Pradeep Narwal who recently resigned from the post of Joint Secretary JNU Unit of ABVP writes an open letter to the Prime Minister of India

Pradeep Narwal, who recently resigned from the post of Joint Secretary, JNU Unit of ABVP writes an open letter to the Prime Minister of India. Pradeep who has shared this letter exclusively with Apnee Gali says that he is disappointed by the manner in which the government is treating the ongoing JNU row.

To,
Shri Narendra Modi
The Honorable Prime Minister of India.
Respected sir,
I, Pradeep Narwal, student of JNU, want to bring to your kind notice the issues which are challenging the progressive, democratic and constitutional culture of our country. Sir I am from Haryana, I was part of ABVP but I quit this organization recently. The inaction and negligence that led to the death of Rohith Vemula and potraying JNU as anti national forced me to take this decision.
Sir, in the case of Rohith Vemula, I have strong reservation against the Minister of State’s intervention in university matters. I personally feel a university is an independent space and political persons and their opinions should have no space and role in governing university matters.
Sir, it appears that the government is not solving our issues but making these more complex by supporting some sections . Like in Rohith Vemula case, a Minister of State supported ABVP.
Sir, I am from rural background. When I joined JNU my mother asked me about this university , I replied to her , that JNU is one of the best institutions of India but now she is asking me after these media reports “ Is it the same JNU you were telling me?”
I don’t have an answer. Sir, today there are some factions holding flag in the name of nationalism in their hands and crying to kill students without any reasons.
They are crying to kill their own students. Sir, the situation becomes shameful and unfortunate when the fourth estate of the democracy, the media which connects people gets thrashed inside our court premises. When lawyer , whose duty is to defend the democratic structure of the nation manhandle people in front of courts.
Sir, the most disheartening is the role of police in this whole case. Kanhaiya Kumar who is under trial in court was attacked and assaulted and that too in the presence of police.
Sir, I have many questions in my mind,:
What is the duty of the Police?
1. Is it to protect the people of this country or defend a particular ideology?
2. Are they to help the people of nation or a particular political interest.
Sir, I want to request you to intervene in this issue and ensure proper working of police system without any bias.
Sir, I want you to ensure zero political intervention in educational institutes, ensure respect for every JNU student, and ensure security to every JNU student.

Jai Hind
Pradeep Narwal,
MA History
JNU

Dalit student Rohith Vemula's letter before he hung himself. Expelled under political pressure on caste grounds.

Dalit student Rohith Vemula's letter before he hung himself. Expelled under political pressure on caste grounds.

   Rohith Vemula, a 28-year-old PhD student at the University of Hyderabad, hanged himself on Sunday evening. He was one of five Dalit students expelled from campus hostels under apparent political pressure, after a clash between their Ambedkar Students Association and the BJP-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad.
These are his parting words:
"Good morning,
I would not be around when you read this letter. Don't get angry on me. I know some of you truly cared for me, loved me and treated me very well. I have no complaints on anyone. It was always with myself I had problems. I feel a growing gap between my soul and my body. And I have become a monster. I always wanted to be a writer. A writer of science, like Carl Sagan.
At last, this is the only letter I am getting to write.
I loved Science, Stars, Nature, but then I loved people without knowing that people have long since divorced from nature. Our feelings are second handed. Our love is constructed. Our beliefs colored. Our originality valid through artificial art. It has become truly difficult to love without getting hurt.
The value of a man was reduced to his immediate identity and nearest possibility. To a vote. To a number. To a thing. Never was a man treated as a mind. As a glorious thing made up of star dust. In very field, in studies, in streets, in politics, and in dying and living.
I am writing this kind of letter for the first time. My first time of a final letter.
Forgive me if I fail to make sense.
May be I was wrong, all the while, in understanding world. In understanding love, pain, life, death. There was no urgency. But I always was rushing. Desperate to start a life. All the while, some people, for them, life itself is curse. My birth is my fatal accident. I can never recover from my childhood loneliness. The unappreciated child from my past.
I am not hurt at this moment. I am not sad. I am just empty. Unconcerned about myself. That's pathetic. And that's why I am doing this.
People may dub me as a coward. And selfish, or stupid once I am gone. I am not bothered about what I am called. I don't believe in after-death stories, ghosts, or spirits. If there is anything at all I believe, I believe that I can travel to the stars. And know about the other worlds.
If you, who is reading this letter can do anything for me, I have to get 7 months of my fellowship, one lakh and seventy five thousand rupees. Please see to it that my family is paid that. I have to give some 40 thousand to Ramji. He never asked them back. But please pay that to him from that.
Let my funeral be silent and smooth. Behave like I just appeared and gone. Do not shed tears for me. Know that I am happy dead than being alive.
"From shadows to the stars."
Uma anna, sorry for using your room for this thing.
To ASA family, sorry for disappointing all of you. You loved me very much. I wish all the very best for the future.
For one last time,
Jai Bheem
I forgot to write the formalities. No one is responsible for my this act of killing myself.
No one has instigated me, whether by their acts or by their words to this act.
This is my decision and I am the only one responsible for this.
Do not trouble my friends and enemies on this after I am gone." (via Gaurav Somwanshi)