When I landed in JNU in 1989, the very first thing I noticed there was a huge billboard at the Ganga bus stop which warned students against drugs. Why was the billboard there in JNU? Obviously because drug addiction was a serious issue in JNU those days. In fact, when I got the admission offer from JNU, my Nanaji was a bit apprehensive about me joining the university as it was notorious for its drug abuse. He cautioned me against joining JNU. I asked him not to worry and assured him that I would never sully his name.
As I was an outstation student, I was alloted Room No. 134 in Jhelum Hostel. Within a month, I came to know that my neighbouring room had a drug addict. His roommate was a student of BA Russian who was finding it difficult to deal with drug parties that his roommate would frequently organize. Everybody including the wardens knew what was going on in that room but nobody did anything to fix the problem because drugs were kind of acceptable in the versity campus. Finally, one day, we asked our friend to thrash his roommate when he was high and couldn’t fight back. Our friend executed the plan late in the night. The next day, the drug-addict got his room changed and our friend was relieved.
Later, in the year 1992, when I was alloted Room No. 307, a single seater room, the room opposite to mine (309) had a guy who too used to organize drug parties in his room. His room used to be frequented by ten to twelve students from other hostels which included some foreigners too.
Now there was a dog in our hostel who had become pally with the occupant of Room No. 309 (let’s call him Ravirajan). Later, I got to know that Ravirajan would give drugs to the dog too. He would mix the drug in rice and give it to the dog. The dog would eat the drugged rice and would become intoxicated. The dog became so addict that in summers, he would often lie on a stair in the staircase. When we wanted to go downstairs, we would often find the dog sprawling on the stair. When we would make some noise to shoo it away, the dog would refuse to budge. He would just open one of his eyes and look at us in a way to say, “Why don’t you just cross over and go? Please don’t disturb me.” And we would do exactly that, cross over the dog and go away. And I must confess, to see that drug addict dog everyday was such a disgusting experience that at times, we felt like dropping it from the third floor to the ground, just to get rid of him. That we never did that is a different matter altogether.
You ask any JNU guy from those days and he would have his own stories to tell just like I have mine. Those days wherever I went, I would tell people stories about JNU and drug-addiction was one of them. Today, I am telling you the same stories once again. But does it mean, I am insulting JNU? No. Not at all. I am narrating those stories just to give you an idea about what happened or perhaps happens even today in JNU. The idea is that as an insider, it’s my duty to inform others about JNU. It doesn’t mean I am branding JNU as a den of drug addiction. All I am doing is, speaking from my own experience so that people or authorities can review the current status and see to it that such things do not happen. Similarly, when I say that leftist professors in JNU openly come out in suport of Naxals and Jehadis, am I insulting JNU? No. I am just stating the truth. Because I believe that only when you speak the truth, you can hope that the system can be cleansed. So I am doing what I am doing, is not because I hate JNU but because I love JNU. I want JNU to be better. I want JNU to be cleansed of unwanted elements.
Kangana Ranaut too was telling the truth when she said that drugs are a regular feature in Bollywood parties. Now was there anyone in this country who didn’t know that? No. Everyone in this country knows that drug abuse is a common thing in Bollywood. Kangana has only stamped that truth as an insider. She has said publicly what otherd would say only in hushed up voices. When Kangana said that Bollywood denigrates Hinduism and promotes Islamist agenda, she is only telling the truth. We on the social media have been saying it all along.
When Kangana wondered whether Mumbai has become like POK, she was only exercising her right to ask a question that the Constitution has given her. Kangana just said that last she heard was Mumbai was part of India where the writ of the Indian Constitution prevails unlike in POK which too is a part of India yet we cannot go there. She used POK only to communicate her message effectively. She was only reacting to Sanjay Raut’s remark in which he had said that Kangana should not try to come back to Mumbai, or else, Shiv Sainiks would teach her a lesson.
Kangana was just expressing her anguish at being threatened by a govt functionary whose job is to protect citizens. Anybody in Kangana’s place would do the same. Kangana has neither insulted Mumbai nor Mumbaikars. She has only questioned the power of an MP who is threatening her with dire consequences just because she raised her voice to find the truth in the SSR case. She has raised her voice to cleanse Bollywood which is promoting the Islamist agenda – of whitewashing the crines of the Islamic invaders and promoting gangsters. Let me repeat. Kangana has not insulted Mumbai. She has only spoken the truth. Just like I spoke the truth about JNU. Because the truth must be told howsoever unpalatable it may be. And if your truth doesn’t unsettle someone, somewhere, it is no Truth at all.
