Battle Joined

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-sponsored and state-directed attack on India’s best and most well-known university, the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), has backfired. Despite the vicious trial by sections of the media, a groundswell of anger against the central government’s attempt to “fix” JNU has made people come together. During the past week, across the country, students, teachers, political activists, trade unionists and even the citizen on the street have all joined hands to protest the actions by the centre and its tools, the vice chancellor of JNU and Delhi Police.

The spirit of students in different corners of the country has to be admired for daring to stand against a political force which, since 2014, thinks it has all of India in its hands. Let us not make a mistake though. This is a battle that has just been joined. The government and university actions in Hyderabad and New Delhi have been neither isolated nor spontaneous. They are part of a planned and long-term strategy of the Sangh Parivar to capture the student bodies, administration, faculty and vice chancellorships in India’s public universities. The goal is to snuff out independent intellectual endeavour and crush one of the few organised centres of resistance to the spread of the Hindu rashtra’s poison.