The Last Output Of JNU Controversy

A portrait of JNU where revolution still rages in the minds of the street-fighting class. 

- Kumar Anshuman

For decades, Jawaharlal Nehru University was the place to indulge, with a kind of impunity, in fantasies of revolution. Its 1,000-acre forested sprawl on the Aravali hills seemed to foster a youthful defiance rarely seen on Indian campuses. The hammer and the sickle were the ideological weapons of choice at JNU, often jokingly referred to as ‘the fourth red state’ after West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura. Even as the Left struggled to find a foothold in Indian politics, large numbers of students at JNU remained loyal to the fold. They were revolutionaries who were not yet ready for a revolution. As long as they were in the protective shade of the campus, they could grow and pretend to be adults, without suffering the consequences of being one. They would be forgiven just about anything—insulting Hindu deities, inviting separatists to address gatherings, even the moral callousness of elevating Maoists to heroes. Their luck, however, seems to have run out with the arrest of JNU Students’ Union President Kanhaiya Kumar on charges of sedition. Shock and an open desperation are writ large on the faces of students as the tenuous peace at the university lies shattered in the wake of the controversy.

A dozen policemen stand guard at the main gate of JNU even as it remains locked. A day after a group of lawyers attacked JNU faculty and media persons at the Patiala House court complex where Kumar was to be produced, the university resembles a battle zone. Half a dozen lawyers claiming to be supporters of the Bajrang Dal shout slogans demanding “JNU