United Left records landslide victory in JNU Students Union (JNUSU) elections 2018-19

The United Left alliance of the Students' Federation of India (SFI), All India Students Association (AISA), All India Students Federation (AISF), and Democratic Students Federation (DSF) has won the JNU Students Union (JNUSU) Elections 2018-19 by some of the highest ever margins in JNU's history. (Full results further below.)

The ABVP, which has been trying, hand-in-glove with the RSS-backed administration, to destroy the University, and which indulged in brazen violence during the election process in an attempt to stall it, has been resoundingly defeated.

N Sai Balaji, who has been elected President, won by a lead of 1179 votes. 

Aejaz Ahmad Rather, who has been elected General Secretary, won with a lead of 1300 votes. 

Sarika Chaudhary, who has been elected Vice-President, won by a margin of 1680 votes – the highest ever in any post in JNU's history. 

Amutha Jayadeep, elected Joint Secretary, won by a margin of 800 votes.

This is also the first time in history that all four winning office-bearer candidates have polled more than 2000 votes.

The full results for the office-bearer posts are as follows:

President

N Sai Balaji (United Left (SFI-AISA-AISF-DSF)) - 2161
Lalit Pandey (ABVP) - 982
Thallapelli Praveen (BAPSA) - 675
Jayant Kumar (Chhatra RJD) - 540
Vikas Yadav (NSUI) - 402
NOTA - 128
Saib Bilaval (Independent) - 125
Nidhi Mishra (Savarna Chhatra Morcha) - 59
Invalid - 45
Jahnu Kumar Heer (Independent) - 32
Blank - 21
 

Vice-President

Sarika Chaudhary (United Left (SFI-AISA-AISF-DSF)) - 2692
Geetasri Boruah (ABVP) - 1012
Purnachandra Naik (BAPSA) - 644
Lijy K Babu (NSUI) - 457
NOTA - 288
Blank - 45
Invalid - 32
 

General Secretary

Aejaz Ahmad Rather (United Left (SFI-AISA-AISF-DSF)) - 2423
Ganesh Gurjar (ABVP) - 1123
Vishwambhar Nath Prajapati (BAPSA) - 827
NOTA - 388
Md Mofizul Alam (NSUI) - 328
Blank - 49
Invalid - 32

Joint Secretary

Amutha Jayadeep (United Left (SFI-AISA-AISF-DSF)) - 2047
Venkat Choubey (ABVP) - 1247
Ngurang Reena (NSUI) - 772
Kanaklata Yadav (BAPSA) - 689
NOTA - 344
Blank - 47
Invalid - 24







A total of 5170 votes were polled, out of a total of 7644 eligible voters. The polling percentage of 67.63 was sharply higher than the 59.34% polling in 2016-17 and 58.01% in 2017-18.
 
The United Left alliance also won 19 councillor seats out a total of 29 councillor seats this time – including all 5 councillor seats in the School of Social Sciences (SSS), all 5 councillor seats in the School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies (SLL&CS), 4 councillor seats in the School of International Studies (SIS), the sole councillor post in the School of Physical Sciences (SPS), three councillor posts in the School of Life Sciences (SLS), and one councillor post in the School of Computer and Systems Sciences (SC&SS).

Thus the United Left will have 23 seats (4 office-bearers and 19 councillors) in the 33-member JNUSU Council 2018-19.

The students took out a massive victory procession after the final results were announced.

Amutha Jayadeep, Sarika Chaudhary, Aejaz Ahmad Rather, and N Sai Balaji
after the declaration of JNUSU Elections 2018-19 results.

Condemn ABVP's Hooliganism at the JNUSU Presidential Debate 2018-19!

SFI strongly condemns the ABVP's act of turning Wednesday night's Presidential Debate, held as part of the JNU Students Union election process, into a site of outright violence and misogyny. 

