The Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers' Association's five-day protest-lecture series on ‘Democracy and Social Justice: Access and Equality’ opened on Wednesday to a packed audience at Freedom Square, JNU.
Introducing the lecture series, Nivedita Menon, professor of political thought at JNU said that it was important to talk about social justice as the “University Grants Commission is being used by the government to implement an unconstitutional set of policies which will affect the students and the nature of future students in universities across the country”.
The speakers on the first day were Magsaysay Award winner Bezwada Wilson, Professor of Economics at Delhi School of Economics, Ashwini Deshpande and Professor at JNU, Archana Prasad.
Speaking on the ‘Crisis of democracy and the question of rights’, Mr. Wilson gave an account of a recent conversion he had with Radhika Vemula, the mother of Rohit Vemula.
He said Ms. Vemula had asked him to convince her second son, who is now driving an auto-rickshaw to support the family after being a master's degree holder, not to enrol himself in any university as she does not want to lose another son.
He highlighted the problems Dalit students face after entering universities and said “fourty years ago, my mother insisted on me getting a proper education and I am standing here today because of it. But the situation in our democracy is such that a mother is now requesting her son not to study”.
Dig at govt policy
He attacked the Centre for its policies on Swachh Bharat and demonetisation, saying that there is much talk on the use of technology but till date, technology has not been used to solve the problem of manual scavenging. Instead, money is being spent to build more toilets that will all have septic tanks that will be cleaned by people.
On caste, Adivasis
Prof. Deshpande spoke on ‘The new grammar of caste’ and highlighted how quotas and reservation have not managed to grant access and equality at educational institutions as well as the workplace. Prof. Prasad gave a lecture on ‘Adivasis and the politics of the Right’ by highlighting reasons for the formation of the Salwa Judum and giving insights into the ground reality in Chhattisgarh.
Meanwhile, students of the School of Arts and Aesthetics put up a play on the various measures that go against social justice and the freedom taken by the JNU administration. It also included a satire on the current state of governance in the country.
Ban on event
The organisers informed that two of the visiting speakers were stopped at the university gate and not allowed to enter when they said that they had been invited as speakers by the JNUTA. Ahead of the event, the JNU administration had requested JNUTA not to hold the lecture series outside the administration block as all protests and dharnas have been banned at Freedom Square.
Release of book
The JNUTA went ahead and organised the event at the venue as one of their demands was to “reclaim Freedom Square” after many teachers were served show-cause notices and were warned of disciplinary action for addressing public meetings at the space.
The lecture series will conclude on January 25 with the release of the book ‘What the Nation Really Needs to Know: JNU Nationalism Lectures’, which is a compilation of the lecture series on nationalism held after the February 9 incident.
