At the behest SuCH Bhakths

On the morning of Feb. 06, 2013, Narendra Modi, then chief minister of Gujarat, walked into a hall packed with 1,800 students rapturously applauding him.
The speech he gave that day at New Delhi’s Shri Ram College of Commerce was one of the first in his campaign to become prime minister. It had all the ingredients of classic Modi oratory: fistfuls of pop-nationalism, developmental rhetoric, and his notions of governance.

His words were neatly packaged to appeal to a section represented by those in the audience: India’s aspirational youth. “The youth of the nation has its finger on the mouse of computers and is changing the world. India’s journey has gone from snake charmers to mouse charmers…,” Modi said. “There is despondency all over the country but I am confident we can change the situation.”

That performance set the template for many a future stump speech. And it seemed to have worked for Modi, as the sexagenarian galvanised a nation home to 356 million people aged between 10 and 24 years. So much so that survey after survey placed his popularity above even Bollywood stars, leave aside sclerotic political rivals.

Yet, something intriguing has happened since May 2014, when Modi rode an electoral tsunami into the prime minister’s office and genuflected in reverence before stepping into the Indian parliament for the first time.

Over the past 20 months, students and faculty at some of India’s most important institutions of higher learning have been up in arms over an assortment of issues—all leading to the doorsteps of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government. The list is quite long for the short period the party has been in power.

Consider the fracas over grants to post-graduate students, the duration of degree courses at Delhi University, replacing German with Sanskrit in school, or campus politics—as in the latest case in Hyderabad. Whatever the reason, the Modi government has managed to set off unrest at frequent intervals, completely at variance with its professed inclination towards the youth.

One of the earliest indications of the centre’s future run-ins came in October 2014, when the human resources development (HRD) ministry forwarded a letter from an RSS member to all 16 Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). The RSS, or the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, is a Hindu rightwing organisation and the BJP’s ideological fountainhead. It seems to have harboured misgivings about the IITs and the Indian Institutes of Management.

The Smriti Irani-led HRD ministry controls most institutions of higher learning, national school curriculum, and the University Grants Commission—the apex body governing higher academics. The ministry is often accused of playing to the tune of the RSS.

The RSS man’s letter said the IITs were instilling “bad culture” in students through food, insisting that they stop serving non-vegetarian dishes in their cafeterias. While the ministry denied having issued any direction in this regard, it has often been accused of imposing RSS’s puritanical ideas on the sly. Some student groups, including the Ambedkar-Periyar Study Circle (APSC) at IIT-Madras, murmured dissent.

Around the time of his first anniversary as India’s prime minister, IIT-Madras derecognised the APSC for “creating hatred” against Modi and Hindus. This time too, there had been a nudge from the HRD ministry. Following protests, including by national parties accusing the government of “stifling dissent,” the authorities unconditionally reinstated APSC’s recognition.

confuzzled dude wrote:

On the morning of Feb. 06, 2013, Narendra Modi, then chief minister of Gujarat, walked into a hall packed with 1,800 students rapturously applauding him.
The speech he gave that day at New Delhi’s Shri Ram College of Commerce was one of the first in his campaign to become prime minister. It had all the ingredients of classic Modi oratory: fistfuls of pop-nationalism, developmental rhetoric, and his notions of governance.

His words were neatly packaged to appeal to a section represented by those in the audience: India’s aspirational youth. “The youth of the nation has its finger on the mouse of computers and is changing the world. India’s journey has gone from snake charmers to mouse charmers…,” Modi said. “There is despondency all over the country but I am confident we can change the situation.”

That performance set the template for many a future stump speech. And it seemed to have worked for Modi, as the sexagenarian galvanised a nation home to 356 million people aged between 10 and 24 years. So much so that survey after survey placed his popularity above even Bollywood stars, leave aside sclerotic political rivals.

Yet, something intriguing has happened since May 2014, when Modi rode an electoral tsunami into the prime minister’s office and genuflected in reverence before stepping into the Indian parliament for the first time.

Over the past 20 months, students and faculty at some of India’s most important institutions of higher learning have been up in arms over an assortment of issues—all leading to the doorsteps of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government. The list is quite long for the short period the party has been in power.

Consider the fracas over grants to post-graduate students, the duration of degree courses at Delhi University, replacing German with Sanskrit in school, or campus politics—as in the latest case in Hyderabad. Whatever the reason, the Modi government has managed to set off unrest at frequent intervals, completely at variance with its professed inclination towards the youth.

One of the earliest indications of the centre’s future run-ins came in October 2014, when the human resources development (HRD) ministry forwarded a letter from an RSS member to all 16 Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). The RSS, or the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, is a Hindu rightwing organisation and the BJP’s ideological fountainhead. It seems to have harboured misgivings about the IITs and the Indian Institutes of Management.

The Smriti Irani-led HRD ministry controls most institutions of higher learning, national school curriculum, and the University Grants Commission—the apex body governing higher academics. The ministry is often accused of playing to the tune of the RSS.

The RSS man’s letter said the IITs were instilling “bad culture” in students through food, insisting that they stop serving non-vegetarian dishes in their cafeterias. While the ministry denied having issued any direction in this regard, it has often been accused of imposing RSS’s puritanical ideas on the sly. Some student groups, including the Ambedkar-Periyar Study Circle (APSC) at IIT-Madras, murmured dissent.

Around the time of his first anniversary as India’s prime minister, IIT-Madras derecognised the APSC for “creating hatred” against Modi and Hindus. This time too, there had been a nudge from the HRD ministry. Following protests, including by national parties accusing the government of “stifling dissent,” the authorities unconditionally reinstated APSC’s recognition.

http://qz.com/599433/a-wave-of-campus-mutinies-shatter-modis-deal-with-indias-youth/

They have been begging us (literally) to blame Modiji for UoH debacle.