The last few weeks have
enraged a new controversial debate in India. It is about who is national and
who is anti-national.
The debate started when
Kanhaiya Kumar, the president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU)
student’s union, was arrested and charged with sedition and criminal conspiracy.
The charges were that anti-Indian slogans were raised at an event, in which it
was quoted that Afzal Guru’s hanging was not only moot, but also wrong, because
he was fighting for independence of Kashmir. There shall be many who will fight
for the independence of Kashmir, and that they cannot be controlled by India. Why kill them who want independence?
. The charges were such
that Kanhaiya, being the president, is responsible for the illegal activities
being carried out in the campus. He along with other students faced the charge,
which also included Umar Khalid.
Now a whole lot of drama
in the parliament and in the media was carried out. Umar Khalid, who resurfaced
on day in the campus, gave filmy dialogues like “My name is Umar Khalid and i
am not a terrorist”. Kumar was beaten up in the jail, Smriti Irani proved that
she is a brilliant actress, Rahul Gandhi tried to be witty, Narendra Modi
quoted Rajiv Gandhi, the video which showed the anti-national activity, proved
to be doctored, Kumar was released on bail, Kumar made an impactful speech
filled with quotes such as “we want freedom in India and not freedom from India”....
oh did I mention that media went crazy covering this story? I guess I did!
So kids, last year, the
topic of debate was tolerance.
This year it is the topic
of nationalism.
I choose my today’s topic
as “The nationalism debate: when will we get “Azadi”
from the hypocrisy. “
Azadi” means freedom . This word was invoked again and again by Kumar.
So let’s talk about
freedom of speech? Ummm... ok
Standing in front of
thousand people, being live-telecasted by the whole media, you are accusing
that we don’t have freedom of speech in India? Lol , OK!
You asked the prime
minister of the country to quote Hitler, purely indicating that he is no less
than a dictator. Ok...so did the dictator ordered to shoot you or hang you? Cause
as far as I remember Hitler used to do that.
You invoked late Rohith
in your speech again and again and talked about injustice but
I would have been happy
if you would have also invoked the name of the Sujan Mukherjee.
Now ask who is he?
Just a few days back he
posted something on Facebook , which created tension in the area of Birbhum,West
Bengal. He posted something on
India-Pakistan t20 match, which he thought was funny but turned out to hurt
religious sentiments. Though he was arrested on posting outrageous stuff, crowd
from a certain community tried to create ruckus in the police station and even
demanded him to be handed over to the mob. Now who will assure safety of Sujan?
Did he get justice??
Did he find a place in
your speech Mr.Kumar? I don’t think so, because election are coming up in
Bengal and your party(left) will not want to lose out voters there.
You can publically give
out a “lal salaam” (red salute) because you are leftist. But when RSS tries to
put forward an idea you accuse them of being communal and fascist. Ok, fair
enough.
My intention here is not
to demean Kumar here. I just don’t follow his ideology. And the irony is that
if I oppose his ideology, I would be tagged as “Sanghi”,”Bhakt”, ”Hindu fascist” and
what not.
And it is ironical
because these people are fighting for a practise which gives space to every
ideology. But at the same time they demean the people of ABVP, BJP and of
course the new punching bag of the nation, RSS.
I have to give him credit
for delivering a brilliant speech though. I agree with fact over freedom from
oppression, poverty, caste system. But you ask all this to a newly form
government.
Is the caste system or poverty eradicated in
west Bengal, where the left was in power for more than 3 decades? The same
party whose ideology you follow!
This evening I heard that
Kumar is going to be key campaigner for the left in assembly election of west Bengal
and Kerela. Surprise, Surprise!
So when are we actually
getting freedom from these selective outrage and hypocrisy??
This entire tale has been
blown out of proportion. Those who had to gain political advantage from this
issue are already thanking their stars. No one has to right to say that who is
national or who is anti-national other than the court. The same court which
gave the below excerpts after releasing Kumar
“Suffice it to note that
such persons enjoy the freedom to raise such slogans in the comfort of the
university campus but without realising that they are in this safe environment
because our forces are there at the battle field situated at the highest
altitude of the world where even the oxygen is so scarce that those who are
shouting anti-national slogans holding posters of Afzal Guru and Maqbool Bhatt
close to their chest honouring their martyrdom , may not be able to withstand those
condition even for an hour ”
Why am I writing this? I
may not be student of the one of the most prestigious university in this
country. Neither am I elected to any post or a good orator. But I am an Indian
citizen who has the freedom of the speech to give out my thought to this world
without misusing right.
