There have been allegations that some middle-aged Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad activists infiltrated Jadavpur University and molested some women, while chanting slogans about Bharat Mata, coincidentally, also a woman.
Firstly, let me address the middle-aged issue. In a country where Rahul Gandhi can be a youth leader at the age of 46, it’s very unfair to single them out in this way. Also, the acquisition of Vidya is a lifelong process, which cannot be constrained by age.
Regarding the molestation, what actually happened is unclear. As in the case of Hrithik vs Kangana, there are multiple perspectives. Broadly speaking, there are two parties involved, the chaddis and the commies. The commies say the chaddis are at fault. The chaddis disagree. Four of the chaddis have been arrested by the police, but it is important to note that the police are under the hawaii chappals of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who once referred to the prime minister as Haridas Pal (“Who is dis Haridas Pal?”), initiating a trend of questioning his identity which continues to this day. It’s a murky affair. What we need is logical, step-by-step analysis, which is where I come in.
Typically, two to three days after an event, the first flush of enthusiasm is over. Concerned parties can give their considered views. Expressing these views on Monday was Suman Datta, a leader of the ABVP, whose age has not been specified. He said that it was not possible to molest the girls of Jadavpur University, as they have no shame, and are kissing boys all day.
From this, we can draw two conclusions. One, he is not denying that the girls were molested, only pointing out that they deserved it. For his colleagues who are about to face the judicial process, this is not good news. And two, as a former student of Jadavpur University, I am very upset. No one told me about any of this. Where was all this kissing going on? Did they have a schedule? Was there something I needed to sign? Was some kind of fee or honorarium required? This is why the prospectus of a university needs to be carefully written.
The case of Jadavpur
Going by the statements of the ABVP, it would seem that some form of molestation did take place. On the other hand, as both Hercule Poirot and the motion picture Rashomon have demonstrated, you cannot always trust what people say. Datta may have been trying to impress his bosses. He may be sending them a message that if any anti-national Porkistani sluts require molesting, he is always there to take the lead. It could advance his career, and he is not getting any younger. So we cannot simply go by the statements in this case.
Another way to establish the truth is through examining precedent. Is it conceivable that such a thing could happen in JU? Or is it too fantastical to be true? Have there been such occurrences in the past?
Most of my friends from Jadavpur are extremely upset, shaking their heads and saying things like “What is happening?” and “How could we have descended this far?” and “This Modi is the limit, I tell you.” According to them, both freedom of expression and women are under threat.
Personally, I am not so sure that this is a new thing. In the four years that I was in Jadavpur, outsiders supporting the Communist Party of India (Marxist) entered campus twice and beat up students. They did not molest any women, but they certainly abused quite a few. The police were by and large sympathetic, and no arrests were made.
During our cultural festivals, westernised girls and boys were routinely heckled by ultra-leftists for spreading oposhonskriti or bad culture, as opposed to good culture, such as Satyajit Ray and global poet Rabindranath. They questioned our right to rock and roll. It did not seem to me that any of these communists were big supporters of freedom of speech. Kanhaiya Kumar is a lovely boy, and no doubt he has a bright future ahead of him. But as someone who spent 20 years under the rule of Jyoti Basu, I find it a little hard to digest him as a poster child for freedom of speech. Because when commies are in power, their devotion to freedom of speech tends to wane. Xi Jinping, for example, is not a big fan.
Men vs women
At this point, you have probably detected the freshly blooming aroma of whataboutery. Is this rascal trying to justify what the ABVP did, you may be thinking? Not really. Just pointing out that our perspective on freedom of speech can vary, depending on who’s in power. That may not be the issue here. More than the vitiating of the atmosphere, and the destruction of the grand traditions of Jadavpur, it seems like Jadavpur has become the kind of place where men can walk in and publicly molest women, because they deserve it.
This looks like a significant forward movement in the war against women. So far, tools deployed in this war have included dictating dress codes, rape, denying marital rights, and refusing to file FIRs in order to save the victim’s honour. But this is a new one. So far, at least girls in our country who were lucky enough to reach college were reasonably safe on campus. Now, the men have taken a bold new step. The war just escalated.
In case you think there’s no war on women, consider this. When two nations go to war, their entire populations do not fight each other. Each nation selects a small number of their citizens, preferably poor, gives them weapons, and sends them off to harm the enemy. The rest of the people go about their lives. In India, if you add up all the men who spit fire on women, all the rapists, all the molesters, all the justifiers, all the haters, all the constables who refuse any help, all the judges and administrators who turn away their faces, all those who make women work twice as hard and pay them half the money, then you arrive at a very large number of men, forming a significant part of the population. They are as large as any army, and this is a war. It’s just that we don’t see it yet.
I support women in this war, because my wife told me to. If you’re like me, there’s only one thing for us to do. We have here a group of men who decided that they could just walk on to campus and lay their hands on some girls. We should demand that the West Bengal government takes these people, locks them up, and throws away the key.
Shovon Chowdhury’s new novel, Murder With Bengali Characteristics, does not feature any characters who resemble Jyoti Basu.
