No self-respecting professional police force can be comfortable when accused of acting in accordance with political diktat. Yet the Delhi Police has issued a gilt-edged invitation to that charge: not just by its handling of the “agitation” at Delhi University’s Ramjas College, but by taking no corrective action other than transferring the case from the local police to the Crime Branch, and suspending three juniors. As a “central” force ~ thereby expected to serve as a role model ~ the police ought to have ensured trouble-free articulation of a “contrary” viewpoint (a critical facet of university life), rather than pressure the organisers to cancel the event. And then to guarantee that increasingly intolerant and belligerent activists of the BJP-affiliated ABVP were not permitted to unleash unbridled hooliganism which has been roundly condemned by “neutral” sections of the academic community, and the media ~ which also bore the wrath of downright goondagardi. That memories of somewhat similar action by the ABVP in Jawaharlal Nehru University about a year ago still linger, only fuels apprehensions that a sinister campaign is being conducted to smother voices that do not echo the Sangh Parivar’s narrow definition of “nationalism”. Delhi Police’s showing would not impress the liberal-minded, who always believed that the Capital was a mini-India, in which all views could be freely expressed. Without in any way endorsing the often provocative statements of the AISA and its Left-leaning comrades, the least expected from the seasoned Lieutenant-Governor was ordering a high-level inquiry: surely that would bolster the case now before the apex court why Delhi requires an “administrator” more empowered than the elected chief minister.
The controversy is not entirely “local”, nor is it confined to campuses across the nation. The full-blooded support the ABVP action received from BJP spokespersons on TV added fuel to fire. And while he might have cemented his party ties, the minister of state for home affairs’ assertion that anti-national action will not be permitted suggests that Kiren Rijiju (who relishes the role of a trouble-shooter quick on the draw) has forgotten the traditions of the university at which he had studied. The HRD minister’s bid to seek brownie points did not “click” when he said the autonomy of the university ruled out any intervention: hopefully that autonomy will be consistently honoured nationwide. What have clearly not been honoured are the repeated calls for “tolerance” from the President of India. Had the pleas from Rashtrapati Bhawan “registered” a trifle, the elections in UP would not have been reduced to the divisive viciousness that seeks to condemn all non-BJP elements to perdition. That is the undercurrent that surfaced at Ramjas 
College.