The JNU Equation

Time and again India has proven that for our politics and our political agenda cares more about the past rather than the present or the future. We spend most of our political effort and consensus building on events that occurred in the past and which have no effect on any policy or any way improves the life of the people.

Conceding that these things are important but making it the only political agenda is outright ridiculous. The JNU debacle is one such example of utter nonsensical politics by all parties that call themselves secular first and patriots second.

Reading from the accounts on the internet it seems that one group from JNU(self proclaimed Marxist) wanted to organize a protest on the Judicial killing of Afzal Guru, a parliament attack convict. Officially the protest was a cultural event to protest the Supreme court ruling just after the third death anniversary of Afzal Guru. The group invited many Kashmiri's from outside of campus to voice their protest against the supreme court ruling.The were protesting against the corruption in the judiciary which resulted in the eventual execution of Afzal Guru who they referred to as a martyr.

I am a proponent of free speech but I think you should always criticize people and organization and not national Institution like supreme court of India. If you start questioning Institution it means you have no confidence in the  fundamentals of the country which for me classifies as anti-national.

Continuing the story, ABVP(the right wingers or the BJP folks) wing of JNU stepped in and said that a protest of this sort should not be allowed. The college administration agreed on banning the protest as they thought that it might create the pointless hysteria which it eventually did. The group of self-proclaimed Marxists went anyway with the protest and agreed to do it without mikes and much fuss. The ABVP stepped in and starting intimidating the Marxist which could have been easily avoided. To make matters worse the Invited Kashmiris came in and then they started shouting anti-national slogans like: "won't stop till India is destroyed" and "If you kill Afzal Guru from every house in Kashmir will produce a new one"

As an Indian I am offended by these remarks and think that it is unhealthy to support any remarks that are outright anti national. I am OK with people criticizing the right wing, the government and even the specific people in power but questioning, criticizing and threatening India and its fundamental Institutions is wrong and invites fierce condemnation.

Now the fun part was the politics after this incident. The most weird and counter-intuitive thing to me was Rahul Gandhi supporting the JNU students. I want to remind Rahul Gandhi that it was your government that hanged Afzal guru and rightly so. The students were protesting against your government decision  and somehow the strange part is that no one finds it strange neither you nor the students. I guess politics and political agenda are as characterless as any Tushar Kapoor movie.

I guess rather than problem solving capabilities, accountability and manifesto promises ,people judge governments and establishments on how they treat their ancestors and their beliefs. I guess this is why we move with so much tussle since we are so tied up with our past and beliefs that we don’t see what is good for us in the present and the future.

I think it is a classic example of game theory where everyone wants the best outcome for themselves and eventually due to mutual conflict everyone has to settle for an outcome that is way poorer than the optimal. Mr. Nash(won Noble price for game theory) was right, the more selfish and self-centered we are  the more we will suffer. As Mr. Nash says don't go for the most beautiful girl, you won't get her and waste your chances of getting the other ones which will eventually result in your happiness. I don't when will we understand his simple and beautiful mathematical logic