In the high emotional pitch of the debate over the death of Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula and the sedition charges against JNU students, Trinamool Congress MP and former professor at Harvard, Sugata Bose’s speech stood out for its wide canvass and erudition, as well as a no holds barred attack on what he termed attempts by the ruling party to impose “centralised despotism” in the name of “nationalism.”
“I am a nationalist. But I do not vouch for the kind of nationalism propounded by the treasury benches. This nationalism is centralised despotism,” Mr. Bose said.
Mr. Bose said although he was not a Communist, he would support JNU Students’ Union Leader Kanhaiya Kumar, a Leftist, and other students for the sake of freedom of expression, for students who may believe in Marx and Ambedkar.
“The idea of India is not so brittle as to go away with a few slogans,” Mr. Bose said. He referred to ancient texts and the Mahabharata and the Ramayana to talk of the amorphous nature of nations and the Dharma Rajya defined there.
