#JNUStories No. 11: Geelani and his Advocates

On 17th August, 2004, Democratic Students’ Union planted posters across JNU Campus that said that SAR Geelani was coming to Sutlej Hostel as a speaker to talk on the topic of 'Indian State Repression,POTA and Kashmir'. DSU is a party with a few cadres but they represent the extreme left whose ideology openly talked about freedom from Indian state by using guns. While DSU could not have built the momentum for the meeting, all left parties cheered DSU in the name of freedom of expression. It is DSU which was celebrating the death Anniversary of Afzal Guru this week.

In the evening, ABVP decided to protest against it but the mode of protest was not getting finalized. Older students were in favor of showing black flags and the young lot was adamant that Geelani should not be allowed to enter the campus. We had decided to assemble at Ganga Dhaba which was located close to the main gate. It was my second year in JNU Campus and I had started giving French tuition to school children to fund myself. The 615 bus that ran between CP and JNU dropped me at Ganga Dhaba and we had no time to have dinner and return. With no plan of action at hand, the young cadres had decided to let the things be and handle whatever befell as they deemed fit. Basically, adrenaline was the only factor taken into consideration. In fact, even we had no idea what we were going to do.

Often, in such situations, when people realize that scuffles between groups can't be ruled out, many disappear from the scene. We were hardly 30-40 students shouting slogans and straining our vocal chords. Students’ meetings at JNU usually took place post dinner when the dining halls were cleared and no mike etc was used. A dining hall at JNU could easily accommodate 400 people. While we were proceeding towards Sutlej Hostel, we saw around 500 activists from SFI, AISF, AISA, DSU and NSUI barricading the Hostel gate so that Geelani could arrive for the meeting.

Now, who is SAR Geelani! Geenlani is a Kashmiri professor of Arabic Language in Zakir Hussain College, Delhi University. He’s the one who trained the suicide bombers who had attacked the Indian Parliament on 13th December 2001 by preparing them for death by giving  them Quranic lectures. His telephone calls were traced while he was talking with Afzal Guru, Saukat Guru and others. In 2004, he was still an accused. Later on he was acquitted as the proof against him was not sufficient. It is always difficult to find proof against a terrorist who brainwashes suicide bombers who are already dead. Many security personnel died in that attack and it led the Vajpayee Govt. mobilize the biggest army attack team in the deserts of Rajasthan for almost eight months.

Coming again to the night of 17th August, we were shouting slogans against Geelani, and, although our group was small, we were motivated enough that whatever it might take, Geelani shall be chased away. The adrenaline levels were so high that none of us were thinking about our future, like, in case we would be expelled from JNU, or, even if we ended up getting hurt badly, even getting killed in the process as we foresaw a mob of leftists charging towards us.

Around 9:30 PM, SAR Geelani came in a black Scorpio car belonging to Nandita Haksar, another Human Rights’ Activist living in a posh locality of South Delhi. As the car carrying Geelani approached, every one of us charged at it, without thinking again. A few of us jumped on to the bonnet of the car, while some surrounded it and Geelani could only see us banging our fists on the car windows and body. Communists were pushing us away and many of us had our shirts ripped apart by the end of it all. Geelani tried to hide himself in the car and the driver also panicked and hit the reverse. Within a few seconds, the car was speeding towards JNU Main Gate and we were running behind it to chase it out of the campus. Enough chaos and confusion was created and we being new to the campus, were not seasoned leaders of ABVP. Even leftists were unable to take stock of the situation.

After chasing SAR Geelani away from the JNU campus, we retreated to Ganga Dhaba and continued shouting the slogans. As more joined the protest, a ‘Victory Juloos’ was planned. Meanwhile, a security guard of Sutlej Hostel, who was sympathetic to our cause called one of us to inform that Geelani had returned in a burqa and was giving a speech. As it was announced, all of us started running towards Sutlej Hostel which was around 200 meters from Ganga Dhaba. Leftists were still standing at the gate and this time many groups of guards were put to stop us from entering the hostel mess. As the entrance gate was blocked, we started moving towards the hostel boundary wall. Since there were those protective pieces of broken glass lining the top of the wall, we looked for and found an empty sack and put on top of it. Commies did not expect that we could take such a step. When almost ten of us jumped into the hostel garden area, there began the chaos, again. Geelani panicked as the sounds of loud shouting of slogans approached him, and he was taken out from the hostel via the backyard.

Once Geelani was gone, leftists were so enraged that they started pushing us. A few of us lost our eye glasses, shirts were torn, but this episode led to one thing that I can never forget. Many of my batch mates who were earlier supporting NSUI under the influence of their seniors, all of them participated in our victory march and loud chants of ‘Vande Mataram’ were resonating in JNU Campus.

