Ambedkar's concept of democracy most relevant, says former JNU professor

Jawaharlal Nehru University’s (JNU) former Political Science professor and ICSSR National Fellow Prof Valarian Rodrigues said efforts are being made to weaken the voices of democracy and ifthe situation continues, JNU will lose its existance. 

Speaking at a discussion on nationalism with reference to the JNU incident organised by Azadi Andolan-2 at Kalaangann, he said there were several types of nationalism in the country. One was proposed by Jawaharlal Nehru, another by Sav-arkar and another, proposed by Gandhiji. But, democracy is more important and the concept of nationalism based on democracy proposed by Dr B R Ambedkar is the most relevant in the present context, he added.  

He said real democracy provides equal chances for all communities to share their views. What Kanhaiya Kumar said was about the freedom from hunger. There was no need for the government to call police into the JNU campus for the slogans raised by 60-70 people, he said.

“The attack on parliament by Afzal Guru is an unpardonable crime. More than an individual crime, it is a political crime. While there are many instances of converting death sentence to life imprisonment for political offenders, Afzal Guru was denied pardoning owing to political pressure. This is an undigestable truth for the youth of Kashmir,” he observed.