A Trip to JNU

Slanted minds do exist in every part of the world.

I arrived in New Delhi along with my friends on Saturday morning 2^nd November; we had plans to go to top intellectual places of the city to sip some of the nectar of the best of the bests. So we took an auto straightway to see the grandeur and the zenith of Jawaharlal Nehru University. Everyone knows the lineament of the university, the alumni this alma mater has rendered and the type of education imparted. Being one of the top universities we too were enthusiastic to be a part of it though for a small amount of time. We desired to talk to the students there, have a healthy conversation about the career, about the philosophy of being successful and extract everything from them to be persuaded. 

So we reached the first destination; we entered the main gate of the university and were astonished to see the tranquillity and peace of the place. Everything looked mesmerised, the road was clear as if no dirty feet had walked on it, students walking and discussing, the atmosphere looked full of didactics and intellectuals. We fell in love with place, cursing our past we even hoped for a migration though it was inconceivable. We came to Social Sciences block and the graffiti walls exaggerated their own worth, the intensity with which each of the graffiti was structured was eminent. Every topic of humanity was being touched, be it the genocide in Palestine, the barbaric female foeticide, the ever rising inflation and corruption or the hazards of being the “modern human”.  We read every single paper, every sentence and every word as it was the first place of such noetic allurement. Some of the students were rehearsing for some political skit and even that didn’t look debile. The classes were empty so we enquired about it from a security official; he told it was a holiday for the students. We were saddened because we couldn’t find any student to interact. Walking down the lawn we reached the library’s main gate. We saw some students inside the library so we decided to go to the library. An official there at the main entrance stopped us and asked us to deposit our bags at the baggage counter; we went to deposit our bags. The security official there asked us about our whereabouts and we answered, he asked to submit our Identity cards and to accompany him to some place and we were co-operative thinking a security check is a modus-operandi. But then he stopped us at a bench and started interrogating us, asking some of the silliest questions. He asked us about our homeland and thereafter everything became clear, we realised the reason for his emphatic nature. He took my laptop, wanted to open it but due to my password protection couldn’t and besides he didn’t ask for the password I too didn’t. He checked our bags and unfortunately I had penned down every detail of the purpose of our visit, I had wrote about the places and the addresses of the places to be visited. These things were enough for him to find us guilty and naturally under the scanner. Literally, my heart shattered, my eyes became moist and felt desolate in utter helplessness. I would’ve even panicked but then I thought if they find me panicking we could no longer be free men. This vigilant approach from them was not because we were outsiders for the university, but because we were from Kashmir. We were escorted to the security office of JNU, two other officials came and interrogated. One of them even was of the view that we had come to plot something dangerous, he believed in it and forced his colleagues to believe in the same but because there were no ample reasons for it so he failed. Finally when he walked away he said, “Ye aise hi nai aaye hain, inka zaroor kuch na kuch maksad hai.”  Could it be even worse for us than this humiliating and inhumane act, prior to this we thought that India considered us as a part? It was just these moments that changed our minds, I was happy because now I could easily differentiate India, its 28 states and Kashmir. We were held there at the main entrance of the security office and then one security guard came and asked us to write an application, xeroxed our Ids and took our phones to check. Then after some minutes we were called by the Chief Security Officer, he was co-operative and sober, asking some of the questions related to our studies, to our place and other questions that a normal person should have enquired of. But the security official who escorted us from the library delivered an imaginative tale which was uninterestingly amusing. Fortunately we were set free by the security officer and he told that police is waiting outside for your interrogation as it is a modus-operandi for us to interrogate every foreign visitor to the university. We came out and waited, finally after another half an hour one security officer came and apologized for the inconvenience caused.

Now when all this happened, we felt disheartened, powerless and inexpressible because there was no-one for us to persuade and uplift our confidence on going further to the trip. This kind of dilemma and drama is confronted by almost every Kashmiri, stereotyping us has been the prime job of the so called patriotic Indians. Even at some point of time we may find India supporting us in any cause or we may find ourselves considered as their part an untoward incident happens fortunately though. India has been time and again blaming us for being “the antagonists” in their land but they forget that they themselves transcribe this fate.. Are you always ironical when you mention the world “democracy”? It’s time for everybody to be constructive and have a stimulating discussion regarding our fate. Shall we (the students) be always looked as suspicious in India? Shall we always be looked as radicals? It’s time for India to change their slanting minds; it’s time for them to be practical and vigil to differentiate between us and themselves.