New Delhi: Is the Jawharlal Nehru University next on the radar for a ‘socio-political and cultural cleansing’?

After the Film and Television Institute, is JNU going to see a takeover bid by RSS backed ‘academics’? An RSS aligned weekly has described Jawaharlal Nehru University as a hub of “anti-national” lobbies, in an obvious attempt to vitiate the discourse and lay the groundwork for foisting a parivar loyalist as vice-chancellor.

JNU is home to “a huge anti-national bloc that wants to break India up”, an article in the Panchjanya says. Another article in the magazine states that nationalism is considered an offence on the JNU campus, Indian culture is often portrayed in a distorted manner and army withdrawal from Kashmir receives support.

Raking up the Dantewada attack o that happened five years ago, the weekly claims that pro-Maoist student unions celebrated the massacre of 75 CRPF troopers in a rebel attack in Dantewada, Chhattisgarh, in April 2010.

In the article, supposedly written by a former JNU student who was on the campus from 2010 to 2015, the author claims to have “minutely observed several anti-society and anti-national activities on campus”. He claims students “openly celebrated” the killing of CRPF jawans by Naxalites at Dantewada in 2010, and professors often talk about “ways to break India’s culture and integrity at programmes organized by students”.

Social scientist and former JNU professor C.P. Bhambri, believes the accusations were a way of preparing the ground for the appointment of a pro-Sangh vice-chancellor at the university.

“The RSS, Jana Sangh and the BJP have been against JNU from the beginning. They want to appoint an RSS ideologue, for which the conditioning is being made,” he told a newspaper.

Mr Bhambri dismissed the Dantewada “celebration” charge, asking: “Why did they not raise it in 2010?”

Mr. Bhambri said JNU had, since its birth in 1969, been a playground of ideas and opinions. He acknowledged that Left-leaning student bodies had been dominating campus politics since the beginning but insisted that every student and teacher enjoyed the right to dissent on any matter.

Vice-chancellor Sudhir Kumar Sopory’s tenure ends in January, and the Smriti Irani-led Union human resource development ministry is looking for a successor.

A newspaper quoted political sources saying that though the RSS might want its own nominees, there was no guarantee that the Narendra Modi government would humour the organisation on all appointments.

But the Smriti Irani led HRD Ministry has antagonised the academic community so much that an atmosphere has been created where every conspiracy theory now sounds feasible.

Mr Bhambri also said that a government-sponsored attempt had been made recently to introduce short-term “Indian culture” and yoga courses in JNU but the academic council had quashed the move. “The push for these courses, however, shows how the BJP-led forces have become active to control JNU.”

The ball has been set rolling, though. Saket Bahuguna, the Delhi secretary of Sangh’s student arm Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, defended the Panchjanya articles.

“I was witness to the All India Students Association (linked to the CPI-ML Liberation) and the (pro-Maoist) Democratic Students Union celebrating the killing of CRPF jawans by Maoists,” Bahuguna said , mixing in another communal barb: He claimed that Dalit student groups ‘often brought out posters denigrating Goddess Durga’, and that ‘hostel authorities officially supported iftar events but not Diwali celebrations’.

A PhD scholar who stays at one of the JNU hostels denied Bahuguna’s charges. “The hostel authorities support both Diwali and iftar,” Anant Prakash Narayan said. “Some Dalit groups have traditionally worshipped Mahishasura, whom Durga slays. The Sangh has construed this worship as denigration of Durga, which it isn’t.”

All India Students Association president Sucheta De and Democratic Students Union executive council member Umer Khalid denied that their groups had celebrated the killing of CRPF jawans.

“Who on earth can celebrate the killing of human beings? This is an utter lie,” De said. She felt that the government was clearing the decks to appoint a pro-Sangh vice-chancellor.

Mr Khalid suggested one possible reason for the Sangh’s linking of JNU students to Maoists – campus demonstrations against “Operation Green Hunt”, a popular name given to an alleged multi-state offensive against the Maoists that the government has never acknowledged.

“Innocent tribals were harassed and their land taken away during the operation,” Khalid said.

Ms De suggested the Centre was upset at the “Occupy UGC” agitation, which Left student bodies have joined to demand more scholarships for research scholars who haven’t cleared NET.

Mr Bhambri cited how Anand Kumar, a former JNU teacher now associated with the Aam Aadmi Party, had defeated Students’ Federation of India candidate Prakash Karat in the 1974-75 election for student union president. Kumar was representing the Free Thinkers, a non-Left student body that championed freedom of expression, against the CPM student arm that Karat belonged to.

JNU describes itself as “academically and socially a vibrant place where all have space to express their views”.

A search and selection panel has been set up for the vice-chancellor’s appointment. It includes D.P. Singh, a former academic recently appointed director of the National Assessment and Accreditation Council, which grades colleges, former Indian Space Research Organisation chief K. Radhakrishnan and retired diplomat Ashok Sen.

It is also said that BJP politician Subramanian Swamy, 76, being in the race for the JNU vice-chancellor’s post despite being overage. Mr Swamy, who once taught economics at IIT Delhi, had tweeted that he had set the government certain conditions if he were to be considered for the post. Ms Smriti Irani later denied any such proposal.

MORE VOICES

“This isn’t new. Earlier they used to accuse JNUSU members of being ISI agents working for Pakistan,” said Democratic Students’ Federation member and former JNU Students’ Union president V Lenin Kumar. “Whoever questions is anti-national. What this means, simply, is that the nationalists will cut funds for education, will kill people and throw ink. The anti-nationals will fight against this.”

Economics professor Jayanti Ghosh says “Anyone promoting values that uphold the rights and dignity of ordinary citizens is labelled Naxalite. We are proud that in JNU we are creating students who are concerned about the state of the country and trying to build a more tolerant, inclusive, democratic society.”

“RSS believes in an India that is for a particular kind of Hindu, not even for the ordinary, believing-often meat-eating-Hindu who wants to live in peace with other communities. The Hindus it mobilises are bigoted and hate-filled. We stand against that, so naturally they think of us as ‘anti-national,'” said professor of Political Science, Nivedita Menon.

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