But one can't say the same about the mob of lawyers in black gowns who attacked Kanhaiya and his friends in broad daylight; they assassinated the very foundation of criminal justice that they themselves use every day to defend their clients: each accused has the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. As I watched the ugly spectacle of the lawyers leading a physical attack on Kanhaiya Kumar, the young man hurriedly arrested and charged in indecent haste with sedition by bumbling keystone cops of the Delhi Police who were exceptionally quick to draw the handcuffs for an outspoken critic of the status quo and the government. He may be a firebrand orator as is evident from the video on the Internet. His views may be entirely disagreeable or praiseworthy. JNU may be a hotbed of politics of the kind that anyone including the government may dislike. But none of this makes Kanhaiya a criminal, least of all a traitor or JNU a nursery for treason. Universities of a democracy aren't there to make leftwinged, rightwinged, multiwinged, anywinged or wingless robots of questioning young minds. Theirs is the job of allowing and encouraging the minds to blossom to their fullest. Theirs is not the power or duty to judge or suspend questioning minds. The police or the governments have no business butting into the sacred domain of freedom, more particularly academic freedom. [related-post] Democracy only thrives when politicians, their supporters and opponents alike are relatively thick skinned. The whole sordid saga of accusations and epithets of "sedition" and "anti-national" shows how thin skinned and undemocratic some governments can be. Nehru understood well this tendency of even democratically elected individuals and governments to imagine themselves to be the sole fonts of wisdom and to arrogate to themselves the moral power to declare right or wrong things that they have no business meddling in. That is why he had penned and published under a pseudonym an attack on himself for the dictatorial potential, possibility and proclivity in him. Indira Gandhi's Emergency sadly made his fears come true about the elected leaders unleashing themselves upon the electors like demigods. The only thing worse than an elected ruler acting like a demigod dictator in a democracy is the sight of a group of black gowned lawyers and advocates of the Bar leading an attack on someone appearing before a court of law charged with a serious crime of sedition regardless of whether he is justly or unjustly charged in the first place. One could laugh away the tragedy of their conduct if they had not taken an oath to uphold the constitution and other laws of the land and to pursue truth and justice in the very courts Kanhaiya was appearing before. In the attack upon him and his supporters the lawyers paraded their utter ignorance and shamelessly traded their obligation to uphold the rule of law for mob raj. At best it was mob rule and at worst it was a breach of their oaths of loyalty to the constitution; treason against their chosen profession and an insult to the majesty of law they claim to practice and believe in. The loyalty to the constitution of a democratic India must be the accepted and observed principle for all political and other activity in the country. For the lawyers the most important book in the country is the constitution of India from which flow the powers of the courts before whom the lawyers seek justice for their causes and clients. Thankfully even Prime Minister Modi has declared the constitution to be the only national book. While claiming to be patriots and guardians of India the lawyers went on an obscene rampage and murdered the very essence of the "national book of India". If these marauding lawyers don't like the constitution let them democratically campaign to change it. In a functioning democracy no one and least of all lawyers can pick and choose which laws to follow or disobey. While I understand the role of civil disobedience, all men and women of India and the lawyers in particular must ensure that civil is the operative word in their disobedient conduct. In their revolting attack against Kanhaiya seeking justice before the courts the raiding lawyers have proven once again that mere degrees from some universities and being schooled in "the national book" or licences to practice law are no guarantee for understanding the meaning of democracy or justice. The liberty and freedoms for which many Indians have shed their sweat and blood are always more at risk in the hands of ignorant lawyers - than criminals - incapable of appreciating the essence of individual freedoms and liberties it is their sacred duty to defend. The violence of the mob has no business in the affairs of the state. The insidious lethality of the violence of a mob of lawyers - the supposed defenders of our freedoms - is far more dangerous for the institution of democracy than a bunch of students supposedly shouting 'inappropriate' slogans. And while his BJP ministers and functionaries continue to brand any dissent they don't like, the most dangerous part of this whole saga is the so far shockingly deafening silence of Prime Minister Modi. An otherwise excellent speechifier has suddenly seems to have lost his voice at one of the most pivotal moments in post Indira Emergency history. While I wouldn't ever call or think the Prime Minister "anti-national", his silence at this difficult moment sadly conveys neither sagacious greatness nor leadership. And that is more dangerous than anything else in the events unfolding around JNU and the alleged sedition.
