'Heartlessness Is Systemic and Dangerous': A Letter to Shehla Rashid

Hello Shehla (no longer my comrade),

I hope you are doing well and are in a very good place now. Watching your podcast was difficult for me. However, I won't say I am sad, angry, or upset. I would say I am a little disappointed. You spoke about the selfless service of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah to the nation, which has caused a change of heart in you. Well, hearts do keep changing and breaking, but heartlessness is systemic and dangerous.

Many people left the student movement, especially left organisations, for various reasons, including furthering their own interests in other parties. However, most largely remained within the anti-fascist front or parties fighting it. You too, for a long time, have disassociated yourself from the left movement and the student movement you represented. I, along with others, despite being disappointed, respected your decision. However, my disappointment now lies in your ever-changing positions. You are entitled to your views, opinions, and constant changes of heart. However, what bothers me is the heartlessness. I am saying this not from the position of being a former JNU student union president or as a student activist whom you sat with for long hours debating, nor as a friend who has several pleasant memories of working with you. I am saying this from a moral, ethical, and political perspective.

In your interview to ANI, you claimed that you had this sudden change of heart after seeing the great service of Modi and Shah. But strangely, you conveniently remained silent on the series of changes of heart you have had in the last few years. I think you should also enlighten why you floated a party only to dissolve it later, and why you decided to file a petition against the dilution of Article 370, only to have another change of heart and withdraw it.

And yes, I feel disappointed. Let me explain why I feel this way. My friend Umar Khalid is languishing in jail. Similarly, many Kashmiri journalists, human rights activists, and other innocent people are in jails without any trial and under trumped up charges of UAPA. Father Stan Swamy passed away in jail facing a false and politically motivated case in the Bhima Koregaon matter and was not even provided with a straw to eat food. Fatima Nafees is still fighting to find her son. Radhika amma is still battling all odds to get justice for Rohith Vemula.

What surprises me is that you were part of all these movements. Not only these but many more. It is this heartlessness where I wish to draw a line. The way you whitewashed the crimes of Modi and Shah by praising them for being "selfless" cannot just be a change of heart. For their histories to be forgiven and forgotten, for which there has never been remorse, requires not a change of heart but maybe an absence of one.

Many people who faced witch hunts, unable to fight for whatever reasons, either became silent, left the country or figured out a way to stay out of the political path. Yet, they did not turn into supporters of what is a palpably fascist front.

In the podcast, you spoke about a flirtation with revolutionary politics in your 20s. Well, what made journalist Smita Prakash sit with you and give value to your opinions is this very flirtation with revolutionary politics and the sacrifices of hundreds and thousands of students on which it is founded. Remember that Bhagat Singh was in his 20s when he was martyred fighting for the nation. There are hundreds of such examples in our freedom movement, post-independence, and from the campus you graduated. I don’t have to tell you the story of Chandrashekar Prasad, twice-elected JNUSU President who was killed by feudal goons for fighting for the rights of landless people. By the way, he was in his 20s too. It is the cynical and corrupted who find the revolutionary zeal of those in their 20s mere ‘idealistic’. To dismiss the honesty of this spirit, as you have done, is to demean and insult the struggles and movements of students in universities, the very movements that have contributed to your popularity.

Also, the fact that you term your interactions and time with many of us as ‘being in an echo chamber’ only made me question my own earlier appreciation of your intelligence, political acumen, and nuanced articulations. Again, let me remind you, that the so-called ‘echo chamber’ helped you shape your opinions and positions which the people resisting fascism welcomed with open hearts. Now to turn around and be dismissive only shows you are capable of disowning anything, if need be. What guarantee is it that once the current regime is defeated, you won’t have a change of heart again?

Also, this zeal is not restricted to the 20s. May I remind you that Father Stan Swamy was not in his 20s, nor are Fatima Nafees (Najeeb’s mother), Radhika Amma (Rohith's Mother), Prabir Purkayastha (NewsClick editor), Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, and many others who are fighting for justice and are hounded for exposing crony capitalism of Modi.

Please have the courage to face the reality that your past association with left and progressive movements may be coming in the way of your future aspirations, and that you need to part ways – which you actually did a long time ago. We understood and never pointed fingers. However, if your compulsions or aspirations require insulting those very movements, then difficult questions will be asked about your change of heart. Is it really a change of heart or a change of direction in which the heart wishes to see some things and also ‘unsee’ much more?

It is these twisted ethical and political positions that are enabling fundamentalists to destroy India that I find difficult to come to terms with. Many people have written and are saying that there must be some compulsions and pressures on you to take this drastic step. Well, if a common citizen, who is just going about their life who is facing the music of unemployment, harassment, price rise, and others is still resisting, voting, and fighting to keep BJP away, a lot is expected from people like us who have been part of the student and anti-fascist movements and have benefited from critical scholarship. It is here that you gave up and decided to turn sides. It is disheartening but not demotivating, as there are millions still resisting the BJP every day.

In present times, as a young research scholar, one just has to go to a job interview at Delhi University to see the consequences of commitment to a secular, socialist, democratic, and egalitarian nation. People are risking their careers, taking positions they are over-qualified for just because they opposed the ABVP. Yet, they are standing strong and refusing to give in to get a job. These are inspiring people to me; I find motivation to strive more and be upright in what we do in life. I find inspiration in people who refuse to strike bargains.

Well, I am not in my 20s anymore, so please ignore my opinion too.

N. Sai Balaji is a former president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU).

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