Can the government dare to punish anti-nationals in Kashmir?
Mrs R IV went to this august university. So I have six years of personal familiarity. Communist student unions, extensions of the existing communist parties, ruled the campus in an Indian way. Meaning, basically, everyone left each other alone. Making love not war, and not politics, was the students’ primary concern. I did my enthusiastic best to join in, but was always headed off by Mrs R IV who – alas – from the earliest day was a complete dog in the manger, refusing to share me with anyone.
Being brought up in the US, I disliked the communist student unions. Correct that: being brought up in the US, and therefore in my right mind, I disliked the communist student unions because communism and democracy are irrevocably opposed. But it was all about live and let live; as an older person (yes, even 40 years ago the editor was old) with no connection with the university except through professors and Mrs R IV + friends, there was no need to get involved. I have never been a joining type anyway.
I hated the anti-nationals even more than the communists – US or Indian. To the extent that I have left the energy required to hate, this remains true today. Deserter Bowie Bergdhal? Firing squad. Ditto the private who was a man and is now a woman? Ditto. I am absolutely against executing women; in this case, I will happily make an exception. Edward Snowden? Lethal Injection. Americans who betray their country to Israel? Draw, quarter, and hang. Julian Assange? Shoot, hang, electrocute and inject, successively, revive each time except the last. He is not an American, but he is an anti-American of a particularly despicable type.
Winston Churchill is alleged to have said: If you are not a liberal at 25, you have no heart. If you are not a conservative at 35 You have no brain. I am ignoring that there is no evidence Churchill said it. The folk narrative is more interesting than petty reality. When I was 25, as now, on national security I was so far to the Right that I may as well have traversed the universe and come back to the starting point. As for personal morality, no real Indian believes it her/his business to dictate to others.
My conversion, if any has taken place, is the other way around. With regard to young people (anyone younger than 60) I have a fond grandfatherly affection, doesn’t matter how badly they are behaving. So I am on the side of the students who shouted pro-Pakistan and anti-India slogans at the university and were arrested for sedition last week. Speech cannot be anti-national, though I wish it were, in India and the US. Still, they’re young people. Leave them alone.
There are two conditions under which I will accept these students’ punishment, let’s say 14 years without parole.
One is that the government of India immediately arrest and severely punish all those shouting separatist slogans and committing/condoning anti-national acts in Kashmir. This happens dozens, hundreds of times a day. The government does nothing. It is cowardly in the extreme to pick on hapless students and not touch these people in Kashmir because the government fears insurrection. Insurrection is easily handled: kill one in ten on every block, every village, and all will be peaceful. Ask the Muslim invaders of India. Ask the Russians. Ask Mao and Stalin. Ask Chengiz Khan. Ask the Americans. Ask the Spanish. Ask the Belgians. Ask the English, though they starved the Irish to death rather than killing them directly. Don’t give the excuse it cannot be done. It can, and it must.
The other is that the government arrest and execute the politicians down to the fourth generation who agreed to the Partition of India, which is the biggest act of sedition in our modern history. Fourth generation means the great-grand-children of the original traitors. Women exempted, of course. Male children? Not exempted, sorry about that.
If the government agrees at least to the first, I will support sedition charges against those students who merely shout slogans. But if the government of India is to have any credibility in my eyes, it will have to also do the second. Undoubtedly, this means many Indian politicians will have to sign their own death warrants. This has a nice poetic symmetry to it. Could be extended to the general public too. See, this way we won’t be guilty of taking a life. The convicted will have to sign their own orders and kill themselves. The mechanics are pretty simple.