Two weeks ago, Consul General of Israel to New York, Dani Dayan, took the lectern to begin his lecture on ‘the legal strategy for Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine’ at Harvard Law School. As he started addressing the gathering, the students collectively stood up, held up placards — one of which read ‘Settlements are a war crime’ — and started marching out of the lecture hall.
This is what played out at the lecture hall in Central University of Kerala, Kasaragod district, on Tuesday, when one of the guest speakers invited for a seminar as part of the 70th Constitution Day celebrations started speaking. Students rose from their chairs, one by one, and raised placards in the air for some time, protesting the University’s invites to many BJP sympathisers. The students then silently walked out of the hall, holding the placards in the air, even as the guest continued his speech.
As part of the two-day national conference on 'Constitution and Democracy 70 years of Indian experience', on Tuesday and Wednesday, the University organised seven sessions. Of the seven scheduled sessions, students objected to three sessions, by BJP Intellectual Cell convener TG Mohandas, former DGP TP Senkumar and BJP mouthpiece Janam TV's Chief Editor GK Suresh Babu.
While Mohandas’ session was on ‘Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic’, Senkumar was the resource person for a session on ‘the Constitution correcting inequality’ and Suresh Babu was the guest for a session on the Fourth Estate.
The Central University Student Union, which includes Student Federation of India's (SFI), Ambedkar Students' Association (ASA) and other student organisations, had said that the guests who had been invited, neither had the academic background nor credential to speak on the topics of their respective seminars. They also alleged that the invitees are propagandists of communal agendas working against the Constitution.
The students staged the silent protest during the seminar by TG Mohandas. Even as the students walked out, Mohandas could be heard saying, “The people who talk too much about freedom, are against freedom. That is the bane in Kerala… If someone doesn’t like someone, you don’t need to listen to him, but not allowing him to speak, is unconstitutional.”
Speaking to TNM, Sachin Gopu, SFI unit Secretary of the University, said that the students’ union was inspired by the walkout by the Harvard University students.
“Our protest is against the administration’s decision to invite people with no relevant credentials to talk about our Constitution. The students decided to protest against this in a democratic manner, without insulting our guests yet registering our protest,” said Sachin, adding, “We are not against having any discussion on the Constitution in the campus or against any of the guests.”
However, the Ambedkar Students' Association is unhappy that the district leaders of SFI and National Students' Union of India (NSUI) tried to intervene and stop the seminar by Mohandas. In a statement, the union expressed their disappointment over the incidents “where people from outside entered the campus and tried to hijack our democratic protest”.
“The action of not allowing one to talk or to enter into the campus doesn't exactly comply with the constitutional spirit. It's time that we realise that fascism cannot be fought with fascism. ASA CUKerala requests all the other student organisations to stick on to a democratic and internal method of protest and activism,” the statement by ASA read, which also thanked the students' associations for extending support to the silent protest.
According to Sachin, the district leaders of SFI and National Students' Union of India (NSUI) tried to intervene and stop the seminar by Mohandas. “They reached the campus without our (campus SFI wing) knowledge. They carried out of the protest individually and we are not associated with them in this,” he clarified.
The students’ union staged the silent protest at the first session of the conference, which was by Mohandas. “We were against the session by Senkumar and Suresh Babu. However, our examinations are going on and considering the availability of all students, we protested at Mohandas’ session,” Sachin said.
Harvard students stage a walkout