Anti National is the new abuse of choice in this unfortunate land. Today, a torch rally left JU worlview area and went up to Dhakuria. It was a rally to protest against the saffron state sponsored terror brought down upon teachers and students in JNU. The destruction of free speech and campus democracy in JNU. At the rally, apparently six or seven students shouted pro Afzal Guru slogans. While they have every right to raise the question of Kashmiri self-determination, this was a violation of the common minimum of this rally, which is condemnable, and the vast majority of students disagreed with this use. This one incident and one slogan did not reflect the spirit or the aim of this particular rally, which was to protest against the suppression of dissent across campuses and civil society and the misuse of state power to terrorize critics of the saffron fascist state.A handout that went with the rally and the event description, did not for once express support for secessionist slogans. Media houses did not bother to talk to the organisers about what the michhil had set out to do. The bourgeois crony capitalist media, as its agenda generally is, microfocused on this one incident, and disregarded everything else that was said. The extremely patriotic Hindutva brigade as usual wasted no time in calling JU students traitors and anti-nationals. Arnab Goswami of course proved once more why he should consider the alternative profession of a loudspeaker. The monolithic and closed narrative of the saffron State posing as the Nation was latched on to by these toadies. The purpose of all this was to distract attention from the protest against fascist clampdown on democratic protest and movements. The purpose of this was to distract and destroy dissent. The overwhelming majority of the students expressed disagreement with the particular slogan and we condemn the use of it in a rally that composed almost a thousand people who had united on a different agenda. However, we understand that the saffron state and their supporting media wishes to focus on this so that it can tag JU and play the antinational card to suppress the dissent that it fears. Dissent that exposes the fascist BJP and its allies, which regularly misuses the law for its own narrow fundamentalist aims.
Tomorrow a press meet and mass gathering has been called. This attempt by the hindutva brigade, their state machinery and their paid media to villify and suppress dissent will not be accepted passively. We will clarify our stance and continue our protest against the destruction of democracy and free speech by the powers that be.
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