OPINION: Students' protests against Citizenship Act herald coming revolution

The students' agitation against the blatantly discriminatory Citizenship (Amendment) Act marks the beginning of the coming, historic revolution in India. This revolution will sweep away the filth of the centuries-old feudal reactionary practices, customs and mindsets; abolish poverty, unemployment, malnourishment, ignorance, farmers' distress, lack of healthcare and other social evils plaguing the country; and usher India into an age of prosperity and justice for all.

I have already expressed my views about the Citizenship Act in Citizenship bill violates articles 14, 21 of Constitution. So I am not repeating what I said there.

The ongoing students' agitation in India is reminiscent of the May Fourth Movement in China in 1919, which can be said to be the beginning of the Chinese Revolution, which ultimately triumphed in October 1949.

On May 4, 1919, 3,000 students from 13 colleges in Beijing held a mass demonstration against the decision in the Versailles Conference by which Shandong province of China was handed over to Japan. In the following weeks, several demonstrations were held all over China.

Similarly, massive student protests against the Citizenship Act—which began from Jamia Milia Islamia University in Delhi JNU in Delhi and AMU in Aligarh—have been launched in many educational institutions in India, cutting across religious, caste, lingual, ethnic and regional barriers.

This marks a new stage in the rising of the Indian people against the anti-people policies of the Indian politicians, who are looters and scamsters who polarise society on religious/caste/lingual/ethnic/regional lines and spread hatred and instigate riots to get votes, power and pelf.

Like the May Fourth Movement in China, the present Indian students' agitation marks the beginning of India’s revolution against the divide-and-rule policy, which had been initiated by the British after suppressing the Mutiny of 1857( see History in the service of Imperialism by B.N. Pande and my online article The Truth about Pakistan).

The new Indian students' agitation is a manifestation of the coming Indian revolution, which alone can solve India’s massive socio-economic problems, since parliamentary democracy has degenerated into caste and communal vote banks and is thus blocking our progress.

With the growth and development of new social forces in India, a powerful camp of patriotic Indian students—cutting across religious, caste, ethnic and other barriers—has been created and has made its appearance on the national scene. Thousands of students have courageously stood up and challenged the reactionary rulers who seek to divide us and spread hatred among us, as well as the brutal police used by them. Thus the present Indian students' agitation, like the May Fourth Movement, is the harbinger of the coming Indian Revolution, which will usher in the real ‘achche din’ for India, not the phoney one of our acclaimed 'superman'.

Now, the patriotic students must join hands with workers, peasants and intellectuals to advance the Indian revolution forward to its ultimate victory, and creation of a new, just social order in which productive forces can rapidly develop and India once again becomes a prosperous country and gets a respectable place in the comity of nations.

Justice Markandey Katju retired from the Supreme Court in 2011

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author's and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of THE WEEK