In JNU’s protest theme, messages of hope and support for jailed students

The messages — addressed ‘to the jailed, with love’ — urge JNU students Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya to ‘be patient’ and urges them to ‘not lose hope’ and ‘come out soon’. Many of them hang from a tree and one of them says ‘from under the rubble, let’s sing a rebel song.’

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Invoking one of the favourite lines of Harry Potter fans, a message states, “Dark times lie ahead and we have to choose between what is easy and what is right. Even Dumbledore had to go through a lot of problems because of the ministry. We are there with you”. It is signed ‘Dumbledore’s army’.

A few metres away, artist Gopal Shoonya has put up some cartoons created by him, focusing on the last two years of the NDA government.

The cartoons reflect the overt and covert influence of the government in various spheres and they are a satire on the cultural ideas the government stands for since it came to power, says Shoonya.

“None of the cartoons are about the JNU row, yet you will find that most of them have an echo of what has been happening in JNU. This venue seemed to be the perfect place to protest against what has been happening,” says Shoonya.

A group of students have also been exhorting others to write postcards to JNU Registrar Bupinder Zutshi, to let him know their feelings on how the university has “handled” the issue. Some of these messages are serious, others are plain bizarre.

“We hope that you also #standforJNU and not against it,” states one of the many postcards with messages for Zutshi.

Responding to the cards, Zutshi said, “I haven’t yet seen the cards, so I have nothing to say. But I think people writing this should know decisions are not taken by me, I only sign on the papers.”
Meanwhile, the speeches by Kumar and Khalid have been spruced up with peppy, upbeat tunes.

Azaadi, a mash-up track, features steady, metronome sounds of ‘Azadi’ from the video of Kumar’s speech on the JNU campus. It is also accompanied by an electronic beat and a couple of lines from a Punjabi folk song.

“Students and artists have been coming here on their own, putting up posters, creating things in solidarity for the movement… It is encouraging to see so many people coming forward to lend their support in this manner, “ says JNUSU vice-president Shehla Rashid Shora.