The politics of hooliganism by ABVP reached another level altogether yesterday. ABVP resorted to relentless shouting and beating of drums when Comrade N Sai Balaji, the United Left's president candidate, began to speak. The Election Committee (EC) had to stop Balaji thrice in between his speech to control the ABVP crowd. ABVP very evidently had come prepared to not let Comrade Balaji speak. The ABVP went berserk and very evidently most of them were not even students of JNU.

The goons of the ABVP were continuously pushing women comrades, the male cadres of ABVP were shamelessly manhandling. When Comrade Satarupa of SFI, also a former JNUSU General Secretary, was trying to video-record this violence, Vikas Patel of ABVP snatched her phone away. They then began severely manhandling and abusing her. Goons like Abhijit Dwivedi were trying to slap women comrades present there.

Seeing that, Comrade Abraham of SFI went to help Satarupa and she was then surrounded by about 10 ABVP men. She was molested and manhandled by Vikas Patel, Ankit Roy, Abhijit Dwivedi, Shivam Chaurasia et al.

The most shameful thing was the role of ABVP's women activists. They were siding by those men who were molesting our comrades openly at the venue of the Presidential debate. Comrade Abraham's phone too was then snatched away. Even after repeated appeals and complaint to EC, the ABVP goons refused to give her phone back.

The ABVP cadres shouted "Jaise hum DU mein tum logon ko marte hein, waise hi JNU mein bhi marenge". Precisely what their agenda was for yesterday. They were prepared for violence, they were prepared to disrupt the Presidential debate. Comrade Abraham  has now filed a complaint with Vasant Kunj police and is yet to receive her phone.

The incidents that unravelled yesterday are extremely alarming. It is part of a game plan of the RSS-ABVP to disrupt the JNUSU elections knowing their politics of hate have no ground here. This is not what JNU is. This is not what JNU will be. It is high time that these goons are crushed and thrown into the dustbin of history.

Sd/-
Vikas Bhadauria, President, SFI Delhi State Committee
Prashant Mukherjee, Secretary, SFI Delhi State Committee

The JNU Students’ Movement and the Struggle for Social Justice

 The Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students’ Association (BAPSA), a sectarian organisation which calls itself “Ambedkarite”, has sought to attack the Left in their recent pamphlets. In these pamphlets, BAPSA repeats its oft-repeated lies about the Left’s supposed neglect of social justice in JNU. Even a brief look at the history of the JNU students’ movement would expose BAPSA’s claims to be utterly fraudulent.

The legacy of Left-led Unions in the fight for a socially just, inclusive admission policy

In 1972-73 itself, the SFI-led JNUSU (with VC Koshy as President) advocated an admission policy which would pave the way for students from poorer backgrounds and backward regions to come and study in JNU. The struggle for the admission policy began after the Union’s analysis of the admission pattern in 1972 found that the admissions were skewed in favour of students coming from privileged strata – those from big urban centres, and those who had access to education from better educational institutions. Students from socially and economically deprived backgrounds, and those from backward regions were far fewer in number.

The recognition of the skewed admission pattern led to the campaign to refashion the admissions policy of JNU. It was the first major struggle led by the JNUSU, and it resulted in a path-breaking admission policy being adopted by the university, according to which weightages were given for students from deprived socio-economic backgrounds and those hailing from backward regions. The deprivation point system awarded a maximum of 20 deprivation points based on social, economic and regional backwardness.

The admission policy was implemented in 1973 (six years before the Mandal Commission was set up), and the results were immediately felt, as the new batch of students came from far more diverse backgrounds. The final touch to this policy was given in 1974 when the Academic Council approved the union president's resolution for reservation for SC/ST students. Student-Faculty committees (SFCs) were also set up with elected students in each centre. During the term of the 1973-74 union led by SFI (with Prakash Karat as President), the admission procedure was regularised with the students having a say through the SFCs, which would scrutinise the entrance tests and finalise the results. Members from the SFCs used to be present when the viva voce was held to ensure that discrimination or harassment did not occur. A very important upshot of this admission policy was that the representation of students from the deprived sections was more than the proportions mandated by the Constitution later on.

