Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Politicization of Students in Karnataka - A Positive Step : Part I

Karthikeyan S

The BJP has proposed and implemented students awareness program against terrorism with a caption to 'Wipe Out Terrorism'. The political parties term this program as the BJP's hidden agenda to inflict the young minds with communal feelings or sowing the seeds of communal ism in the name of awareness campaign or predicting more and more communal pogrom is sequel to this student's program. My scope in this write up is NOT to discuss about the nature and outcome of this students program BUT to share my positive view about this program. I feel such programs will create political awareness among the students who are pillars of next generation India.

So far; mostly Indian students were left outside the political sphere except the states in which Left is ruling. Students in some premier educational institutes and some universities involved in politics. Now the BJP has made a very good attempt in Karnataka to include students from schools and colleges in getting political awareness. Politics is the science and arts of governance. Students can't get awareness about terrorism without understanding politics and polices of the government. Also it's necessary for the students to get some understanding about Terrorism in India.

Terrorism in India can be divided as internal and external(cross border) terrorism and internal terrorism can be further classified as internal terrorism based on regional chauvinism and another based on religious fundamentalism/extremism or communalism. These internal groups are abetted by external groups or countries. Internal communal based outfits and region based outfits coordinated with external groups. Internal region based outfits are operating in various Indian states. The aim of all these terrorists groups are one and same that to disturb India's peace and break India into pieces.

As for as the region based outfits are concerned, in Jammu and Kashmir, such outfits are All Parties Hurriyat Conference, the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front(JKLF), Lashkar-e-Toiba(LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed(JeM). Besides J&K, north eastern states are enclaved by separatist outfits such as The United Liberation Front of Asom(ULFA) and The National Democratic Front of Bodoland(NDFB) in Assam, Peoples Liberation Army(PLA), The United National Liberation Front(UNLF) and People's Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak(PREPAK) in Manipur , The NationalSocialist Council of Nagaland(NSCN) and The National Socialist Council of Nagaland—Khaplang(NSCN-K) in Nagaland , National Liberation Front of Tripura(NLFT) and All Tripura Tiger Force(ATTF) in Tripura , the Achik National Volunteer Council(ANVC) and the Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council(HNLC) in Meghalaya & Hmar People's Convention-Democracy (HPC-D) in Mizoram. Most of these outfits are emerged after 1970s.

Khalistan Movement in Punjab is an another example of region based chauvinism. Mostly people of these movement are pushed to underground . Then-Prime Minister of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto shared very useful intelligence material concerning Punjab militancy to the Indian government. Still some traces of the movement are left in the Punjab society. In 1995, Punjab Chief Minister, Beant Singh was assassinated by Separatist group Babbar Khalsa. These separatist group has wide spread support in the UK and Canada. The LTTE was active in Tamilnadu. After the former prime ministerRajiv Gandhi's assassination these outfit has been banned and their activities are controlled to a great extend. The PWG of Andhra Pradesh is another example of regional chauvinism where most of its leaders split and some where underground.

As for as the communal groups are concerned, India has Hindu militancy and Muslim militancy. Predominantly Muslim militancy in J&K has been connected with the J&K separatist elements and their activities are well known. They have NOT confined their attacks within the Jammu and Kashmir but spread all across India. There is another form of Muslim militancy which is NOT connected with J&K separatism, these Islamic communal forces mainly involve in disturbing civic life in India by restoring to terrorist activities. Another communal terrorism is Hindu extremism. The Malegaon blast investigation has exposed Hindu militancy and their terror network. Popular Hindu militant groups are Sanatan Sanstha which is linked to the Hindu Jan Jagran Samiti. It's alleged these militant outfits has close links with Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh and the Bajrang Dal. The Hindu militant outfits are responsible for the blast in Parbhani in November 2003, Jalna in August 2004, Purna in August 2004, Nanded in April 2006, Thane in January 2008 and Malegaon in September 2008. Hindu and Muslim communal elements fed each other. These development shows communalism and terrorism fed each other. Terrorism has no religion, no region.

During cold war the J&K separatist outfits were abetted by the USA for it's imperialist agenda is well known. Terrorism, Communalism and imperialism are inextricably coupled. They have to be collectively crushed and defeated. What are origin and how they are handled now and they should be handled we'll see in coming parts.

2 comments:

  1. Just wanted to share my view on what is written above - student’s awareness program against terrorism. First question that comes to my mind it that why is that students are targeted in this program and not the common people. This awareness should have been created among common people. What if after some days if another political party proposes some other such plans for students. Wont that creates sort of competition and rivalry among the students.
    As stated above its good till now students are kept out of the political sphere and hope it remains the same in the future (Until any political party does not exploit students for their benefits by organizing such programs). Does it looks good to see students in the election campaigns campaigning for the political leaders or you want them to achieve their goals and entering to educational institutions and serve the country
    We have to post the question of this program targeted to students among the public.
    And now if BJP is targeting students by this program, it’s only for its Election benefits. And more over BJP which is ruling based on the religious politics should think twice before implementing this program and also it has no rights to disturb the minds of the students with these subjects, who basically should be concentrating on their studies?

    By,
    BNM

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  2. When a person reaches 12 years his/her ability to think independently increases by and large. They have burning desire and interest to know and try new things. Unfortunately, there are equal chances that they can be misled. Indians students are misled by movies, TV shows, electronic news media etc. The BJP tries to mislead the students in the name of fighting terrorism since they themselves sows seeds of terrorism. It’s NOT something new about the BJP when the BJP took power in states like MP and UP in 1991 they tried to manipulate Indian history in school texts.

    So, I think that it’s good that students get political knowledge so that they can counter such misleading programs NOT only from the BJP BUT from any political parties or any other anti national organizations. Students must be taught fundamental of everything strongly; physics, chemistry, biology, economics, history and philosophy. Our method of education should be changed which now based on by-hearting, it should be based on more and more practical problems and analytical reasoning. Through this students will become more knowledgeable, people those who are more knowledgeable can’t be misled easily. The strength of very knowledge will give them confidence and make them as solid rock which can stand against smashing waves. Only the strong youths can make strong nation. The BJP’s school program will make students weak and spoil the nation in future.

    Karthikeyan S

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