On 15 February 2016, at the Patiala House Courts where JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar was being produced on charges of sedition, lawyers assaulted reporters, JNU students and faculty. For details of what happened in this outrageous turn of events, listen to the speech given by Professor Ayesha Kidwai, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. The following is a near-complete transcript of a speech in which Kidwai even makes the occasional joke.
We have not been brought into the court. We don’t know if he will be produced today or not. But our greatest concern is now for his life. Because what we were met with today was an attack, not only on JNU teachers, not only JNU students, but that was an attack on the availability of any rights to anybody who opposes the BJP/RSS. We will be writing about this event etc, but I will give you in brief what happened because I think you should hear the voices of all the teachers who were there, or as many who would like to speak right now.
First of all, we have now understood that this battle is a huge one. Because we went into the courtroom, there was nobody sitting there, so we were very happy, there were two rows of chairs, we could get seats at the front, and we were looking for Comrade Kanhaiya to be produced. We were in the courtroom for half an hour, the court reporters came, sat down, there was no hint of trouble whatsoever. And then escorted by the police, a bunch of lawyers came charging into the courtroom, telling us to clear out, because we are deshdrohis [anti-national], “Aap kaise apni students ko paalthe hain, anti-national slogans lag rahe hain,” so this was not just lawyers seeking to find their chairs in the courtroom. And this crowd had just jammed the doors, and they caught hold of the faculty and started physically pushing them out. It so happened that at that moment in the courtroom there was Prof Janaki Nair, Prof Nivedita Menon, Prof Madhu Sahni, Prof Susan Vishwanathan [a few more names are unclear in the recording] So, women. That did not deter them.
They then started ejecting us, and some of us refused to move – and some people like me who are weighty can refuse with greater strength – but others who were light, and certainly at the front, were pushed out. Rohith, our assistant professor from the Centre of Economic Studies and Planning was beaten, they were surrounded by lawyers, we were appealing to them and the police that was watching, and basically escorting the lawyers, doing nothing, because apparently the Constitution of India doesn’t apply to the Patiala Court, where the government that judged the Executional [branch] are all lawyers of the RSS-BJP. Rohith was hit on his ear, and Himanshu too was pushed, and they were pushed out. Nivedita, and I don’t know who exactly was at the front of the line – because we were all surrounded in that small courtroom, I couldn’t see where anybody was, there were so many people – while Rohith was being beaten up, they managed to sort of slink back in and then all the women faculty came back in and refused to move. We said “This is not your courtroom. We are not going.”
The details are [voice unclear] but our demands were basically two: that they have no right to evict us from the courtroom, and we will not listen to the police which has been escorting them – until the judge tells us that we need to clear the courtroom, we are not clearing. We will also not leave without a police escort. This whole battle in which we made oral complaints to the police about sexual harassment – many of us have never been sexually harassed by nationalists before, but this happened to us, I have been touched by the nation, so to speak – but we refused to go. Eventually we understood that this is now going to become their excuse – we have no idea whether Comrade Kanhaiya is going to court, because we understood that they were there for him. And the situation got out of control; also the judge gave us the order. But we refused to leave without a police escort, and that was very wise, because the police then made us march the innards of Patiala Court, because at every exit there was a bunch of howling nationalists calling us deshdrohis and saying, “What are you teaching your students?” They were pulling at us. Somehow, finally, like in every other place, the lower classes in a particular court – the ones that are poor and less advantaged – often give support, so we could get out through the [drowned out by applause]. We asked the police to make sure that we were escorted right to our vehicles, but they said they cannot do it, because when we came out we saw them pulling students, [they] were being beaten, so then we got into autos and rushed to NGMA where we regrouped and we are here before you.
The most important thing is that we understand this attack for what it is. I know that you feel passionate about teachers – but that is not our focus. We must see this as one more provocation. We are all here standing, and we are ready to fight. The victory will be ours.