Gurmehar Kaur and Ramjas College row: Why protest at Delhi University, JNU looks similar yet different

Even as events continue to unfold at breakneck speed in Delhi University, the scenes of students marching on a college campus are reminiscent of those that unfolded at Jawaharlal Nehru University in February 2016.

However, this time, the focus of the students remains on fighting the goondaism of the ABVP, as compared to the JNU affair, which centered around what constituted sedition as student protesters allegedly raised anti-India slogans. Then as now, the cries of ‘anti-national’ , rang out from the right-wing, as a means of stifling free speech.

The former JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested by the Delhi police on a wide variety of charges, including sedition after Home Minister Rajnath Singh called for action against ‘anti-national’ elements. Lady Shriram College student Gurmehar Kaur, in addition to receiving threats of rape and murder from hooligans after she came out against the ABVP on Facebook, was also targeted by politicians.

Union ministers M Venkaiah Naidu and Kiren Rijiju, accused her of “abusing the motherland”, Rijiju even wondered who was “poisoning her mind”. BJP MP Pratap Simha, who represents Mysuru, on Sunday posted an image on microblogging site Twitter with the pictures of Kaur on one side and Dawood Ibrahim on the other.

Meanwhile, celebrities such as Randeep Hooda and Virender Sehwag were accused of bullying the 20-year-old after they took to social media sites to ridicule Kaur’s stand. Hooda described the young woman as a ‘political pawn’. Unlike Kumar, who emerged from the turmoil with a higher profile, the abuse and ridicule has taken a toll on the young woman and has forced her to step back from the protests and leave Delhi.

Then, as now, the teachers have come out in support of the students: in 2016, JNU alumni formed a human chain to demand that the ‘arbitrary charges’ be dropped against Kumar. On Tuesday, the JNU faculty joined the student protest, saying that they were completely behind the students.