In several education institutions across India, Campus life is getting agitated. While enough has been said about JNU and Hyderabad Central University, NIT Srinagar is the latest to hit the headlines. That a petty incident could snowball into such a big controversy isn’t unexpected if it is Kashmir. Ever since time the legendary Kashmiri leader, Sheikh Mohd Abdullah, changed his Muslim Conference into National Conference, a section, however miniscule this would have been, has survived and never let an opportunity go by to fish in troubled waters. And this segment has had always a sizeable educated people (including students) among its hardcore supporters , who have been rousing anti-India passions in campuses across valley at the slightest available opportunity. But at the same time, there is a majority of students as well as people, who maintain a safe distance and given an option, would rather oppose such manufactured protests. By nipping in bud the demand for shifting the NIT from Srinagar, the ministry of HRD has taken the wise step. The outside students and their parents must not take emotional stance. While security and provision of amenities is the just demand and a student right, making it us versus them is dangerous. This is a game plan of country’s enemies. All experts in one voice now say that releasing prisoners in exchange of Kandhar hicjack was wrong. Such logic implies here too. In developed countries, teenagers before joining higher studies go on exploring outside the comfort of home and parents in gap year. They go to unknown cultures, so why can’t our brave boys and girls go to Srinagar with open mind. They will find more friends and build peoples bridges.
At the same time, it is illogical to say that right wing student activism of ABVP is to blame campus troubles across the country. Those batting for this argument are actually sympathizers of those forces who consider dominance of campus politics as their birth right. Diversity of opinion is welcome for balanced growth of society, after all.