Most students returned to their hostels by 1:00 AM. Meanwhile, another source informed us that left had filed an FIR against twenty people. Now this could create issues for all of us. We took autos and reached Safdarjung Hospital. We had to file a counter FIR for which we needed a medical certificate. We stayed in the Hospital till the next morning and returned to Vasant Vihar Police Station with a counter FIR against twenty leftist student leaders. Senior police officers did not bother much but the constables brought tea for us and they could not hide their happiness as many of their colleagues had lost their lives in the Parliament attack.

The next day media reported this issue in different way. The Hindu took a pro- left stance, The Indian Express declared that Geelani had not come which was a lie nailed by the picture used by The Hindu. The Pioneer reported the facts.

It was the Congress Government and ultimately nothing happened against the leftist parties. We had to report to a fact finding committee for almost two years and we remained under constant threat of expulsion. Finally we were given letters threatening us of action if this was repeated again and we could finish our degrees. FIRs had been dropped against all of us as the Police gave a clear message to leftists that if they (The leftists) perused their FIR, they (The Police) shall be under the obligation to pursue our FIR as well.

Now when I see this incident after 12 long years, SAR Geelani has been arrested, no nationalist student has been expelled and leftists are under arrest too. It is a moment of pride.

The wheel of time has turned.

Vande Mataram! Kashmir Ho Ya Guwahati, Apna Desh, Apni Maati!

You can read more stories on this series by following #JNUStories on Twitter. You can follow me on twitter.https://twitter.com/navfrn

#JNUStories no 10. Dalit Cannon Fodder and Left Agenda.

A young dalit boy from Patna joined as my class mate in JNU. He got his hostel room within a week as per the norms of University that gave preference to SC/ST category for hostel allotment. As I had no room of mine for a couple of months, his room became a hangout place. We would share tea, eat mid night maggi from same plate to save money and often sleep on the same bed. Nobody could guess our caste or category by our brotherhood. We would study our course work together and he showed a lot of potential in the class. 

In following months, he was lured by a left leader to become part of a theatre group called IPTA. As he was interested to join theatre as a hobby, He started frequenting the open air theatre where rehearsals would be done and without him even realising the fact, he was surrounded by the left brigade. 

The gradual brainwash was so strong that the same friend who used to fight for last spoon of maggi started talking about the dalit oppression by brahmanical system and how I should feel ashamed that Dalits were tortured by the upper caste hindus. In my opinion, being informed about the malaise of our society is applaudable but the way it is done by left is such that a normal person with a bright future falls into victimhood mode forever.

Within few months he drifted away from me and fights for last spoon of maggi transformed into fights for last puff of cannabis laced cigarettes with his leftist comrades while discussing the regressive hindu culture. His grades deteriorated and a brilliant student that he was, he could not maintain minimum grades to continue his studies and he had to drop out. 
Even after not being a student, he stayed in the campus as illegal guest and often due to problem of money he was forced to search for half burnt cigarettes in road side dustbins and eat leftover food of his comrades. He wasted five years of his life and then he realised how he had been sucked into the leftist system and spitted out with no blood left.

In the very same way, another dalit batchmate from gaya who was in another centre, got into the whirlpool of left activism. While left leaders in their Ph.d had all the time in their hands, they would take him for protests to different places on daily basis. For him, palestine's independence became a priority and he would often bunk his classes so that he could assemble in front of Embassy of Israel, USA etc. Same story repeated, he failed to complete his graduation. He realised his mistake after few years and then regained himself. He joined JNU again after three years, got scholarship and went abroad for further studies.

When we see a group of few hundred students protesting in front of MHRD, or in front of American Centre to protest against 'american neo-imperialism', there are hundreds of micro stories of failures being written right at the protest location but they get ignored under the corus of sloganeering of "Inquilab Zindabad". The vultures of left gobble on these young men and use them as foot soldiers or rather cannon fodder for pushing their agenda of bygone era.

It is quite common that dalit students who come from prosperous families who have never faced any serious discrimination, they end up being brain washed to such extent that they get into a victimhood mode which hampers their normal growth. The inferiority complex is force fed in such way that before someone realises, a young boy who has never cared about his caste, becomes caste consious and finds it difficult to make friends from other castes projected by left as opressors. But the funny part is that left keeps ranting about brahmanical tyranny but when you check the core of left parties i.e Polit Bureau, No Dalit has ever been allowed as a polit bureau member. So much for dalit upliftment. Brinda Karat was the first woman and only woman till date to join polit bureau of CPI-M, so much for "women's upliftment".

