FEELING COMPELLED TO DO THE BEST WE COULD

Statement in solidarity with the NBA and Arundhati Roy
From student friends, Delhi University

March is the month when exam ‘terror’ begins to grip students at
Delhi University Despite that some of us have felt compelled to do
the best we could to stand by the NBA and Arundhati Roy over the last
couple of days. We have done this because

(1) we have had a fairly continuous association with the valley, its
beauty, its people and their 15 years old struggle
(2) we have felt that the NBA, Arundhati Roy, the PUDR and others
including all of us have the right to critique and rigorously
scrutinise any judgment of the Supreme Court
(3) we have felt that nit-picking aside, none of these critiques,
including Arundhati’s, can be seriously considered abusive or
contemptuous of the Supreme Court.

For these reasons we felt that if Arundhati Roy were to be convicted
on March 6th for contempt of court-as she indeed was in an
unabashedly gendered judgment- the conviction would be on flimsy
grounds, frightening people from speaking out their minds rather than
upholding the dignity of the court. Arundhati’s conviction, would try
to silence her, the NBA and all those people’s movements fighting for
creating a better, more humane tomorrow. Her conviction, in a way,
would be ours as well.

But there is more that brought us out on to the streets as
volunteers and supporters, this time. Over the last few years, but
especially since the happenings of September 11th and December
13th,we as students have felt walls coming up all around us, fear
driving us into our homes and class rooms. State encouraged paranoia
about terrorism and war with Pakistan, the sustained onslaught on the
very meaning of education, attempts at enacting new laws such as
POTO, and efforts to politically disarm labour in the name of ‘labour
reforms’, have all been aimed at creating a submissive, uncritical
population which would be too scared to challenge authority and
power, making it easier for the state to push through its own
economically unfettering and socially irresponsible agenda.

The climax came with Godhra and the carnage of Muslims that followed
all over Gujarat. This was no riot. It was straightforward Genocide.
As human beings we had to say NO now, but we also felt that tomorrow
we could be attacked for simply saying NO. The ABVP did, infact,
carry out an unprecedented attack on our campus on March 1st last
week.

Gujarat for us has been the final straw. Exams or no exams we knew we
had to stand by Arundhati and the NBA because if we didn’t fight now
to protect our right to speak, tomorrow there may not be any dreamers
left. And our dreams we hold really close to our hearts. So we came
out to be with Arundhati and the NBA and we hope we will continue to
have the courage and stamina to carry on in battle.