De-saffronise our campuses: Are India's youth losing faith in Narendra Modi?
In the recent past, there has been an undeniable political shift in various campuses across the country. The BJP’s student wing the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), which had a stronghold in many campuses in the last few years, has seen defeat in student body elections. The question that arises out of these developments is – are the youth of India gradually becoming disillusioned with the Narendra Modi government and it's narrative of development?
While student elections cannot be considered to be a direct reflection of societal mindsets, there has been a wave of criticism rising against the Modi government all over social media. The current state of economy, the impact of demonetisation and the implementation of GST has significantly reduced Modi and BJP's fan-base.
This feeling, accompanied by the trouble universities across the country have been facing over the last one year and more, have given rise to the feeling that the BJP is losing its magic hold over all and sundry. The students' anger, however, is not as much about GST, demonetisation or the economy as it is about the loss of freedom and right to free speech in institutions headed by primarily saffron administration.
Universities like Delhi University, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Jadavpur University, Hyderabad Central University, Film and Television Institute of India and most recently the Benaras Hindu University have seen protests that have had a major political impact on students across the nation. More and more students across universities are now visibly coming forward and protesting against restrictions and policies imposed on them by the administration. And this has become a huge problem for the government, one they had not seen coming.
De-saffronise
In college campuses, the impeachment of progressive freedoms and rights of students is the cause of the growing discontent among students.
Rocky Tuseed, the newly elected student body president of Delhi University, feels that one of the major reasons that ABVP lost major panel positions in last month’s elections is their regressive stance on youth’s freedom.
“In campuses across the country, students’ rights and freedom are being curtailed. We all know what happened in DU’s Ramjas College earlier this year, student’s freedom of speech and their right to question, to seek accountability is being violated. The youth are certainly fed up,” Tuseed, a candidate of Congress party’s National Students Union of India (NSUI), told Catch.
“College campuses are places where students are fighting for their individual freedoms and progressive rights. I think the implicit association of the Modi government with a certain kind of conservatism is beginning to hurt them in college campuses. Whether it is the crackdown on dissent and protest in colleges against the government or illogical regressive policy changes by the administration or even issues of gender in campuses, it is encouraging that the youth is getting trained in voicing their opinions,” former head of the Political Science Department of Delhi University, Achin Vanaik, told Catch.
“Even the supporters of the Modi government among students cannot deny that there is a restriction on personal and lifestyle choices especially in case of the women and LGBT people. I wouldn’t go as far as saying that is an ideological change in students, but based on their own environment, they are starting to see some chinks in the armour and the ambiance they have created in campuses,” Vanaik added.
“Mr Modi promised a lot of things to young people but hasn’t been able to deliver on them. Unemployment is a major issue that has the youth feeling discontented and frustrated. India is unique in the sense that in no other country does unemployment increase as you go up the education ladder. In the tertiary level, meaning higher education level, unemployment is higher than at the secondary level,” Vanaik pointed out.
“The reason for this is that it’s not that tertiary-level applicants cannot get jobs, but they cannot get jobs that they feel are suited for them. They have low-paying jobs considering the level of education they have. They don’t starve but they are not getting the jobs they want,” he explained.
Us & Them
However, there are some things that the present government isn’t failing at. One of the things that has worked magnificently for Modi is the nationalism/anti-national narrative that they have been able to instill in the youth of India. Through this narrative, the government has been able to make many changes and restrictions in campuses.
Geeta Kumari, the newly elected student body president of Jawaharlal Nehru University and the United Left Front candidate, told Catch –
“JNU has been a bastion of Left ideologies so it is not a big surprise that we won but it is alarming and problematic the kind of support the ABVP have on campus. And one of the major reasons they have been able to get that amount of support in JNU is because of the 9 February protests that took place last year. Through that, the government and its student wing was able to unite people across the country in the name of ‘nation’ and ‘Army’ against people who protest and question the government and its bodies.”
“Everyone who questions and criticises the government is anti-national. Anyone who supports the Kashmiris or the Left is anti-national. Tanks and flags and wall of patriots are being installed across universities to shove ‘patriotism’ down our throats. This is their way of trying to unite students and who can complain? This narrative the government is still being able to milk across the country,” Kumari said.
“Misplaced nationalism has become dominant in the youth. And it is becoming re-inforced because no party, whether Congress or Left or any other, can challenge it head-on. The easiest way to unite the country is to say how terrible Pakistan is, or how brave our defense forces are. This is still working in the favour of the ruling party in uniting the youth. This is why we cannot make the claim that the youth are becoming liberals because narratives like these are still working for the government. They are instilling the idea of 'India is great' and 'Indian culture and traditions are great' and 'We must go back to our Indian roots' and hence the saffronisation agenda is still working for them,” Vanaik added.
However, eminent political scientist Pratap Bhanu Mehta feels –
“The nationalism narrative was not a part of the BJP’s 2014 election campaign. It was something that they jump-started after they came to power. It is not like the youth was less nationalist three years ago and have now become more or vice-versa. I believe that for the youth the nationalism narrative is fine as long as it does not impeach on the larger narrative of freedom and that is what is happening now.”
“If the broader narrative of freedom is challenged, the nationalism narrative will not work for the government to keep the youth in check. Moreover, forced nationalism works less on the students in campuses as they are exposed to many other voices of perspective,” Mehta said.
Edited by Jhinuk Sen
First published: 4 October 2017, 15:30 IST
