Anti-national vs. Anti-democratic

JNU is the biggest news nowadays, a small controversy that has snowballed into a massive political storm thanks to the vested political interests. The facts are simple. Some Afzal Guru sympathizers organized a Pro-Afzal protest in the JNU campus and during the protests Anti-India slogans were shouted all over the campus. The slogans were definitely in bad taste: "Bharat tere tukde honge... Insha allah... Insha allah...", "Bharat teri barbadi tak jung rahegi jaari."

My personal views on this topic are slightly complicated to be put forward but I will try.

Any Indian who respects and loves his/her country will find these slogans objectionable and hurting. And I too condemn such audacity of these people. Now I am not a fan of Arnab Goswami, but at least on this point, I agree with him. These people who hold Indian Passports, are studying in an Indian University on a government subsidized seat paid for by the Indian Tax-payers' money; and who are blatantly misusing the right of freedom of expression provided to them by the Indian Constitution; should be brought to books. This is certainly not acceptable. You can freely voice your opinion but the basic decorum has to be maintained. You cannot be ungrateful citizens to a country which is providing you not just with your sustenance but also your education and opportunities of a bright future.

The fact is that Afzal Guru faced a trial, and I am sure a fair one too. He was given every judicial right of appeal and arguments and basis the evidence (and some say his confession), he was pronounced guilty by the learned judges who awarded him a sentence in accordance to his crime. The same had happened with Ajmal Kasab and Yakub Memon. Yet there is a blind dedication to these terrorists by some people who fail to see any reason and who make martyrs out of them. Okay... It is still acceptable. Not everyone can agree on all court judgements and let's not forget, even the judges are humans. You need not agree with them just because they are judges. But, I still fail to understand how that gives one a right to shout hateful slogans against the country. So, yes, I very strongly condemn what happened at the JNU campus.

Now coming to what proceeded the protests. The student union president was arrested on sedition charges. All opposition and left parties went ahead and started shouting that this was undemocratic and that he was just exercising his right of freedom of expression. What I don't understand is why was this undemocratic? Kanhaiya Kumar has not been detained without being produced in court. He has been produced in court where a trial will be given to him, and the prosecution will argue its case and he has the right to defend himself. The question of whether it was sedition or not will be decided by the court basis the evidences. The apex court has time and again sided with an effects-based test (based on the implication of words) rather than content-based test (which examines the text closely) in deciding sedition cases, much like in American law. Further, the court went as far as to say that section 124A would be ultra vires Article 19(1)(a) if it were applied in case of “words written or spoken which merely create disaffection or feelings of enmity against the Government.” If Kanhaiya Kumar has to be proven guilty, the prosecution will have to prove beyond doubt his intent to incite rather that vice-versa where Kanhaiya Kumar would have been asked to prove absence of any intent to incite. I do not see this undemocratic. It is only inconvenient to Kumar who will have to go through all this judicial proceeding. But he should have thought of it before shouting those slogans at the campus.

What I do find undemocratic is the way lawyers are behaving outside the court where they are openly attacking Kanhaiya Kumar and even the journalists. Nobody has the right to take law in their hands. If Kanhaiya Kumar is guilty, let the judiciary decide his sentence. What I also find undemocratic is how the Home Minister, even before producing Kumar in court, pronounces a judgement saying Kumar is guilty because they have seen a video showing him shout those slogans. I think the judiciary is better equipped to derive such inferences if at all. What I do not find democratic is people demanding shut down of a university by generalising that all students of that university are sympathisers of the terrorists. There are always some anti-social elements in every institution. Some institutions, unfortunately breed a few more such elements than others. It is the task of the people entrusted with law and order maintenance to weed out such elements from the university and not to shut down the institution itself.

P.S. I would not comment on what Congress, Left Parties and AAP representatives have been saying. In my humble opinion, it is their job to oppose the government since they are not currently in power. Moreover, by saying whatever they are saying, they are only proving themselves wrong that there is no "freedom of expression" or "democracy" in India. The UPA especially has simply forgotten that they were the ones in power when Afzal Guru was executed and although it was based on court's decision, they had fully supported it. But then, they now find it politically more convenient to stand on the other side.