By Dr. Gyan Pathak
Union Government led by PM Narendra Modi and the RSS-BJP clan ruling elsewhere in other states have now started witch-hunting students and others who participated in the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) led protests at Jantar Mantar in Delhi and across India, despite the words of “no action against protestors” given by the government to protesters after which they called off their movement against the paper leaks. Subsequently, several BJP ruled states have also announced the same, but witch-hunting of students and others continues in various forms.
Prosecutors may gratify their vanity and ego by such acts of revenge for humiliation of the ruling establishment, but such acts are not in anyone’s interest – not even of the RSS-BJP clan members in general and PM Narendra Modi or Union Home Minister Amit Shah in particular. Moreover, these would lead to dangerous consequences.
Ruling establishment must not betray their weakness and must forgive and forget the humiliation that students have brought to them by their protest on account of enforced resignation of the Union Minister of Education Dharmendra Pradhan and other actions that the government had to take, such as dismissal of 47 NTA officials, arrests of over a dozen accused persons of paper leaks, and compulsion of bringing a legislation called Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill 2026 that had to passed in the parliament.
Though these are some sort of humiliation for the ruling establishment and the RSS-BJP combo, they must adopt the policy of forgive and forget and go ahead with nation building as the Constitution of India mandates an elected government. They must remember Mahatma Gandhi’s words, “The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”
What is happening in the country is disturbing, ever since the order passed by the Supreme Court of India that directed the Centre and the states that they should not take any action against the protesting students unless there were earlier cases registered against them. CJP has expressed their suspicion that the order can be weaponized by the governments against the students. Their suspicion has come true.
The Supreme Court Bench might not have imagined how their order could be weaponized. They made a mistake by clubbing the two things together – “the CJP protest” and the “earlier cases” against the protesters. The Bench had already admitted that protest was peaceful. Then the logical question is how a person loses his right to protest peacefully against something wrong that has been done such as a paper leak, only because one has a case registered against him or her? Both are separate cases, and earlier cases could have been dealt separately. What was the need to mention earlier cases with this “peaceful protest of students”? Governments are now interpreting the Supreme Court’s direction according to their whims and fancies, and therefore, Supreme Court should clarify that even an accused has right to peaceful protest if something wrong has been done against anyone.
One can recall, how Union Minister JP Nadda has said arrest of a student leader from CPI(M) headquarter normal who had participated in CJP protest at Jantar Mantar. She was arrested because she has a case registered against her regarding a student protest at JNU in 2021. Has she forfeited her right to peacefully protest paper leaks, simply because there was a case registered against her as a student while she was protesting another ill of the education system? Union Minister calling such police actions normal is regrettable, and there is no sense of justice in his statement made in the Rajya Sabha.
Take another example. Someone has filed a petition the other day in Supreme Court of India about a witch-hunt by police against him, only because he provided food to the protestors. Cruelty of the government should be recalled here that police were reported obstructing even food and water to the student protesters at Jantar Mantar demanding action against paper leak. Such police action was outrightly inhuman.
It has been reported in media that police have been on the hunt for those who have helped the protesting students in any way. Police have been tracking them down through facial surveillance records that were installed at the protest site. Police have said that large number of persons having criminal antecedents were present at the protesting site. It has also been alleged that the protesters were funded and helped from outside. All these indicate that the government has already started witch-hunt.
One glaring example of witch-hunting has been reported about a 25 year old woman from Noida in Uttar Pradesh. She had been participating in Jantar Mantar Protest, and she has allegedly posted something “objectionable” against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Noida police have registered a non-FIR (zero FIR) against her. Uttar Pradesh Police, the state which is ruled by the BJP, have simply misused the legal provisions, and after registering zero-FIR it has been sent to Delhi for further action, because they don’t have jurisdiction to investigate the case.
Delhi police had earlier booked several persons, and social media platforms for posts that were found to be insulting to PM Narendra Modi, a person holding constitutional post. However, similar actions have not been initiated against the RSS-BJP clan member’s posts that are insulting for other persons of other political parties holding constitutional posts. Such selective actions on behalf of leadership of the ruling establishment reeks of witch-hunting.
There are numerous cases in which students are struggling to get rid of the cases and make themselves free from detentions in which they still are. Government’s actions are largely seen as efforts of stifling the voices against the government in general and students in particular in the present case who had protested against paper leaks under PM Narendra Modi government, which were as many as 152 ever since he came to power in 2014, as alleged by the opposition. (IPA Service)