The alarm of the ruling classes in the increased empowerment of the deprived sections led to the scrapping of this admission policy – known as the Old Admission Policy (OAP) – in 1983, when there was a brutal police crackdown on student activists in an attempt to break the back of student militancy, and the university was closed down sine die. In 1983, no students were admitted into the University. The OAP was replaced by the New Admission Policy (introduced with effect from 1984), according to which the system of deprivation points was eliminated. The NAP eroded the national character of the University, and the students’ movement suffered a serious setback. The infamous ‘EC Norms’ were introduced to restrict the rights of protest, and were repeatedly invoked in the 1980s to initiate disciplinary action against JNUSU office bearers. The deprivation point system was partially restored in 1993-94 during the term of an AISA-led Union.

JNUSU’s first Dalit President – Battilal Bairwa of SFI – was elected in 1996-97, and re-elected in 1997-98. The demand for setting up a Committee against Dalit Atrocities was raised the following year, and following the massive agitation of 1999 September-October, the Equal Opportunity Office to look into the problems of deprived sections was set up, based on the CP Bhambri Committee recommendations.

The Progressive Admission Policy (PAP) initiative by the SFI-led JNUSU of 1998-99 was the first attempt by the Union to fully integrate the Mandal Commission recommendations with JNU’s admission policy by introducing 27% OBC reservations. The ABVP denigrated PAP by terming it ‘paap’ (sin), and the reactionary sections led by ABVP joined hands to seek a secret ballot in a UGBM called to decide the fate of the Progressive Admission Policy. While the casteist, reactionary forces managed to stave off this momentous initiative, the larger agenda of the reactionary combine – that of fundamentally altering the character of our students movement by rallying the reactionary sections – could not be fulfilled.

It is of utmost importance to recognise that the concrete advances made by the JNU students’ movement with regard to a socially just, inclusive admissions policy came about as a result of collective, organised (and not merely “spontaneous”) struggles by Left-led Unions.

The Attacks by the RSS- led administration to scuttle Social Justice in the Campus

While the vicious assault on JNU following the incidents of 9 February 2016 was direct and public in nature, far more ferocious and institutionalised has been the attack on the progressive character of the campus thus built over the years. The most “ingenious” ploy to scuttle social justice in JNU has been the UGC gazette notification imposed in a draconian manner by the administration. Apart from the very visible effects of drastic reduction in the number of M.Phil. and Ph.D. seats adversely affecting the research-oriented character of the University, we have also seen the attack on the Deprivation Points System which has been the hallmark of our admission policy. The Nafey committee report recognised the prevalence of discrimination in M.Phil. viva voce, and due to the sustained struggles of the student movement, it was also agreed to reduce the weightage given to viva voce in M.Phil. Entrance. But the UGC notification has, through its imposition of 100% viva weightage and entrance exams as being merely qualifying in nature, undermined social justice in the campus.

What has been rather unfortunate is the stand of the self-styled “Ambedkarites”. Instead of recognising the fundamental contradictions between the marginalised and the Brahminical RSS-backed administration, they have built up binaries with no connection to ground realities and tried to de-legitimise our students movement which has remained unflinching in its commitment — in the face of all adversities — to carry forward the struggles for social justice.

BAPSA, as usual, trains its guns on the Left rather than the RSS or the administration. This is not surprising, given their opportunist politics which leads them to consider the Left to be the bigger enemy rather than the RSS-ABVP.

BAPSA’s stand on the communal threat posed by the Hindutva forces has always been dubious and treacherous. BAPSA presence in the #StandWithJNU movement in 2016 was token at best. They even put forward the ridiculous “theory” that the #ShutDownJNU campaign was a conspiracy hatched by the ABVP and the Left to divert attention from the movement demanding Justice for Rohith!

