America can take lessons from India in handling sponsored protests

It was the summer of 1969. Universities across the United States were on the boil. The late 1960’s saw large anti-war demonstrations across the campuses, and the unrest had only spread. The University of Berkley in California, in particular, had become the epicentre for student protests. On May 15, 1969, the Berkeley police department clashed with protestors who were trying to occupy a vast, unused lot owned by Berkeley campus. Students refused to retreat. The clashes were violent. Ronald Reagan, then Governor of California, who had vowed to “clean up the mess” at Berkely, sent State National Guard troops to quell the protests.

Later, while addressing a press conference about this incident, he was asked if he should have instead negotiated with the students. Reagan’s answer sums up what America used to be once upon a time. Reagan sharply replied, “Negotiate? What is to negotiate? All of it began the first time some of you who know better and are old enough to know better let young people think that they have the right to choose the laws they would obey as long as they were doing it in the name of social protest.” That defines ‘Rule of Law’—a principle under which all persons, institutions, and entities are accountable to the laws of the land. Ronald Reagan went on to become the 40th president of the US.

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The year 2024 is witnessing similar mass anti-war protests in the campuses across the US with a crucial difference. America isn’t what it used to be. The ability of governments to rise above party politics and electoral compulsions no longer exists. Wokeism, which is simply low-IQ communism tailored for the 21st century, has gripped America so much that freedom of speech is being interpreted as freedom to occupy public spaces and prevent non-protesting students from safely attending classes.

Protest encampments that started at Columbia University have now spread to 80 campuses. More than a thousand students have been arrested after they were found vandalising, defiling, defacing, and ransacking university property and disturbing other students who were not part of the protest. Protestors are demanding universities sever financial ties with Israel or delink themselves from any company involved in assisting Israel in the Israel-Hamas war. Students thus far have not demanded the release of the hostages still held by Hamas. There is no condemnation of Hamas, and there is no remorse for what Hamas did to Israelis on October 7th, 2023. If student protests are all about idealism and that is why they should be allowed, this one certainly doesn’t fall into that category. This protest is political and motivated, and serious concerns have been raised about who is funding the unrest.

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Much of America has been shaken by the protests, and they watch with dismay as elite universities toy with the idea of ‘negotiating’ with protestors. They watch with horror as anti-Semitism is normalised. They watch with disgust as genocidal slogans are raised and Jewish students are bullied and threatened. More than anything, they watch with helplessness as their prestigious universities look weak, floundering, and unable to stand for what is right. They watched with wide-eyed disbelief as the presidents of top Ivy League universities could not get themselves to condemn anti-Semitism and campus violence without any qualifications in the congressional hearings. America did not reach here suddenly. In the process of becoming a global policeman and lecturing fellow democracies about how to uphold democratic values, America never noticed her own democratic erosion. America set out to spread democracy across constitutions, while in its own backyard, tenets of liberal democracy are being used to destroy the fundamentals of their democracy.

Where did America go wrong, and is there a way to reclaim what it once stood for? All democracies should welcome protests. Student activism is the kindergarten of all serious activism that can act as pressure groups on behalf of those truly disenfranchised and disadvantaged. Student protests have a long history in all democracies, including the US. Then why are these protests different, and why does the inability to control them signal the weakness of the American system? Campus protests ostensibly about the Israel-Hamas war are in fact a continuation of the war on America’s value system. Critical race theory debates have been raging through educational institutions, as have mandatory diversity, equity, and inclusion programmes, which have upended the meritocracy in favour of forced diversity of identity rather than diversity of thoughts.

American educational institutions had a long tradition of birthing new ideas decades before those ideas became mainstream. This was possible when universities stayed strictly apolitical and allowed different viewpoints to flourish. This glorious tradition was compromised during “Black Lives Matter” (BLM) protests, when universities expressed solidarity with those who destroyed public property, indulged in vandalism, and flouted laws openly. In undergraduate admission applications, prospective students were encouraged to write about their experiences with the BLM movement. Clearly, those ‘experiences’ with protests were viewed favorably. Once universities went down the path of identity politics, there was no turning back. If the Israel-Gaza war hadn’t happened, students would be out protesting for some other reason. When protests are incentivised, then the idealism behind student protests also diminishes. The possibility of George Soros-like figures funding protests becomes a huge possibility, and protests are launched to spread unrest, not for students to find their two feet in the world of ideas.

When India was dealing with its own “protest encampments’’ in Shaheen Bagh anti-CAA protests, where similarly public spaces were occupied to foist mass unrest, the US had a lot of “advice” to give India about upholding freedom of expression. When America herself faced Shaheen Bagh-like encampments, they sent state troopers and anti-riot police inside campuses. Hypocrisy is no longer hidden in the world of social media. India has a lot of experience dealing with sponsored protests. America should reach out to India and, as a fellow democracy, take some tips on how to quell sponsored protests and get universities back to what they should be doing—learning and researching. Negotiations with sponsored protestors are not a democratic option. Ronald Reagan understood that. Current American leaders should, too.

The author is a columnist and political commentator. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.