POLICING CANNOT BE A UNIVERSITY'S FIRST RESPONSE TO PROTEST

ONCE again, Jawaharlal Nehru University has found itself in the middle of a political storm.

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The script feels painfully familiar-a student protest, slogans caught on video, police complaints, followed by threats of suspension and expulsion. From the 2016 Afzal Guru controversy and the January 2020 violence to the latest protest, JNU continues to be treated less as a university and more as a battleground. The issue this time was sloganeering against the prime minister and the home minister. The university administration called the slogans objectionable and anti-national, filed a police complaint, and warned of strict punishment. Political parties jumped in, each reading the protest through their own lens-frustration, conspiracy or sedition. But the larger question is not about a set of