Organisations like BAPSA, with their counterparts and “role models” outside the campus have never been serious about fighting communalism. Leaders such as Mayawati, Ram Vilas Paswan, Ramdas Athawale, Jitan Manjhi and Udit Raj have all allied with the BJP at various points of time. The BSP had allied with the BJP three times, in 1995, 1997 and 2002, thereby further strengthening the Hindutva forces. BAPSA in fact even hosted Jitan Manjhi in a public meeting in JNU after he started hobnobbing with the BJP!

BAPSA’s bankrupt politics was further exposed in the claims made by BAPSA leaders that the land reform agenda put forward by the Dalit assertion in Una (Gujarat) is irrelevant. The Una struggle made the demand for land for the Dalits the prime focus of its attention, because the social oppression of Dalits is inextricably linked to their economic exploitation – Dalits were historically not allowed to own land, and they were always used as a source of labour which can made easily available to the ruling classes to make surplus extraction possible. The recognition of this fact, however, would militate against the position that ideologues of identity politics have often taken that in India, class struggle doesn’t matter!

The results of the Uttar Pradesh elections in March 2017 delivered a serious setback to the pipe-dream peddled by the likes of BAPSA that progressive politics can be advanced by foregrounding “identities” such as caste and religion above everything else. The largest and most powerful identity politics in India is Hindutva. If identity is the primary basis of political mobilisation in a society, a political formation which uses the identity of the majority community for political mobilisation will ultimately have an upper hand. In other words, the RSS-BJP – the biggest and most organised proponents of Hindutva – is better poised to play identity games than anybody else in India.

In the UP elections, the BJP was able to successfully pit various caste and sub-castes against each other to make electoral gains. The politics of the BAPSA and like-minded organisations, which ignores class divisions within communities (and even the effects of sub-caste divisions within communities), has proven to be singularly incapable of countering the rise of the communal-fascist forces. The result — a rabidly “upper caste”-supremacist, anti-Dalit political formation is enjoying unbridled power in India’s most populous State.

Resist the Spreading of Lies by ABVP Against the Left !

ABVP in JNU has suddenly woken up from their deep slumber. This is an organization who did not even  for even lip service make a statement against the scuttling of reservations in campus, corruption in faculty appointments or on the attack against JNUSU members by the administration. True to the politics which they represent, real material issues do not matter to them. Rather, they relish in spreading lies and rumors, thereby diverting attention from the far more serious issues. At the moment, they are busy spreading lies against the Left and Kerala after the murder of Rajesh Edvacokde in Trivandrum. As of now, there is absolutely no clarity regarding this murder. Since the background of this murder was political conflicts in Trivandrum, fingers were automatically pointed at the Left. The Congress even claimed that the main accused in the murder was a booth agent of the CPM in the last assembly elections. This allegation was later thoroughly refuted by the CPM. Despite these allegations, until now, the police have not been able to establish clear links with the accused and any political party.  The chief accused himself was charged earlier with attempting violence against several CPM leaders and cadres.  None of this has stopped BJP in Kerala from using this murder as a tool for spreading lies. It also helped them to divert attention from the serious corruption charges they were facing in Kerala. Shamelessly, they were asking bribes from persons who wanted their medical colleges to be approved by Medical Council of India.

RSS/BJP are not Victims but Perpetrators of Violence in Kerala:

The political clashes between the CPM and the RSS in Kerala have a long history. But unlike the claims made by the RSS, they are not innocent lambs in the whole episode. More than often, they have been the initiators of violence. Clashes between these two organizations started in late 1960s when the RSS tried to attack beedi workers in Kannur district on behalf of their employers.  These attacks were resisted by the Left.

It was not only trade unions which were under attack from the RSS. In Thalassery area of Kannur district, attempts were made by the RSS to communalize the society. This region has a strong minority population and naturally it became an area of interest for them. Riots erupted, and here also, it was the Left which resisted the RSS. CPM cadres died trying to protect mosques from the RSS attack in this episode.  Even Justice Vithayathil Commission which investigated the Thallassery riots underlined the role played by RSS in instigating the riots.

