(PTI)
Kanhaiya's statements about the 1984 riots should leave us in no doubt about the kind of azaadi he seeks.
You either die a hero or live long enough to become a villain (or see Zack Snyder ruin your legacy), but Kanhaiya Kumar seems to have lost the halo that was painted behind him by some of the media fraternity since he got bail.
If the azaadi speech at JNU made some talk about him like he was the second coming of Jesus (or to get it more culturally correct, the tenth coming of Vishnu), then his sad apology for the Emergency and 1984 riots should leave no doubts about his particular brand of azaadi , which now seems more than anything else about freedom from Modi, BJP and RSS.
Make no mistake, Kanhaiya Kumar is certainly BJP’s creation, helped by many in the media who would love to gravitate towards a figure they can rally around. His initial speech was genius as he spoke with clarity to dismiss the notion that he and his mates were ‘anti-national’. It was even made out to be a watershed moment.
The focus on Kanhaiya made him a figure BJP or Modi hadn’t faced yet. He was a poor worker’s son who had made it to JNU with grit and intellect. It gave the likes of Sitaram Yechury sudden relevance while politicians descended in hordes to show their support. Sanjay Jha compared him to counter-culture icon Che Guevara while Shashi Tharoor —in that impeccable diction which allows men to get away with things—went even further and evoked Bhagat Singh.
For a while, he became a 15-minute crusader a la Anna Hazare, the symbol of discontent against the establishment. Then it crumbled, as things are wont to when you have cameras on you 24/7.
On Monday, Kanhaiya compared the alleged onslaught on varsities with the Gujarat riots (a comparison which is over-the-top to begin with) and then went on to explain the fundamental difference between ‘Emergency’ and ‘fascism’.
Speaking at JNU for what seems now like the umpteenth time, he went on to explain how the 2002 Gujarat riots and 1984 Sikh massacre were different. He was quoted as saying by PTI: “There is difference between Emergency and fascism. During Emergency, goons of only one party were engaged into goondaism , in this (fascism) entire state machinery is resorting to goondaism. There is difference between riots of 2002 and 1984 Sikh riots."
"There is a fundamental difference between a mob killing a common man and massacring people through state machinery. Therefore, the threat of communal fascism we are faced with today, there is an attack being launched on universities, because like Hitler, Modi ji doesn't have support from intellectuals in India. No intellectual is defending Modi regime," he added.
Perhaps we should have expected this after his meeting with Rahul Gandhi, but this apologist behaviour for one of India’s worst atrocities on a minority community is condemnable.
(Read: Why we should never forget 1984 anti-Sikh riots)
His statements attempting to downplay the Sikh riots by saying that there’s ‘a fundamental difference between a mob killing a common man and massacring people through state machinery’, makes it seem like the 1984 riots were just a spontaneous outburst of feeling.
In case he needs a reminder of the horrors of 1984, here’s what Jagmohan Singh Khurmi wrote in The Tribune:
“Such wide-scale violence cannot take place without police help. Delhi Police, whose paramount duty was to upkeep law and order situation and protect innocent lives, gave full help to rioters who were in fact working under able guidance of sycophant leaders like Jagdish Tytler and HKL Bhagat. It is a known fact that many jails, sub-jails and lock-ups were opened for three days and prisoners, for the most part hardened criminals, were provided fullest provisions, means and instruction to "teach the Sikhs a lesson". But it will be wrong to say that Delhi Police did nothing, for it took full and keen action against Sikhs who tried to defend themselves. The Sikhs who opened fire to save their lives and property had to spend months dragging heels in courts after-wards.”
The government estimated that the violence resulted in the death of 3000 individuals while over 20,000 fled the city of Delhi and many have called it an organised pogrom. The courts have failed to find anyone responsible. Rajiv Gandhi trying to justify it with this his ‘When a giant tree falls, the earth below shakes’ comment instead of condemning the violence tells us exactly how he felt about the violence that followed.
Hitler vs Intellectuals
Since Kanhaiya underscored the importance of understanding history before reaching a conclusion on any issue, here's a little history lesson on the treatment of intellectuals under Hitler's regime, many of whom fled the Nazi regime in Germany and the rest of Europe. While some escaped to the US, others went to Great Britain and helped both these nations become the hubs of intelligentsia in various fields, from philosophy to physics.
The list of scientists who fled Nazism across Europe reads like the who’s who of intelligentsia at the time. The list includes both Jewish and non-Jewish minds like Niels Bohr, Albert Einstein, James Ranck, Eugene Winger, Otto Lowei, Otto Meyerhof and Otto Stern. Other on the list were Ernico Fermi, Wolfgang Paul, Viktor Hess, Peter Debye and CP Henrik Dam. Many emigrated to Britain, helped by the economist William Beveridge who had set up the Academic Assistance Council with the aim of rescuing Jewish and politically vulnerable academics. This organisation helped 1,500 academics escape Germany and continue their research work in Britain, a list that included Born, Bethe, Krebs, Ochoa and many more.
If these names seem even vaguely familiar, it’s because they’ve created or discovered pretty much everything you read in your high-school textbooks.
Hitler’s brutishness and anti-intelligentsia stance actually helped a cultural shift as the Europe’s best and brightest left to help bolster the United States and Great Britain. You can read about this tectonic cultural shift,and.
The last time I checked, no one was fleeing India for prosecution. So perhaps, we should stop making a comparison similar to, and wait a bit before comparing this government to one of the most terrible regimes in the history of humanity.