I'll like to present the complete picture as a Neutral Person ( May be as a citizen of Sri Lanka) about the issue in the form of FAQs with sequential flow of logic, so that its easy to read and absorb.
Q. What is the JNU fiasco all about?
A. A section of students from JNU, who are left-oriented (sometimes known as liberals) in their political ideology, are protesting peacefully for certain demands to be fulfilled.
Government has decided to crush the protests terming them as anti-nationalistic and charged the
accused with sedition. This has resulted in a clash between the government sympathizers and the students of JNU involved in the protests.
Government has decided to crush the protests terming them as anti-nationalistic and charged the
accused with sedition. This has resulted in a clash between the government sympathizers and the students of JNU involved in the protests.
Q. What are the demands?
A. They are:
- Securing right of self determination for the people of Kashmir as promised to them, when Kashmir agreed to merge with the Indian Union. Under it, a plebiscite (mass polling) was decided to be held so as to ascertain which country the Kashmiris would want to join, India or Pakistan. People fighting for social equality and justice (left-oriented) believe that the right has long been denied to them as Kashmir has been tagging along with India since then, with no hint of plebiscite by the Indian governments up till now, whatsoever.
- Removal of capital punishment (punishment by death, like the death penalty), on humanitarian grounds. India is one of the few countries in the world which still awards capital punishment to criminals proven guilty of charges against them. Example: Recent execution of Yakub Memon.
Leftists believe that its amounts to gross violation of human rights.
Leftists believe that its amounts to gross violation of human rights.
Q. Is there anything wrong about such a protest?
A. Absolutely not. India is a democracy and the Constitution guarantees to all the citizens, the right to dissent under the fundamental right of Right to Freedom of Speech and Expression. And, all in all, JNU episode is a peaceful protest.
Q. Does it amount to sedition?
A. Sedition means inciting people to rebel against the authority of the state (nation).
According to the Indian Penal Code (IPC), a conduct may only be classified as sedition only and only if it is backed by direct violence or shows clear evidence of incitement of violence. Merely speech & peaceful protest cannot amount to sedition. And time and again, the apex courts of the country, through their landmark judgements, have re-asserted the same.
According to the Indian Penal Code (IPC), a conduct may only be classified as sedition only and only if it is backed by direct violence or shows clear evidence of incitement of violence. Merely speech & peaceful protest cannot amount to sedition. And time and again, the apex courts of the country, through their landmark judgements, have re-asserted the same.
No, the kind of protest being recorded does not amount to sedition by any means.
Q. What would NOT amount to sedition under the IPC?
A. Examples would be:
- A Muslim (Hindu) shouting at the top of his voice "I'll slaughter all Hindus (Muslims) in the country."
- Possessing Maoist literature; Text books to make bombs; etc.
Q. Then, what would amount to sedition?
A. Examples would be:
- Actually going out on a killing spree with a sword around the city.
- Involved in Maoist activities; Directly inciting people to make bombs (should have definite evidence to be proven).
Q. If it does not amount to sedition, why has Government pressed charges for sedition against the accused?
A. Governments love the law of sedition as a political gimmick. Sedition is listed as a non-bailable offense in the IPC. So, a few nights in jail is certain. This leads to calming down of protests as the key protesters are arrested for investigation. It helps the government to strengthen its point in the view of the common public. The colonial era law hardly amounts to conviction and is used by authorities merely to silence its critics and dissidents.
If you are accused of sedition, you will land up in jail for a few days (ultimately to be released), only to join the club of reputed Indians such as Mahatma Gandhi and Lokmanya Tilak (Becoming a rock-star over night..ehh?! ;) ). Britishers had formulated this law and they used it against freedom fighters, often.
Q. So, are the protests fully justified? If no, where have the protesters gone wrong?
A. The protests are not justified in the way they have been presented. The fault lies in sensationalized sloganeering like 'Pakistan Zindabad' and '..Har ghar se Afzal niklega..' which adds anti-nationalistic character to the message, while the message itself about the actual demands (listed above) is completely hidden and nowhere evident to the common public.
Q. Why is it being sensationalized?
A. Sensationalization is attention seeking and inflammatory in nature, which makes polarization easy. Polarization is divergence of public opinion to usually serve a motive (generally, vested political interests).
Q. How does polarization come into the picture?
A. JNU is a hotbed for politics. It houses the bases of the student wings of the political parties in the mainstream Indian politics. ABVP is the student wing of RSS (& BJP), NSUI of the Congress, DSU is backed by Left parties and so on.
