Photo by Randy Colas on Unsplash

India-A leading democracy in the world-or is it?

Vanshika Mistry
Nov 4 · 4 min read

Protests have always been of a part of a civilization. As opinions are very subjective and very often tend to clash with one another. Sometimes with a friend or it might even be an organisation or a group of people having similar notions, though having an argument with your friend might not lead to protests. May it be massive protests like the anti-war protest of 15th February 2003 or small ones like #BoycottMillennials .

As per India’s Census 2011, Youth (15–24 years) in India constitutes one-fifth (19.1%) of India’s total population. India is expected to have 34.33% share of youth in total population by 2020. With the facts being India will be the youngest country by 2020, a closer analysis of the urban youth suggests their greater political participation.

In a nation full of youth, is expressing one’s opinion against the political issues of their own country an anti-national move?

On February 9, 2016 students from the Jawaharlal Nehru University organized an event on Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru and Kashmiri separatist Maqbool Bhatt. This was to be done the day after Afzal Guru’s third death anniversary as he was hanged in 2013. A program called “A country without a post office — against the judicial killing of Afzal Guru and Maqbool Bhatt” and in concurrence with the struggle of Kashmiri migrants at the Sabarmati Dhaba on the campus and was supposed to showcase the protest through poetry, art, and music.

But seeing this as a step towards national chaos members of the Hindu nationalist student union Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) protested the event, and wrote a letter to the Vice-Chancellor of the University, asking him to prevent it, the students held the event despite the withdrawal of permission, citing their freedom of speech. But the idea of showcasing their protest through non-violent ways was challenged as towards the end of the event, various student groups clashed, and police forces were needed to be called in to restore order. The ABVP issued a call for a protest outside the venue of the event, terming it “anti-national.” In response to the ABVP’s call, members of other student groups, including the All India Students’ Association (AISA), the All India Students’ Federation (AISF), and the Students’ Federation of India (SFI), arrived to support the event. Due to this, a case of sedition was lodged at Vasant Kunj (North) police station against several unknown students. It was registered under IPC Sections 124A (sedition), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 34 (acts done by several persons with a common intention).

As an immediate reaction to the event, the organizers of the event distanced themselves from the slogans. Kanhaiya Kumar, the president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU), said: “We are appalled at the way the entire incident is being used to malign JNU students. At the outset, we want to condemn the undemocratic slogans that were raised by some people on that day. It is important to note that the slogans were not raised by members of Left organisations or JNU students.”

Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested on sedition charges after allegations of ‘anti-national’ sloganeering against him surfaced. He was ordered to three days of police custody. Following this, on 14 February 2016, students of the university issued a “shutdown call”, and stated that they would not allow further classes to take place until Kumar was released.

Kanhaiya Kumar’s hearing was scheduled to take place on 15 February, in Patiala House court. A group of 40 lawyers began shouting slogans against JNU prior to the hearing. The journalists covering the case were assaulted by the lawyers outside the Patiala House court. Students and teachers of JNU who had come to attend the hearing were also beaten by a group of men in lawyer robes, who tried to push them out of the courthouse.

All of these struggles that are still going on for the JNU sedition case, does it not make you wonder if all these fights and protests are for what did the JNU students do anything wrong in organizing a rally over the issue of Kashmir? Is the issue of Kashmir so scary for us, that we are so full of the idea of such a nationalism that we are not even ready to hear about the issue of Kashmir from Kashmiris themselves.

Rather than calling it sedition and taking legal actions towards it shouldn’t we be looking at what the protesters wanted to convey, shouldn’t we be listening to those muted voices asking for justice?

Vanshika Mistry

Written by

Trying to balance between the life that she wants and the life that happened to her.

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