In the meanwhile Hindi Sahitya Academy gives awards to writers like Udai Prakash for showcasing this victimhood in worst possible manner. Udai Prakash wrote a mediocre Novel named 'Peeli chhatri waali ladki'. The plot of the story revolves around a dalit boy and his brahmin girlfriend. When the couple share their intimate moments, the writer points out how every thump of the boy is a hammer shot against oppression of centuries. A couple wants to get married and elopes from a small town but this story is used by the writer to push the victimhood narrative of left. For left, no man or woman can have a normal relationship, it must be seen with the tinted glass of agenda.

JNU left brigade has started a new game of celebrating Mahishasur Day and depicting Goddess Durga as a whore who killed the great dalit king Mahishasur. There need not be any authenticity in such story but it serves a purpsose. Forward press which is church funded publication house, publishes such articles and a whole narrative is being built so that dalits feel outcast and become easy prey for jesus vultures.

JNU left brigade does not stop at JNU itself. The mafia of academics which is so well organised that Modi may have to win four times continuously to clear the mess if he chooses to play a fair game. The mafia ensures that left oriented Ph.d students join as professors in different universities of India and act as recruiters of left brigade. Hyderabad University which was IFLU earlier and its new avatar is only few years old, majority of the faculty that joined It is from JNU. And in this way, the virus of left gets spread to Hyderabad university. Otherwise, students wing of a bengal based Party winning student union elections in Hyderabad makes no sense. The solution to this menace is to create a dalit leadership which understand the evil designs of left and gives proper direction to the dalit youth which is full of energy and ready to serve the nation.

Written by @navfrn

#JNUStories no. 09. Filthy face of left academia.

Few months ago, a horrible incident happened in the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus which lies in the heart of the capital of India. This story is about a professor of ROP community. He has done his Ph.d in sociology from JNU. He was a faculty in Jamia Milia Islamia before joining JNU sociology centre. he was accused by his student of sexual harassment. The girl is persuing her m.phil from centre for social systems under the guidance of this professor. He asked her to meet him in his Flat to discuss the course work around mid-night. The girl belongs to a neighbouring country with no local guardian in India. She could not understand the necessity of discussing course work at night but still she trusted her professor. She went to meet him post dinner. This man forced himself on her and sodomised her in his house. She filed a sexual harassment complaint against him in GSCASH (Gender sensitisation committee against sexual harrassment). She abandoned her studies midstream and returned back to her country. He was suspended few months back and the suspension continues till date. Prima facie, he was found guilty and JNU administration is planning to terminate his job.

The above paragraph is not the main story. It is an incident that demanded for fair enquiry and exposure of that rapist. The main story is the hypocrisy of the left intelligentsia which goes to any extent to protect its brotherhood. The rapist himself is a cardholder of CPI-ML. The same party Kavita Krishnan belongs to. She runs an organisation called AIPWA (All India Progressive Women's Asssociation). She knows about the incident very well. JNU teachers community is silent on this issue as it puts the left brigade under bad light. The woman who shouts daily on national television about women issues is not only silent but hands in gloves with a gang of few JNU teachers who are trying to save this man. Left gang does not want to antagonise the ROP vote bank and this must be a reason, they are not taking any action against the culprit. Same Kavita Krishnan was leading a mob of thousand of people at Raisina hills to oppose against Nirbhaya rape case but this case is not grave enough for her. Even media which is full of journalists who have studied in JNU, is silent. No news paper has covered the story and no television channel has given a single minute to this criminal act.

The same set of teachers who are protecting this professor are also harassing a dalit student and a girl student by accusing them of doing havan and reciting mantras in their hostel room. Is JNU not part of India where every citizen has fundamental right to follow and practice his/her religion?

The left academic gang is trying to save this commie rapist by hushhushing the news and it won't be surprising if he ends up working for another university as no legal action is going to be taken.

If an ordinary criminal rapes a woman, he shall end up in jail for several years. Then why a professor should be given soft treatment by suspending him or terminating him from his job. This issue seems like a déja vu of the Tarun Tejpal incident. 

Do the commies have got a divine right to commit any crime and remain untouched from the indian legal system?

Can we expect a fair trial and proper punishment to this man. If the indian government pursues this case, they shall be able to get the name and all other details from GSCASH of JNU.

JNU Teachers commmunity should be ashamed that they are protecting a rapist for the sake of their sick ideology. How can they be torelant towards such inhumane acts. The hegemony of left to commit any crime and walk free is getting challenged and this is the reason the whole intolrance tamasha is going on.

Isabelle's Indian connection.

