Jingo generals + right-wing radicals = Tank in JNU campus under Modi sarkar?

“Indian Army has captured JNU”, declared Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) sympathiser Rajiv Malhotra on 23 July, the day when Kargil Vijay Diwas was observed on the university's campus for the first time ever.

By his statement, one could think that JNU is a peak on the country's frontiers that has been taken over by a hostile army.

The statement is possibly a reference to the very fact that Jawaharlal Nehru University was officially celebrating war for the first time, which means that a university dedicated to the proliferation of democratic thought may have finally fallen in line with the Sangh's agenda of the militarisation of society.

When jingoism takes over

However, what is more surprising, and probably more sinister, is how the people behind this spectacle are viewing it.

Kargil Vijay Diwas is commemorated on 26 July every year to mark the end of the Kargil war of 1999, the retaking of key outposts by the Indian Army from Pakistan-backed intruders and the sacrifice of the soldiers who laid down their lives in the war.

The central idea is to pay homage to the soldiers who died fighting for the country, which is usually through solemn acts like a minute of silence at war memorials like the Amar Jawan Jyoti in New Delhi.

However, for the RSS, it is an excuse for chest-beating to whip up jingoism, well-reflected in the procession that was organised inside JNU's campus.

The processionists reportedly carried a 2,200-foot-long tricolour and they were led by Vice-chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar, union minister and former Army Chief VK Singh, his cabinet colleague Dharmendra Pradhan, retired Major General GD Bakshi, cricketer Gautam Gambhir and Rajiv Malhotra.

The presence of the VC is evidence that the event had the backing of the university administration.

Kumar further solemnised his involvement with the event with his statement that he had requested the ministers to get an Army tank inside the university. The tank, he said, would be displayed at a “prominent place” on campus and will act as a reminder to students of the Army's sacrifices.

Some enthusiasts have been keen to suggest exactly which tank would fit the bill.

It was Bakshi who floated this idea in February 2016, when the 'slogan-controversy' that hit JNU that year was at its peak.

Bakshi had led a delegation of ex-servicemen to meet the VC and had made this proposal to instill nationalism among JNU's students, seen as 'anti-national' in the light of the controversy.

Since then, JNU has been subjected to a constant onslaught through which its fundamental nature is being changed.

From faculty appointments to newer courses and from criteria for admission of students to Sangh-backed political events on the campus, JNU is undergoing a radical change.

The RSS and its admirers possibly view this as a capture of sorts, as if JNU was Mosul and the RSS had just driven ISIS out.

The destruction of JNU

As a campus promoting Left-leaning liberal thought, JNU has always been a target for the Sangh – a space to be captured and an idea to be destroyed. The militarisation of the campus is also an attempt in the same direction and it doesn't stop there. Note how Malhotra announced that after JNU, Hyderabad Central University and Jadavpur University are next on the list.

This is a project – a long-term plan of the RSS to cast the country's entire education system into its own mould. It is akin to what the Left and the Congress did so far, but the right-wing's campaign is far deficient in outlook and, in fact, sinister in objective. It is the link that connects assault on JNU to Dina Nath Batra's recommendation for the NCERT and to the government wanting to turn all schools into Sainik schools.

This obsession with militarisation is ingrained in RSS's training and is integral to its thought process. The spectre of an elected government in a responsible democracy adopting this approach is the direct consequence of electing an RSS-backed government.

Can one expect the government to understand that the Sangh's agenda is narrow and self-defeatist in nature and that it must not be implemented? Doubtful, unless the militarisation of campuses is called-off.