Readers tell us whether NSUI was right in burning effigies of PM Modi, Amit Shah in JNU

What a JNU row once again?

Barely had the unnecessary heat simmered down from the "azadi" chants heard in the campus of Jawaharlal Nehru University, that its students are in the news again. This time, a group of JNU students, belonging to the Congress party's student affiliate NSUI (National Students' Union of India), has burned the effigies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP chief Amit Shah, Mahatma Gandhi’s killer Nathuram Godse and others to mark the “victory of truth over falsehood” on the occasion of Dussehra.

NSUI students on Dusshera burnt the effigies of the Modi, Shah and other BJP/RSS faces, living and dead in order to protest against the ongoing atrocities on Dalits and Muslims by Hindutva hooligans as well as the rising interference into the internal affairs of central universities across India, eroding their autonomy brick by brick.

It's interesting that NSUI students were setting ablaze an effigy depicting Modi and others exactly as the prime minister was addressing the crowd at Lucknow's Aishbagh Ramleela grounds in a live-televised speech, calling on Indians to be the Jatayus against the war on terror and female foeticide.

Yet, the news of a Jharkhand Muslim youth killed in police custody over a WhatsApp joke shared on beef sent one more current of now routinised shock through the body of a mostly comatose nation, too high on surgical strikes across the Line of Control to bother about the domestic troubles back home.

“We celebrated the victory of truth over falsehood in a modern and democratic country by burning effigies. For us Modi and RSS are symbol of untruth,” said Sunny Diman, an NSUI member.

The home ministry has sought a report from JNU administration which has duly supplicated and ordered a probe into the matter. On Wednesday, JNU vice-chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar tweeted: “The effigy burning incident at JNU was brought to our notice. We are investigating the matter and examining all relevant information”.

While Modi and BJP social media cell singled out Ravana as the original terrorist, while a  bunch of overenthusiastic filmmakers made a shortfilm that derided Arvind Kejriwal as a Vibhishan who will this time betray Ram, the JNU students said their effigies that they chose to set fire to did not represent the demon king, who is worshipped in many parts of India as a symbol of erudition and courage.

“The effigy-burning was to symbolise our dissatisfaction with the current government. The idea is to root out the evil from governance and bring about a system that is pro-student and pro-people,” added Diman, who was NSUI’s presidential candidate in the September JNUSU elections.

While we don't bat an eyelid as "patriotic" Indians burn effigies of Nawaz Sharif-as-Ravana and Kejriwal as Meghnad, or slay a Rahul Gandhi as Ashura, was dragging the current prime minister into this game of political one-upmanship the decent thing to do?

While it must be noted that the BJP and its sister parties have burnt posters and effigies of Congress leaders, including former PM Manmohan Singh, on several occasions, were the NSUI students justified in emulating their arch-rivals and repeating history all over again?

DailyO asked this question to its readers and the response has been varied.

We opened up the debate to our readers. As expected, a wide variety of viewpoints emerged. We bring you the best of the lot. Read on.

DailyO readers weigh in:

Mani Candan: You tell us what is wrong in burning effigies of people, while we are burning effigy of Ravana whom some consider as god. First, ban burning of all effigies instead of being on partial on selective personalities, or get hurt when one of your favourite personalities' effigy gets burnt.

Ganesh Vurukuti: India being largest democratic country, people behave as they like, same way celebrations also, they celebrate in their own democratic way.

More reactions here.

Also read: Burning Modi effigy in JNU - Row exposes BJP and Congress' double standards

Watch video : JNU is a hub of anti-nationals, should be shut down, says Sadhvi Prachi