “Start-up India” pave the way to make the
country’s interests subservient to imperialism. Overall, our country has been
pushed towards the final closure of the recolonization
process. On the other side, saffronization of education, pushing the Sanskrit
and Hindi language, Garwapsi program, Holy cow agenda, Dadri incident (beef),
attacks on Dalits, legitimizing mythology as science and so on are fuelling the
communalization in India . These are all the strategy of sangh parivar to push
the Hindu-Hindi-Hindusthan agenda. The Hindutva and recolonization are the
parallel process and one is essential for the other. In other words, Hindutva
is nothing but the agency to the Global capital today. The students are
criticizing the brahminical caste system (Hindutva) and pro-corporate
(anti-people) economic policies of Modi government. These two are primary source
of intolerable burden on the working masses. The real anti national are the
ones who are communalizing the people using caste and religion and selling out our
country through anti-people policy and suppressing student community who are
fighting for the rights and betterment of working masses.
Comrades and
friends, fascism can only be defeated by the political consciousness and unity
in our struggle. The current students’ movement in JNU needs to assume a radical
nature to face this grand failure of democracy. A real democracy can be built
by industrial revolution and scientific revolution. For this the intellectuals, students, labourers, peasants should unite
together and uproot the brahminical fascism from this country. We have seen
how student activists are being witch-hunted under sedition, how the police
have no substantial grounds to build cases on and how all organs of the brahminical
fascist state are engaging actively in an aggressive persecution of the
dissenters. Not much can be expected from pseudo-leftists who are playing safe
games and defining the entire movement by statist argument of nationalism. We therefore give a call to the students to
join the revolutionary organisations. We must assume a more radical nature of
politics to fight saffronization and all other plans of the RSS in the near
future. Let us chase the right wing forces like ABVP from the campuses. Let us
unite to ensure the democratic space in academic fraternity and student’s
rights for social change.
#FIGHTFORJNU #FIGHTWITHJNU 
