The JNU students protest against a recent massive hike in fees is part of a larger movement against the privatisation of higher education.
By the turn of the decade the assault on the higher education system that started when the Bhartiya Janta Party came to power in 2014 has become more and more arch. Over the past year many campuses, from Jamia Millia Islamia to Jadavpur University, have faced cowardly attacks aimed at breaking the backbone of the youth fierce resistance to the state. Jawaharlal Nehru University emerged as a symbol of all that the Sangh Parivar must destroy to crush the soul of liberal higher education in India.
The latest overflow of violence inflicted on the JNU campus by goons of the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad(ABVP) was a tailpiece to the student’s movement against an unjust hostel manual and a massive fee hike.
In the larger context of the political situation in the country, the students movement is also a fight for the preservation of public higher education.
Over the past few years, the policy of neoliberalism and Hindutva politics have steadily eroded the principle of affordable education. This trend is evident from rapid privatisation of universities, contractualisation of jobs, exponential hike in students fees and de-secularisation of curricula.