The data on political murders in Kerala also points to the fact that the RSS is the bloody perpetrator in the violence .Since 1970, 527 CPM cadres have been killed in political violence. All other parties combined have had 445 causalities. In the murder of CPM members, 225 times, cases were filed against RSS/ BJP members. This data is not something which the CPM has released. Kerala police has provided with this data. Therefore, it is clear that RSS/BJP is not the victim in this situation. Rather, they are the most the heinous perpetrators.

Political Violence in the Current Tenure of LDF Government:

Even in the current tenure of the LDF government, it is not the CPM which has initiated violence. Immediately after the election results were announced, a CPM cadre was killed in Dharmadam, the constituency of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, by RSS. Around the same time, a CPI MLA from Kaasrcode district was attacked by the RSS while attending the victory procession and both his hands were broken.  It is therefore, clearly not the case that the RSS is a victim even in the recent sprouts of political violence. At the same time, it is important to understand that the violence inflicted by the RSS has not being limited to the political sphere. In the last one year, there have been two murders in Kerala which were thoroughly communal in nature. Two victims, Riyas Maulavi and Faisal were killed solely because of their Muslim identity. The accused in both the cases belong to the RSS. A pointer towards the nasty, communal and criminal record of RSS with respect to violence in the state.

Even their own cadres are not spared by the RSS in these cold blooded acts of violence. In Alapuzha district, Anantu, a 17 year old boy was murdered by RSS because he stopped attending their shakhas.

This is the reality of political violence in Kerala. With the  help of  media houses servile to them, the BJP  has been attempting to spread a narrative suitable to them.  This has only resulted in a massive backlash for them in both Kerala and other places. The counter campaign by the Left and the Kerala society as a whole has thoroughly exposed their deeds. It is laughable that an organization which has perpetrated the most heinous forms of violence in post independent India is claiming to be the victims of violence. This is an organization which has orchestrated genocidal activities and has done absolutely nothing for the progress of our nation. They are bloody parasites and a bunch of criminals, frauds and murderers masquerading as nationalists. SFI appeals to all of you to not fall for their propaganda of lies. Let us collectively resist them and expose them for what they really are. Let us ask them where they were when reservations were scuttled in JNU, when seat cuts were implemented in JNU and when the JNUSU was attacked by administration. Expose them for what they really are, the barking dogs of this government and the JNU administration.

Mr. Sanghi Kumar, what we need is scholarships, funds, seats and implementation of reservations, not tanks. Defeats Attempts of Diversion by VC!

“A University stands for humanism. For tolerance, for reason, for the adventure of ideas and for the search of truth. It stands for the onward march of the human race towards ever-higher objectives. If the Universities discharge their duties adequately, then it is well with the Nation and the People.” 

Jawaharlal Nehru.

Friends,

The Vice Chancellor of JNU in the last one year has institutionalized illegality and casteism in the University. He has spearheaded seat cuts, reversed reservations, destroyed policies related to social justice, and appointed incompetent individuals as faculty members. His latest attempts on installing a tank in JNU can only be seen as a cowardly attempt to divert the interest of media and students from these real burning issues faced by our campus. Having pointed that, it is important that we thoroughly expose the agenda behind his statement, and also the program which was conducted in JNU on 23rd July 2017.

Does the JNU VC really love our nation?

Our VC says that installation of a tank will help in inculcating love for the nation and army among the students of JNU. The allegation being that students of JNU are not patriots. We strongly believe that love for our country which is a “sovereign socialist  secular  democratic republic” can be practiced only when you help spreading the values which our constitution stands for. But this has never been the case with the JNU VC. He has deprived thousands of students the opportunity to study in JNU. Under his administration,  hard-won policies of social justice have been squashed. Reservations have been destroyed. His conduct in no way resembles that of a person who has love for our country. He is a not a patriot. In fact, he represents values which are antithetical to everything our constitution stands for.  On the contrary, it is the students of JNU who have always upheld socially inclusive policies, and have always advocated that such policies contribute to the project of nation-building by bringing the concerns of the most marginalized into focus. We do not need preaching on nationalism by Sanghi stooges like Jagadeesh Kumar. Political descendants of Savarkar are nobody to teach us nationalism. To be a bootlicker of British colonialism is not the legacy that we advocate. It is a brand of politics which the JNU VC has continuously endorsed  and we politely request him to kindly keep  that criminal legacy with himself. The students of JNU are the rightful inheritors of  Bhagat Singh’s patriotic legacy. Rather than teaching us , the VC will do good for himself and the university if he tries to inculcate the values which the students of JNU have upheld since it’s inception.

