#ShutDownJNU is a blessing in disguise for Indian universities

For those following the campus news and developments, the JNU incident does not come as a surprise. Students there have organised over a hundred programmes during the last ten years of Congress rule, supporting anti-national activities and fuelling disaffection.

The recent incidents have pinned the focus on the academic quality and output of the university. The government of India gives the varsity an annual grant in crores, which works out to approximately Rs 3 lakh per student. JNU enjoys an enviable teacher-student ratio. While it is one teacher to 26 students in other national universities, at JNU it is one to 15.  And all these going from the honest taxpayers' money. JNU tops in cases of sexual harassment from among 104 universities in India.  If anyone is claiming that it is due to increased awareness, the counter is, so has the university not failed to inculcate even basic values over the years? JNU does not even figure among the top 200 best universities in the world - just like FTII and IITs.

The scenario is grim for the leftists in the academic world. Deprived of official patronage, starved for free flowing money, their organisations are becoming tools in the hands of those who can offer both. And that source is the anti-Indian groups.

Beyond the din and noise of the JNU protest lurks the fear of the communist parties. For all shades of red, college campuses have long been the hunting ground for recruits. Over the years, their recruitments have been dwindling. The ambitious and aspiring and resurgent youth no longer has patience with the communists peddling poverty, retardation and empty socialist sloganeering. With the thumping victory of the BJP and NDA, backed fully by the young voters, the communists sensed, for the first time since India's independence, that they were on a retreat.

The leftists have been riding piggyback on the Congress all these years. During the Nehru days, the Congress probably had more prominent socialists and communists in its ranks than these parties. They had complete hold over the academic institutions. Admissions, recruitments, appointments, syllabi all flowed from their might. Though the BJP-backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarti Parishad is the largest students' union in India, it hardly ever enjoyed the pre-eminent position that was due.

Despite its strength and presence, the elections it won were hard fought and much lesser than the collective victory of disparate communist unions. Especially in the central universities, which were fully funded and subsidised by the government of India, the Maoist-Naxalite-Communist control was complete. Because they had enjoyed the state's patronage.

Having lost power in West Bengal, with the bleak chance of coming back to power in near future, the communists lost a major patron. Kerala, which voted out governments in every election, had never been a steady source. And even in Kerala the leadership focused on becoming the biggest landowners and business enterprises.

The BJP victory has given a major boost of confidence to ABVP. Where they looked on with consternation earlier, they are aggressive now. They are no longer ready to be taken lightly. Unlike the previous NDA (coalition) government under Atal Bihari Vajpayee, this government is essentially a BJP government and has much more control and ease in taking decisions.  And this time round, the BJP government has been taking its time to put things in place.

It is this that has unnerved the anti-Hindu, rabid communist forces. They have been stoking fire in campuses one after another. FTII, IIT-Madras, Hyderabad University, and now JNU. There is a common element in all these instances. And that is the loud anti-Modi, anti-BJP and now anti-India stance. Owing to this, unwittingly, the Left and the Congress have handed over the nationalist platform to the BJP.

The most shocking was the visit of Rahul Gandhi and his support to students who were being seen by the public as having crossed the line. In fact, Rahul, in what has now become his hallmark style, put his foot right into his mouth by saying the biggest anti-national act is suppressing dissent. By implication, he called his grandmother Indira Gandhi anti-national, because it was she who imposed the draconian Emergency and suppressed all kinds of dissent, across the country, sending millions to jail.

The political leaders have lost the plot. Initially, all the parties had ganged together to attack the BJP and try and curry favour with students in the name of freedom of speech. With the videos of the students going public, the leaders have been trying to wriggle out by condemning the anti-national activities, followed by a "BUT". Home minister Rajnath Singh and his deputy Kiren Rijiju have been leading the BJP charge, with a measured but strong message, the law will take its course, whoever the culprit may be.

It is high time our college campuses were restored to students, for academics. And in that, the JNU eruption may be a blessing in disguise.