” JNU Students Don’t Dance Naked, It Is the Emperor Who Doesn’t Have Clothes”
AN OPEN LETTER TO JNU STUDENTS
Dear Students of JNU,
We do not know any of you, and we probably don’t agree with many or most of your beliefs. We might even detest some of your ideas. But today, we are proud of you folks. Our support, and the support of most individuals might not count for much, yet it is our need to support you. It is our need to be seen to be standing with you. You actually do not need our support, for, you won the battle the moment the Might of the State started being unleashed on you.
The State needed to use
* its Police force,
* its Information Machinery,
* lies, manipulation, doctored videos and pictures and,
* few Private and supposedly ‘Independent’ Media houses.
* its Information Machinery,
* lies, manipulation, doctored videos and pictures and,
* few Private and supposedly ‘Independent’ Media houses.
Therein lies your first victory. Whatever the State does now it has it has no legs, no moral ground to stand on. The Moral ground was ceded to you ages ago, around mid-February 2016!
Whether or not you folks dance naked after 8 pm it is the Emperor who has no clothes. The Emperor has been doing a mad, round-the-clock dance.
You have learnt some things in the last few days, albeit at a cost to yourselves. You now know that small group actions can be a ‘crime’, mob actions are not. You have been charged with everything fromdancing naked after 8 pm, to using too many condoms, to wanting to dismember and destroy this country.
But you have educated the Nation on many things. You have exposedhow fickle and weak the Government is. You have taught us that the voice of a bunch of steadfast students can be heard above the din and cacophony of mobs that part of the media echoes. A section of the media is now forced to hold up a mirror to itself. You have told us that even where not looking beyond one’s nose is the norm and therefore desirable, one can hold one’s convictions dear. One can have dreams greater than advancing individual careers and becoming successful professionally.
You have struck us with your clarity of thought, courage, your commitment to standing by your beliefs and colleagues every time we have heard some of you speak.
Dear Friends, let us confess, you’ve moved many of us to tears many, many times in the last couple of weeks. They have been tears of pain at the hounding, media-trial and conviction-without-hearing that you’ve been subjected to. But they have also been tears of joy, tears of pride, tears of hope and confidence that the future will be kind to you and all the causes you fight for.
It has been heartwarming to see students of Hyderabad, Jadavpur and many other Universities and places across unite with you. The rise of such a young generation is the hope of the Nation.
Truly, some of the worst things, AND SOME OF THE BEST THINGS have happened in the last few days.
Anand Mazgaonkar, Swati Desai, Lakhan Musafir, Parth Trivedi, Daniel Mazgaonkar, Jyotibhai Desai, Jigar Bhatt, Aziz Minat, Michael M
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