BY JAYATI GHOSH

Jayati Ghosh, one of the world’s leading development economists, is professor of economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and executive secretary of International Development Economics Associates (Ideas). She is co-recipient of the International Labour Organisation’s 2010 Decent Work Research prize.  For some U.S. press coverage of these events go here, here and here.  See also accounts in the UAE-based Gulf News here and here.  Cell phone footage of the assault is here.  Professor Ghosh appeared on Indian television to discuss and debate these events here. 

For those who may not have got the news, I wanted to update about a crisis in my University in Delhi — Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Jayati Ghosh

Last Sunday, January 5, there was a preplanned and organized attack on us, by rightwing goons affiliated to the ruling party. We’re safe at the moment, but the violence has been terrible and several of our students and colleagues are badly injured. Lots of damage to property. It was a planned attack of ABVP [Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad transl. All Indian Student Council, a right-wing Hindu nationalist student organization] goons brought in from outside, with connivance of police and administration. Some faculty members close to the administration organized the hundreds of goons with sticks and weapons — I saw them preparing openly inside the campus an hour before the attack. They first pelted stones at a peaceful gathering of students and teachers, then charged at them and beat viciously. The street lights inside campus were switched off for three hours to enable them to do their job unhindered. They entered hostels and tried to force open rooms, including women’s rooms, destroyed windows and furniture and cars and whatever they could find, identified Left and Muslim students and beat them viciously. They chased women students and faculty members and beat them up. My colleague Sucharita was hit on the head with a brick, another was knocked down with an iron pipe and then kicked around while he lay bleeding. All this while, the security guards (recently hired company run by a right-wing ex General) and the police, stood around and watched. The president of the students union was brutally attacked, she was bleeding profusely from a head injury, but the mob, guards and police at the gate would not allow the ambulance to leave the campus even when she personally pleaded with them. She finally was taken out of another gate with other injured students an hour later.

After the goons were allowed to wreak havoc for nearly three hours, they were escorted safely out of campus by the police, there are videos of that and of some of the terror inside.

The administration, the police and the BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi] are trying to pretend that this was a clash between two groups of students. It was not — it was targeted planned state-sponsored terror, a week after the Home Minister’s speech calling for the “anti-nationals” behind the public protests to be taught a lesson. Four days after the attack, the police claim that they do not know who did it — despite lots of email and WhatsApp messages on planning it by rightwing students, photographic and video evidence that captured many of the people’s faces before they were masked, and very conveniently the CCTV records are somehow not available. The police have now filed two FIRs [First Information Reports] — against the injured students!

So now we’ve had our versions of the Kristallnacht and burning of Reichstag, and we’re full steam ahead with the concentration camps, as you probably know. What’s next, we wonder? What new 21st century version of this fearful madness?

One thing that keeps me optimistic is the amazing fearlessness, strength and smartness shown by our students. Consider the speech delivered by Aishe Ghosh, the students union president just after she was released from hospital yesterday evening [January 8], still with a serious head injury: “Every iron rod used against the students will be given back by debate and discussion. JNU’s culture will not be eroded anytime soon. JNU will uphold its democratic culture.”

But the government is refusing to shift out the Vice Chancellor, as he suits their purpose in making terrible appointments to fill the faculty with rightwing goons — and today the Delhi Police have stated that on the basis of their preliminary investigation, the violence was mostly done by students (7 from the left) who apparently attacked themselves — Aishe Ghosh, who was badly injured, is named as a perpetrator. So you get some idea of the state we are in.

We have had a number of impressive meetings (today [January 9] a very large meeting of alumni and others at which a very famous movie star also came to express her solidarity — the photo you have sent of Deepika Padukone). Also there is a real outpouring of solidarity — we have received messages from all over India and the world. There has been an explosion of protests across Indian universities and institutions, very elite ones like the institutes of management and engineering (and even St Stephens College and Delhi School of Economics), and lots of places in small towns all over the country. So this might even be a tipping point. Anyway we can always hope….

Also, we’re still hoping that international pressure might still help, so any statements, articles in popular press, etc.

In hope of better times.

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On January 9, the JNU Teachers Association announced that over 250 senior academics and university administrators from universities in the USA, Canada, UK, Germany, Norway, France, Italy, Denmark, Australia, South Africa, Ireland, Chile, Mexico, Argentina Taiwan, Greece, Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, Brazil, Portugal and New Zealand have signed a statement calling for the immediate resignation of Jawaharlal Nehru University’s Vice-Chancellor, M. Jagadesh Kumar. Signatories include the former Archbishop of Canterbury and current Master of Magdalen College, Cambridge, Dr Rowan Williams; the President of the American Anthropological Association, Professor Akhil Gupta; President, Association for Asian Studies, USA, Prof Prasenjit Duara; and Professors Dame Caroline Humphries and Sir Christopher Clark, Cambridge.

The signatories stated that the January 5 incident in which an “armed and politically-motivated mob” was allowed to enter the JNU campus violates every norm of democracy, of academic freedom, of the protection of universities from arbitrary state power, and of the duty of university administrators to protect their students and faculty.” They also rued the JNU administrators’ “failure” to call police to protect students and their act of “criminalising” peaceful failure of the protest by students.

Over 100,000 people have signed a petition demanding a fair inquiry into the attack initiated by prominent Indian actress Swara Bhaskar available here.  Another petition expressing solidarity with the student movement can be signed here.