To ‘Godi-media’,
With love…
I am trying to answer a few FAQs that you might have about JNU and its students.
1) “Why are you still studying when you are in your late 20s – early 30s?”
Because I would have to be a modern-day mythological figure and start kindergarten in the womb to finish my PhD before 29. I am not a miracle, and I am truly sorry for that. It is simply biologically impossible.
2) “Why do you take government scholarship from taxpayers’ money if you want to do politics?”
You would not have fierce leaders like Arun Jaitley or Subramanium Swamy, if not for student politics. Currently, 17 yr. old students are protesting gun violence in USA, some are fighting for administrative staff’s pension in UK. Regimes have always come down on students, be it America regarding Vietnam, or France in 1968. The notion of every polity lies in young people taking charge and asking questions and entering politics. We talk about politics as if it is a maligned, awful thing to begin with.
The notion of polity’s taxes produces accountability. We are only being accountable by asking questions to those in power. If you pay taxes, so do we. Are we really focusing on subsidies given to students, when thousands of crores are looted by Modis – (Lalit and Nirav, of course)? When bills get passed in half an hour without any debate or discussion, why is the media and its avid consumer interested in JNU’s scholarships?
3) “Why do you protest so much?”
Because we are aware of our rights which are constantly trampled upon by an autocratic administration.
4) “If the rest of the students from all over the country can comply with the attendance, why should JNU be an exception?”
Conditions of infrastructure and environment of learning are different everywhere in India. Now, the JNU administration wants to conduct entrances online. What about people from remote villages who aspire to come to JNU, but do not have, forget the internet, but electricity? JNU should not be an exception at all, but its own act should be followed as the procedure. Hon’ble VC is reconfiguring it according to his assessment of the campus. The UGC guidelines do not account for several factors. There is very little infrastructure provided to a research scholar in India. There are many amenities in JNU which are not available to students from other universities. Still, we live on peanuts, and there is a disparity between the scholarship given to IITians and a predominantly social science institution like JNU. Academic requirements for research institutions, from post-graduate level, are different from under Graduate courses. The yardsticks of accountability ought to be different as well.
Yours truly,
Redacted name
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