GOA'S STUDENTS HAVE BEEN CONSPICUOUS BY THEIR ABSENCE

It may not always be possible to prevent an injustice, but there is always the possibility of protesting and giving voice to the angst that people are feeling because of what has been done. Across India there have been protests over the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), peaceful protests that in a few instances descended into chaos and arson. The anti-CAA protests have claimed 12 lives already, injured many others, seen several detained, had government property destroyed, kept students out of their classrooms. It has not been restricted to a certain region but the protests have been across the country.

What is transpiring in the nation today is a stark reminder of the protests that arose in 1989, when  the then Prime Minister VP Singh decided to implement the Mandal Commission reservations for backward classes. Students across North India had risen to protest and over 60 had died, some due to self imolations. There was no Internet at that time and no social media. People depended on the newspapers, magazines and the national television that telecast a watered down version of what was occuring. Times have changed and 30 years later the anti-CAA protests are being brought live to the living rooms of people and to their handheld devices. People can be updated on the latest situation wherever they are by just touching the correct icons on their cell phones, forcing the government to cut off Internet access in certain areas of the country.

India is a democracy, and Indians have the right to protest. Not violently, but peacefully. That is what they have been doing, but which at times has turned to some violence. However, the irony is that this CAA was not sprung upon the people just earlier this month, but it was part of the BJP manifesto and the mandate given to the party was based on those promises that the party had made before the election. Either the people at that time didn’t bother to study the manifesto in detail, or have awakened too late and only now grasped what those points on the manifesto entailed. Doesn’t that tell us that we have to be more careful when choosing who to vote for? Shouldn’t we learn to do that?

On the subject of learning, in the midst of the protests across the nation, while students across India are on the streets, where are the young scholars of Goa? It appears as if the students in Goa are not in sync with the rest of their counterparts in the country. At the protest in Panjim – peaceful it was – there were on the dais those who have stood there before and raised their voices and their fists in defiance in the years past. What was missing was the voice of the youth of Goa. It was as if the teachers in the State had made all the students sit in class with their fingers on their lips. Whether in support of the CAA or against it, the student movement in Goa has failed for the simple reason that it has been polarised on party lines. 

The bane of the student movement in the State has been party politics. The student units of the major political parties have spread to all campuses and clash in college and university elections, and there is no independent student body like there was in the past that can have an free voice. Bound to party ideologies and party policies, the student bodies today are not even the palest of shadows of the movement that in the 1970s and 1980s could bring Goa to a halt, and did do so at various times. They inspired others that came after them, but somehow in the decades later, everything changed. Those were the glorious years of the student movement in Goa, this is the nadir of the movement, which throws a cloud on the future of the State, as it is they who will, in the decades to come, be leading the State in all fields. Goa will need independent leaders, rather than those who can only work within the framework of the political ideology of the party they are with.

Unfortunately, party politics today has ensured that the student bodies in Goa are not independently convinced of any cause, but will take up issues only at the bidding of the parent party and in the manner that the party bosses want them to take it up. Sadly, the students appear to have lost the ability to think for themselves critically on issues, and this will reflect on society at a later date. Goan students must be taught to think and reason for themselves. From that they will also realise that they need to read party manifestoes before voting. What use otherwise the points printed in the manifesto, if nobody gives it a glance, other than to see how well it has been designed? 

The anti-CAA protests in Goa have evoked a lukewarm response, and those meeting in favour have seen even fewer people participating. Goans appear to not have a clear idea of the new Act. In our Review section today, our team of reporters and correspondents have spoken to people across the State on the issue, soliciting their views on the subject. The responses, published with no comment of ours, have been varied. Of course, many turned down the invitation to have their views published, but there is no clear view on this as the CAA has its supporters and it has its detractors, just as it has across India.

The CAA issue will refuse to die down quickly. The protests have gathered steam, as linked to the CAA is the National Register of Citizens (NRC) that till now is applicable in the State of Assam, but will soon be extended to the entire country. But how long can the country continue to be in a state of protest as it is today? Assurances and reassurances by the government on the CAA and NRC have not helped douse the flames. It needs something more, and that extra can only come from the government. In the meantime, the protests cannot be stopped. But the violence has to be ended.