It is a story of 2004. It was my second year of graduation in JNU. I used to work as tour leader to cover my expenses. My job was to travel around several cities with French speaking Europeans, to take care of them and to act as French interpreter.

I was assigned a group of nine French citizens as they had to visit Delhi, Agra, Jaipur and Udaipur. As informed by the company staff, I had to meet them at Hotel Imperial situated at Jan path, New Delhi. Our Company representative introduced me to the group and left us to continue the tour. The group had four couples and one single lady, her name was Isabelle. As usual, I gave a small introduction and explained dos and don'ts before commencing the itinerary of eleven days.

we were indulging in small chitchat to make ourselves comfortable. While I was talking to her, She made a remark that the Hotel was 'magnifique'. Imperial Hotel is one of the most beautiful Hotels available in Delhi. I replied without much thought, 'pas comme vous', Not as beautiful as you.

This small remark of mine created a spark in her beautiful eyes. She blushed and thanked me for the compliment. It made me realize that an honest compliment can make a woman blush at any age. she was joyous for the day. We spent eleven days together and the group treated me like a boss. I would give them instructions and they would follow it verbatim. While we would travel from one city to another city, the journey was spent by singing songs and cracking jokes. By end of the trip, all those people who had never met before, we felt like a big family.

I was taking particular care of Isabelle as she was single in the group. As you may have noticed the stairs of Indian Monuments, how scary the steps are. She would climb each of those steps by holding my arms. Isabelle and I developed an emotional bonding. She would tell me how she had one son who had died and she was living a life of solitude. She would pour out stories of her life, she would even tell me about her love affairs when she was young. Her husband had died in World War II.

When we finished the tour and took flight back from Udaipur to Delhi, I was sitting next to Isabelle and out of affection, she was holding my arms and sleeping with her head resting on my shoulder. I could not move for the duration of the journey fearing that it may disturb her sleep.

when we reached Delhi Airport, the group had one day to relax before taking flight to Lyon. the first thing that she did was to make a phone call to the travel company and she requested them for my presence till their Airport departure. Isabelle was not a woman who would take No as an answer. She had already called our Swiss Travel agent for making the arrangement.

I spent full day with her, sitting next to the swimming pool at Imperial Hotel. We talked about random subjects. In the evening, I took the group for dinner at Chor-Bizarre restaurant in Old Delhi which is famous for its Kashmiri cuisine. Post dinner, I dropped them at the airport. She hugged me before entering the gates and showered me with many sweet kisses on my face. I was overwhelmed and we cried for a small moment. It felt like I was in arms of my grand mother I had no memory of.

They reached Lyon next day. She emailed me about her safe arrival. we remained in touch for almost two years through emails. She often told me to come to France to meet her as she could not travel anymore and I would give excuses about my incomplete studies. I received her last email in December 2006. I wrote two different mails to wish her for Christmas and New Year but I did not get any reply. I believe she forgot the password of her email id due to her old age.

This is the first part of the series of stories under hashtag #NavigatorStories.

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DEATH vs DIGNITY

Whenever “Sati” is discussed, the first thought that comes to mind is of an obsolete custom in which women chose to or were expected to jump into the funeral pyres of their husbands.

Mata Sati is a reincarnation of Goddess Shakti and also known as Dakshayeni, the youngest daughter of Daksha the son of Brahma. She fell in love with Lord Shiva and married him against her father's will. She immolated herself at a Yagna hosted by Daksha when Daksha insulted Shiva unjustly. One can find a temple dedicated to this story near Haridwar called Daksheshwar Mahadev.

Vedas do not mention "Sati Pratha" nor do the Dharmasutras or Upanishads talk about it which obviously means that it wasn't prescribed by Vedic texts. The earliest mention of Sati is in Mahabharat. Madri the second wife of Pandu committed Sati. But in her case the act stemmed from a strong sense of guilt for being responsible for her husband’s death than the tradition.

The practice of Sati was mostly associated with the Brahmins and Kshatriyas which eventually trickled down as is the case with most social evils. It was reported mostly from Rajputana, Awadh, Madhya Pradesh and Bengal for a variety of social reasons.

Still, Sati was an uncommon practice followed by a handful of royal families. But it became a regular practice after the Islamic invasions began. The brute force of these invasions was mostly borne by North-Western India and it had impact on social customs in these places. In a bid to save their women from dishonor & servitude, families started forcing widows to commit Sati.

“Sati Pratha” was highly romanticized amongst the Rajputs who till date remain amongst the biggest worshippers of such 'chaste' women and also built a lot of commemorative temples or marked stones at their cremation sites which were frequented by people wanting “Darshan”. Down South, Sati was a rarity which was observed by very few families.

