On the art of seeing no evil…

Exhibit 1:

 

“I do not think he was beaten up. There was lot of jostling. We expected jostling." Newspeak, by Delhi Police Commissioner Bassi.

— Naintara Maya Oberoi (@naintaramaya) February 17, 2016

Yeah.

Parlour game: Scan your Twitter timeline; see how many posts you have to scroll through to find someone — journalist, politician, businessman, apologist — asking, “Where is the proof Kanhaiya Kumar was assaulted today?” “All those people, all those cameras, where is the proof?”

Therefore, Exhibit 2:

'We may place on record that the accused was manhandled.' pic.twitter.com/2TPC19W25P

— Rohan Venkat (@RohanV) February 17, 2016

This, from the report by the court-appointed committee that looked into today’s events, submitted in court as part of the official official record.

Listen…

I’ll leave you for the day with this link — a Periscope stream from JNU.

Notice something? 1000s of students, in that “hotbed of radicalism”, maintaining total discipline while as they listen — voluntarily — to their teachers discuss the idea of nationalism.

Meanwhile, in another universe, the police, the courts, and all the kings horses have struggled for hours to protect a student accused of sedition. As I write, he is still in court — because the police are unable to safely transport him to the jail to which he has been remanded.

The calculus of “outrage”

#BJP worker hacked to death in #Kerala: Where’s the outrage, liberals? | @shaktishekhar | https://t.co/2UBx39zK9F pic.twitter.com/KmP3vEjXBR

— DailyO (@DailyO_) February 16, 2016

Good point.

So I girded up my verbal loins, and prepared to vent. Then this happened.

Now what to do?

“They use the law to target those who dissent”

“A nation is a daily plebiscite” — Nivedita Menon. Listen to the speech.

Related, I wish someone would live-broadcast these lectures:

This is such a brilliant response to the blind haters. A univ does what it does best – broaden horizons https://t.co/dbrEQD68Kt

— Suvojit (@suvojitc) February 17, 2016

Update: There is a live Periscope feed.

In passing, does it not do you good to watch 100s — thousands? — of students, all raptly attentive to a voluntary lecture?

The right to be wrong

Professor Nigam in The Wire (Emphasis mine):

Even assuming the fact that the protestors were utterly misguided, invoking the law of sedition is certainly inappropriate at a university, other than in exceptional circumstances. The protestors are students after all. They are at an age where they have a right to be wrong. They are in a place where being ridiculous is as important as being sublime. If the students have been motivated by politics and politicians to make a spectacle of themselves, so be it. Arresting young people for their immaturity is, to paraphrase the London Times, breaking a butterfly on a wheel.

Redefining the “nation”

Except for handful of pseudo’s citing the nonsensical FOE excuse, entire nation stands united in condemning JNU antinationals #GroundReality

— Priti Gandhi (@MrsGandhi) February 17, 2016