JNU student leader Kanhaiya Kumar, Anirban Bhattacharya and Umar Khalid remind us of socialist era of up until 1990s, when student leaders and union leaders gained prominence (notoriety ?) by being AGAINST something or anything they could think of, mostly rich people, industrialists or government officers. These "leaders" were generally angry, wore thick frame glasses and puffed cigarette smoke, as if alluding to fire within!
Existence of their "ideology" and their own, depended on being "frustrated" with something. They blamed "system", government, management or anything for their own perceived predicament and that of others'. It never occurred to them to take their behinds out of the hostel and try to build or do something constructive, because they were convinced "nothing can be done!". Blaming someone else was easier and hyp for their and society's problems. Their agitations required expression of anger, which usually took the form of destroying property, beating up government officials or industrialists.
Those were the socialist days. Education was publicly funded and universities and hostels were grooming grounds for student leaders, places to "hang out" on the pretext of pursuing PhD or Masters, and hope to enter "Politics" in later years.
Just like present day Kanhaiya Kumar, who has been pursuing his PhD for 7 years now and who has not submitted any thesis work is last 3 years, "Student Leaders" of that era typically, never graduated. Colleges and Universities were publicly funded, education as well as boarding in hostels was free. Colleges and Universities were breeding ground, on tax payers' money, for these wannabe Socialist Leaders.
But those days are over! Today India has shun socialism and embraced free market economy. Lakhs of students are paying hefty fee for their college education, so should these punks. THAT, equality with other students, should be the pretext for Government to sharply curtail funding of these central universities and dismantle grooming apparatus for these throwbacks from 1960s and 70s.
What surprises me is that NDA Government does not call out all the things I mentioned here. For some strange reasons, they take indirect approach at dealing with these issues. Smriti Irani, for example, tried to play Mahishasura - Durga poster card in order to sour the left and Bangla leaders' support for JNU incidents. Why can't they take a principled stand boldly? AAP's Kejriwal does a wonderful job at explaining complex legislative, constitutional and policy issues to general public in a layman's language. He gets tremendous support from masses for doing that. NDA also need to start respecting common man's intellect and fight the fights by explaining issues on principles, rather than beating around the bushes.
Existence of their "ideology" and their own, depended on being "frustrated" with something. They blamed "system", government, management or anything for their own perceived predicament and that of others'. It never occurred to them to take their behinds out of the hostel and try to build or do something constructive, because they were convinced "nothing can be done!". Blaming someone else was easier and hyp for their and society's problems. Their agitations required expression of anger, which usually took the form of destroying property, beating up government officials or industrialists.
Those were the socialist days. Education was publicly funded and universities and hostels were grooming grounds for student leaders, places to "hang out" on the pretext of pursuing PhD or Masters, and hope to enter "Politics" in later years.
Just like present day Kanhaiya Kumar, who has been pursuing his PhD for 7 years now and who has not submitted any thesis work is last 3 years, "Student Leaders" of that era typically, never graduated. Colleges and Universities were publicly funded, education as well as boarding in hostels was free. Colleges and Universities were breeding ground, on tax payers' money, for these wannabe Socialist Leaders.
But those days are over! Today India has shun socialism and embraced free market economy. Lakhs of students are paying hefty fee for their college education, so should these punks. THAT, equality with other students, should be the pretext for Government to sharply curtail funding of these central universities and dismantle grooming apparatus for these throwbacks from 1960s and 70s.
What surprises me is that NDA Government does not call out all the things I mentioned here. For some strange reasons, they take indirect approach at dealing with these issues. Smriti Irani, for example, tried to play Mahishasura - Durga poster card in order to sour the left and Bangla leaders' support for JNU incidents. Why can't they take a principled stand boldly? AAP's Kejriwal does a wonderful job at explaining complex legislative, constitutional and policy issues to general public in a layman's language. He gets tremendous support from masses for doing that. NDA also need to start respecting common man's intellect and fight the fights by explaining issues on principles, rather than beating around the bushes.
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