It took strong effort from social reformers to wipe out Sati especially since people had begun to revere it. 

“Jauhar” was a culturally similar practice to Sati and emerged around the same time that the islamic invasion of India began. It was mostly limited to the Rajputana kingdoms though there have been a few isolated incidents down South and elsewhere.

Jauhar is derived from two Sanskrit words, Jiv meaning "life" and Har meaning "defeat". The difference between Sati and Jauhar (Saka) is while the former is practiced by widows only; the latter was committed by both men and women during war time.

The process involved the self-immolation of the royal women and young children to avoid being captured by the invaders in the face of imminent defeat. One of the reasons that it started was because Hindu kingdoms could not deal with the barbarity of the Islamic hordes and on occasions when a few Rajput kings had surrendered, their entire families had been slaughtered and women enslaved for sexual barbarity. Hence they decided to follow Jauhar to prevent capture and dishonour to the clan.

The earliest recorded instance of Jauhar happened in the era of Alexander and the people were most likely Agnikula Kshatriyas who having lost to the Macedonians committed Jauhar rather than face servitude.

Ideally Jauhar would take place in the night amidst Vedic chants; women dressed in their bridal finery would jump into huge pyres made for them along with their young children to commit suicide. The next morning, the men would follow this sacrifice by carrying out “Saka” in which they would wear saffron clothes after taking a bath and smear the ashes of their wives and children on their forehead and put a Tulsi leaf in their mouth and head out to war. The men would fight till death avoiding capture, to annihilate or get annihilated.

There are numerous instances of Jauhar on record starting from the times of Alauddin Khilji  Tughlaq. the Jauhar of Rani Padmini of Chittor is very famous & has inspired a lot of folklore in Rajasthan. It was after her brave act that suicide became something of a “virtue”. There have been 3 instances of Jauhar at Chittor & various across Rajasthan but it wasn’t restricted to the Rajputana only. There have been a few incidents towards the South also to avoid capture and enslavement. One can still find the vermilion smeared hand imprints of the women who committed Jauhar at Chittor Fort.

The bravado of these women who would readily jump into a pyre along with their young children gives me goosebumps. While some may call it a "glorified suicide", for me it remains as the final act of defiance against dishonourable invaders. Fact that these women chose a dignified death is thought provoking and it always left the enemy camp impressed, be it the Macedonians or the Muslims.

Loss in battle was often followed by the plundering of forts and massacre of the civilians. Akbar  the "Great" massacred 30000 innocent residents of Chittor after defeating them. Temples were destroyed and idolaters were beheaded or forced to convert to the “true faith”. The Hindus were made to pay the mandatory “zaziya” tax for being infidels. The people who got captured faced a different hell, quite similar to the methods that the modern ISIS follows in treating Yezidis and other prisoners.

The captured women were raped/enslaved or sent off to be sold in the Middle Eastern slave markets as all of them were treated as property irrespective of whether they were married or single. Muslims had the sanctions for all of these acts in the Quran which allows Slavery, sexual abuse, mutilation of POW’s (4.3, 4.24, 23.6, 23.50, 70.30). The captured men were usually castrated before being sold and sometimes used as guards for Harem's.

Point to be noted is that intellectuals might claim that ISIS isn’t Islamic but the truth remains that they follow the same methods which their ancestors i.e the Mughals etc used centuries back. The beheading of infidels and the enslavement of their women which are distributed amongst their men as spoils of war is not at all different from what happened in our country.

The most recent example of such barbarity against Hindus was at the time of partition where trains from what wasn’t yet Pakistan started arriving with the mutilated bodies of Hindus and Sikhs trying to cross the border back into India. Women were usually dragged off of these trains to be raped and tortured by the Muslim attackers. In many cases when attacked, fathers/husbands or brothers would kill the women of their families to protect their dignity. The women who were caught were sold to brothels, some were forced to convert and get married to their rapists. Only the lucky ones would die a quick death.

Unfortunately our history texts don’t do justice to the tortures that were meted out to the Hindus to keep up the secular facade of our society. While we continue to suffer from Islamic influences in our social system, like the “Ghunghat (veil) system” in the North.

The Irony is such that a lot of us don’t know about these historical incidents and continue to blame the Hindus but the truth remains that our Vedic social structure started unravelling with the advent of Islam in India. Most of us choose to ignore the suffering & sacrifices of our ancestors & coincidentally, history is repeating itself with the advent of ISIS today.

Yagyaseni likes to tweet about social issues. she is a dog lover and she can be followed on twitter by clicking here.