Students of the premier Indian institution of higher learning, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), held an event recently on their campus. The event, titled "The Country without a Post Office", was organized to "stand in solidarity with the struggle of the Kashmiri people for their democratic right of self-determination" and, among other things, to protest the "judicial killing" of Afzal Guru, who was hanged in 2013 after being convicted in the attack on the parliament building in 2001. Ever since then the president of the JNU students union and some organizers of the event have been taken into custody sparking a massive outrage in the country. A myriad of opinions. Innumerable TV shows and discussions. Leaders of the ruling party, the BJP, going ballistic and going to the extent of claiming that these students deserve to be hanged. The event turned violent when members of the ABVP, the student wing of the BJP, entered and started hitting and pushing students. They claimed that the students had raised anti-national slogans and were shouting "Pakistan Zindabad", not only that but the organizers were accused of chanting "Bharat ke tukde honge hazaar" (India will be broken into a thousand pieces) and "Bharat ki barbadi tak jung jaari rahegi" (Our fight will continue until India is destroyed). Kanhaiya Kumar, president of JNU students union, was the first one to be arrested and now faces sedition charges. Later seven other students were arrested with similar charges along with those fo criminal conspiracy. The media has declared those students to be terrorists and BJP leaders are calling it a heinous crime and an unforgivable act committed by the students. People are now protesting and asking the government to shut down JNU as it has become a haven of bigoted minds. This is what most Indians know/are told. Twisting facts and fabricating is a forte of the media and government and it negates what they actually stand for. Taking a close look at this "gory" event where the students were ‘incited', it is not shocking to see how the truth is being tainted with incessant venomous lies. Undoubtedly, JNU has always been a politically active university and is a habitat of students whose forte is public speaking. But it is devastating how these young students have been framed for a crime they have not committed. Kanhaiya Kumar clearly stated that no anti-national slogans were raised nor did any of the students shout "Pakistan Zindabad". Umar Khalid, the organizer of the event, was invited on Times Now but was hardly given a chance to speak. Well that tends to happen when Arnab Goswami is the host of the show. Many videos show Umar Khalid condemning the government for hanging Afzal Guru, and then after a few days a video was released showing ABVP members shouting "Pakistan Zindabad" and raising anti-national slogans. The same hooligans then entered the event again causing havoc by vandalizing and pelting stones. The BJP government, it appears, is fixated on this issue with Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh calling Umar Khalid a terrorist on live television and Haryana's chief minister saying that prostitutes are better than female protestors. And the entire country went ballistic when Amir Khan called the country intolerant. The BJP and its ideologue, the RSS, have been indulging in double-speak whenever it suits them. The BJP joined hands with late Mufti Saeed's party, the PDP, in Kashmir to be a part of the coalition government, conveniently forgetting that the PDP has, from the very first day, opposed the hanging of Afzal Guru and regarded him as a hero of the Kashmiri freedom struggle. RSS was never a part of India's freedom struggle, Nathuram Godse, the murderer of Gandhi, was an established RSS man. The Hindu chauvinist group has been involved in the Malegaon bomb blasts, Samjhauta Express explosion and the Gujarat massacre and now its leaders have the audacity to lecture on nationalism. How much more ironical can it get. The Modi government never spoke a word when RSS leaders honored Nathuram Godse and opened a temple in his name, that didn't count as an act of anti-nationalism. When someone tweeted using a fake "Hafiz Sayeed" Twitter handle that he supports the JNU students and that they did a great job, the entire media and politicians abhorred the students even more failing to even check that it was a fake account. India is a democracy and in a democracy everyone has freedom of expression. Undeniably, freedom of speech and expression come with a responsibility. If a few JNU students decided to express their disagreement on the judicial killing by organizing a discussion, it is acceptable. This incident has certainly led one to question their beliefs and faith, as with each passing day the line between truth and lies seems to become fainter. People say truth and reality are the same, they are not. You can always change the truth but you can never change the reality. Living in a "democratic" country where meat is paid for with your life, freedom of expression is not a freedom anymore because if you say anything against the dictator you have to pay with your life, again.
