Chauvinism and patriotism not the same

The recent suspension of 67 Kashmiri students by a university in Uttar Pradesh for cheering for Pakistan in the recent Asia Cup match has twisted the real meaning of the word sedition. If their act of supporting India's archrivals in a cricket match is in any way a threat to national security and perceived as 'anti-national', it only reflects idiot officialdom in the country and its people as paranoid and melodramatic, writes Shiv Visvanathan in the Hindu.

Sedition is an act against the security of the country. How does clapping for Pakistan threaten security or even the interests of the Indian nation state? When did patriotism insist on uniforms or uniformity? Are those students a potential fifth column or terrorists because of their cheering for Pakistan? One has to say something about the spirit of cricket and the spirit of democracy. The nation-state stands between them and in a deep way is sandwiched by these fertile imaginations