A certain section of the students involved in the protests have vested interests (generally, climbing to positions of power within the university student union). In JNU, it actually matters a lot on the resume (the same may not hold much value in your college) and hence, helps to pass-out with a decent placement.
In order to climb up to the positions of power, one needs votes which, since the voters are sensitive and aware, can only be achieved through quality welfare work. But, an easy way could be polarizing the voters over sensitive issues to split them into groups of sympathizers and haters.
Example: A candidate in a general election may claim that if he is elected to power, he may raise the caste based reservation in favor of weaker sections of the society up to 70%, as opposed to the current 50%. This is bound to offend a certain section of society (the general caste..remember, they are in minority, population wise) creating a pole. They will not vote for that candidate. But, there is another pole which is consolidated - the pole of sympathizers (weaker sections...who are in majority). Now, they definitely will vote for the candidate and he becomes more probable of winning.
The same concept applies to JNU as well, just that the issues here are political ideologies (the 'left oriented' and the 'right oriented') . And, as you may be aware, liberal attitude and values are a new cool amongst the youth (most of them come from poor to middle class families with oppressive setting). They get attracted to it quickly and begin appreciating them. So, it becomes imperative for the fringe elements (present among the protesters) to project themselves as liberalists. The crowd gets divided between the 'right oriented' and the 'left oriented' poles. The fringe elements, now, have a golden opportunity to consolidate their vote bank with ease and contest.
In this case, it started with the fringe elements within the protesters (DSU) creating a pole to serve their interests and the opposite pole created will serve the interests of fringe elements in the crowd which is terming the whole act as 'anti-nationalistic' (ABVP).
Its a regular scene in college politics (which does not mean that its justified, obviously), which for the first time has come into public domain. The habit of the Indian society to give attention to every happening, even the insignificant ones (ones which usually deserve nothing more than a watch with some popcorn and coke, that too, if time permits :P ) has aggravated the condition.
Q. Are student political parties only responsible?
A. Nope.
TRP ridden Media has a large role to play. One should remember that Media DOES NOT show the truth, but it ONLY shows what people want to see. Because showing the popular opinion fetches the media houses abundant TRP, which when combined with advertisements, gets them money to run the business and pay salaries. In this case, they know the popular public opinion (that the protests are anti-nationalistic...). So, they will feed you with it (news stories on taxpayers' money being misused..etc.).
Also, since the whole fiasco has reached to every nook and corner of the country, the ground are ripe for the Parent Political Parties to take it up on a national lever and further Polarize the common Indian public (who cannot decipher their smart strategy). You can already observe senior leaders coming up with inflammatory statements for and against the issue, all in an attempt to subtly, consolidate their respective vote banks (in states in which assembly elections are near..UP, Bengal, Punjab, Assam) and they will continue doing so until they can.
Q. So, How can the problem be addressed?
A. Some Solutions:
- Weeding out the fringe elements. Remember, only the fringe elements are anti-nationalistic, everything else is legit. This step will need a strong political will and is very tough to implement. I personally feel that JNU is the finest University in its field and has one of the very best, law abiding, aware and nationalistic faculty and students.
- Stopping giving it undue attention and start ignoring it to the best of our ability. If people maintain such an attitude, even media will not bother to hype it up (because it will not bring them TRP based revenues anymore).
- Inculcating an attitude amongst the voters, of casting vote to a candidate solely on the basis of his contribution to the society in terms of quality work done so that the right candidate is voted to power. It is very crucial for the development of the country and also, for the unity and integrity of the nation.
- A long term but the most effective solution: Educating each and every citizen of this country to make him fully aware and immunized against sinister strategies like polarization, etc. In this case, even graduates from reputed institutions seem to have gone all bonkers, I pity the 68% people of India who still live in rural setting, the pain and agony that they will be going through.
- A long term but the most effective solution: Educating each and every citizen of this country to make him fully aware and immunized against sinister strategies like polarization, etc. In this case, even graduates from reputed institutions seem to have gone all bonkers, I pity the 68% people of India who still live in rural setting, the pain and agony that they will be going through.
Q. Final result?
A. If remedial measures are not adopted soon, the scores will be..
Fringe Elements:1 Indian Citizens: 0
Yes, we all are bound to lose. We will fail to secure the values the Constitution of India (seen in the Preamble) stands for.
Fringe Elements:1 Indian Citizens: 0
Yes, we all are bound to lose. We will fail to secure the values the Constitution of India (seen in the Preamble) stands for.
source :- quora.com
