Are the students anti-national in Yogi Raj?

Are those who ask for their rights anti-national? The answer is yes if one is living in a state governed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the youth dare to raise their voice against the administration and its quality of governance.

This happened in BHU where the administration called the protesting students anti-national. The PRO section of the university issued a release to say that anti-national (rashtra virodhi) forces were out to malign the university’s name. The only fault of the students was they were asking for security and they were declared anti-national by the university administration.

This happened in JNU, then in Hyderabad and now in BHU – all Central universities governed by the Union HRD ministry. In JNU and Hyderabad too, students who opposed government decisions were branded anti-national.

In BHU, it all started with the students protesting against rising number of instances of women getting harassed on campus. What triggered the protest was an incident in which a student alleged harassment by three men on a motorcycle inside the campus while she was returning to her hostel.

Reports say three men abused her and fled when she resisted their attempts. The woman alleged that security guards, about 100 metres from where the incident happened, did nothing to stop the men. She said in her complaint that her warden, instead of taking up the issue with her superiors, asked her why she was returning late to the hostel.

The warden's response angered the student's colleagues, who sat on a 'dharna' at the main gate at midnight on Thursday. One of the students even got her head tonsured. Police and BHU professors tried to pacify the students but they refused to end their protest and sought assurance from the university Vice-Chancellor.

The BHU administration issued a statement, saying that the protest was "politically motivated" to malign the image of the university. The university also said that security guards were regularly patrolling the campus and assistance from the police was sought from time to time to maintain peace in the campus.

“Majority of the people who indulged in violence were outsiders and not the bonafide students of the university,” a BHU spokemsman said in a statement on Sunday. “These were the anti-national elements who were out to malign BHU’s image,” it said.

This incident has raised a big question about law and order situation in UP. When the Yogi Adityanath government came to power, it formed anti-Romeo squads to end incidents of harassment. Where is that squad? Why has it failed to deliver on the BHU campus?

In a knee-jerk reaction, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath ordered a probe and asked Varanasi’s Divisional Commissioner Nitin Gokarn to submit the report to the government at the earliest. On Monday morning, the administration transferred two police officers and one ADM rank officer but the government is yet to answer whether transferring these officials will instill nationalism in these students.