“Budget 2016 is an attempt by the central government to project desperately an image that it has changed. That it has stopped catering mostly to the interests of corporations and big industries and become more committed to looking after the concerns of the masses,” says Sarjana Mukherjee, 20-year-old student of philosophy at Jadavpur University, Calcutta. She admits to being pleasantly surprised while reading the budget report in the newspaper and her immediate response was that it was a “sort of damage control coming as it did in the wake of the JNU incident.”
Of course, not every student at the JU campus spoken to—from a random survey of some 50, only half—were aware of the contents of the Modi government’s budget and of them only a dozen knew the actual details and able to comment, as Sarjana does. Posters demanding the immediate release of Kanhaiya Kumar are everywhere. “Dhikkar!” (Shame on you!) read several. “No, I don’t know what the budget says and I don’t care,” snaps an 18-year-old member of the student union FAS, who doesn’t want to be named. “We are still shocked at the way the government cracked down on students in JNU. Until they release the arrested students, it doesn’t matter what sops are thrown at the rural people. It won’t change our opinion.”
“To be honest, the budget is not a topic of discussion in the campus,” admits 19-year-old Nikkon Ballial, a first year student. “Debates over what is relevant to students, such as the JNU incident, are more prevalent. But personally I don’t think we should ignore such important policy decisions by the government. Sooner or later it’ll affect all of us.”
