INDIA: Hands off JNU, other campuses
A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission
February 17, 2016
The trouble fomenting in Indian varsities ever since the new
government came to power has now reached one of the most prestigious
universities of the country, the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).
The stir ostensibly started after a group of students organized an
event commemorating the death anniversary of Afzal Guru and called his
hanging a judicial murder.
The Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student group
affiliated with the ruling Bhartiya Janta Party took exception to that
and accused them of indulging in sedition. The Union government lapped
up the accusation and unleashed an unprecedented police action on the
campus. The police arrested Mr. Kanhaiya Kumar, the President of JNU
Students Union – who belongs to a political group at loggerheads
with the organizers of the event – under sedition charges just for
his presence at the event.
Unfortunately, a section of electronic media added fuel to fire and
presented a rabble-rousing narrative of the events, aimed at inciting
passions. They summarily called JNU a hotbed of seditious activities,
against all the evidence present. They broadcasted videos whose
authenticities they themselves called suspect – videos with
anti-India slogans, with no faces identifiable.
They also refrained, inexplicably, from running the video of the
speech made by Mr. Kanhaiya Kumar. The AHRC has access to both the
video (here
The question, however, is not whether his speech was seditious or not.
The Supreme Court of India has repeatedly held that mere membership of
even a banned organization does not attract the charge of sedition,
unless the person engages in violence, as it did when granting bail to
Dr. Binayak Sen on 10 February 2011. Jurists like Mr. Fali S. Nariman
and former Attorney General of India Mr. Soli Sorabjee have also
concurred with this view and both have criticised the Union Government
for arresting Kanhaiya Kumar under sedition charges.
It is in this context that the arrest of Mr. Kanhaiya Kumar becomes a
dangerous marker of the times to come. His arrest signifies the
increasing assault on the freedom of speech by the incumbent
government. It also exposes the increasingly dangerous involvement of
Union Ministers in the day-to-day affairs of varsities, at the behest
of the ABVP, for stifling the voices of those who disagree with their
politics.
The case has also seen the highly disturbing intervention of Union
Home Minister Rajnath Singh. Mr. Singh has asserted that he has
evidence against Mr. Kanhaiya Kumar. The Minister must explain under
which law police can share evidence with him in an ongoing
intervention into an alleged crime. He must also answer to whether he
is not influencing the investigation by such claims and thereby
threatening the security of an Indian citizen.
The deplorable crackdown has come high on the heels of intervention of
Union Minster of State for Labour and Employment, Mr. Bandaru
Dattatreya, and Union Minister for Human Resources Development (HRD),
Ms. Smriti Irani, in the University of Hyderabad. Mr. Dattaterya had
raised the similar bogey of ‘anti national’ activities against an
Ambedkarite group of Dalit students at the behest of the ABVP and
sought action from HRD Minister Irani action against them. His
intervention led to the suspension of Dalit students and was followed
by the suicide of one of them: Rohith Vemula. Vemula’s suicide has
led to a great ferment against the government across India.
The police action also continues with the highhandedness of the
government in dealing with student protests, as seen in the Film and
Television Institute of India and the brutal assault on students in
Delhi opposing the scrapping of fellowships by the University Grants
Commission.
The crackdown on JNU exposes how there is a threat of India being
turned into a police state under the current dispensation. A vicious
attack on JNU students and faculty has succeeded the crackdown. This
incident occurred inside Delhi’s Patiala House Court, by a group of
lawyers shouting patriotic slogans under the watch of the police,
which refused to intervene. The students and faculty had gone there to
show solidarity with Mr. Kumar, who was to be produced in front of a
magistrate after the end of his three days’ police remand.
The lawyers did not spare even the media, which was there to cover the
hearing, and went on to the extent of molesting female reporters,
something that many of the reporters have stated themselves. The
attackers also included a Bhartiya Janta Party Member of Legislative
Assembly, Mr. O. P. Sharma, who was caught in the act on camera. Delhi
Police’s refusal to charge the identified lawyers and the MLA even a
day after the attacks betrays the Union government’s support for the
attacks.
The crackdown on JNU, most of all, exposes the apologetic state of the
Judiciary in India. A primary role of the Judiciary is to curtail the
arbitrary use of police power; and the Judiciary has simply failed in
this regard.
On what evidence did the magistrate send Mr. Kumar to police remand
first for 3 days? And, then under what grounds did he then extend the
same by two more? What kind of prosecution is that relies almost
entirely on custodial interrogation without producing any other
evidence?
Until India wakes up from its slumber and addresses its judicial
institutions, to redesign and rejuvenate them, such misuse of police
and judicial institutions will be hard to stop.
The rot is in the system that has been abused by all governments, the
current one has only shown how much further such misuse can go. It is
high time for all stakeholders in India’s future to get up and fix
the system, while forcing the government to back off from its attempts
to stifle voices of dissent and crack down on campuses.
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) works towards the radical
rethinking and fundamental redesigning of justice institutions in
order to protect and promote human rights in Asia. Established in
1984, the Hong Kong based organisation is a Laureate of the Right
Livelihood Award, 2014.
* This Press Release was sent to e-pao.net by Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) who can be contacted at www.humanrights.asia
This Press Release was posted on February 18 2016
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