VC’s Open Political Alignment with RSS:

Apart from the thoroughly stupid and idiotic comments made by the JNU VC on tanks, what is more worrisome is the blatant politicization of the event during which these comments were made. In an official program of the University , Rajiv Malhotra, a Hindutva ideologue openly said that he was “glad we are recapturing JNU”. Further, he said that “This is not only a victory of taking over Kargil in the external war, but also the victory of taking over JNU in the internal war,”. He was supported by Bakshi, who said that while the gadh (stronghold) of JNU was being captured, the other qilas (fortresses) of Jadavpur University and Hyderabad Central University remain to be captured as well. There is no pretense of neutrality in the statements made by these Hindutva spokespersons. They even appreciated the JNU VC for making this political victory possible. Now the worst part is that the JNU VC , sitting on the same dais, made absolutely no attempt to contest these remarks. Rather, he celebrated such remarks. His open encouragement and even celebration of such political interference in the University makes him completely unfit for running it.

Casteist remarks:

Apart from the many despicable comments made by the speakers in the event, downright casteist  remarks were made by Rajiv Malhotra. He said that “Every student has to be a Kshatriya in this internal war” . It is most shameful that such casteist comments were made in an institution like JNU. Such appalling comments directly applaud caste based divisions of occupation. They only result in propagating the Manuvadi forms of cast division, while undermining centuries of long struggles waged by the oppressed against caste discrimination.  Yet again, no opposition came from the side of our Vice Chancellor.

The VC and his political masters are no body to teach us about loving the army. This government has not even ensured basic facilities for army personnel. Individuals who complain about the terrible working conditions in the army have been punished by the ruling government. Genuine demands liking increasing pension for the retired soldiers have not been met by this government. Had it not been for the shoddy investigation of CBI, many of the top leaders of BJP would have been implicated in the Kargil coffin scam.

This episode it yet another reflection of the levels of nepotism to which Mr. Jagadeesh Kumar can stoop to. Yet again, he has gladly become an instrument by the RSS in spreading lies and hatred about the University. Yet again, he has proven that he is the worst thing to have happened for JNU. He must go. There are no two ways about it.

Condemn the use of draconian sedition law by the Kerala Police! Scrap Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code!

In an alarming turn of events, a police FIR has been registered under the sedition clause against Malayalam writer and theatre artist Kamal C Chavara over a Facebook post that was allegedly “disrespectful to the national anthem”. This comes in the backdrop of the interim order of Supreme Court of India in the ‘National Anthem Case’. Many have pointed out serious legal and constitutional flaws in this judgement. The judgement has led to police actions in many parts of the country, often on the basis of complaints made by right-wing vigilante groups. However, what is worrying for the democratic minded people in the country is that now something similar is happening in Kerala, where the Left and Democratic Front (LDF) is running the state government.

Two points need to be made at this juncture. First, the entire episode is a throwback to our own struggle in JNU following the 9 February 2016 incidents, where student activists were arrested on trumped up charges and slapped with sedition. In fact, the sedition clause – Section 124 A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) – is a draconian law, and has been widely used against those who express dissent, oppose government policies and conduct protests. It has been used against protesting workers and against those who have participated in democratic struggles. We have consistently maintained that such a draconian law has no place in any modern democracy. Section 124A of the IPC must be scrapped. Moreover, even within the existing legal framework, the sedition law has been interpreted by the Supreme Court in a very specific sense, that it will apply only if there is incitement to imminent violence. And yet in our country the sedition clause has been used time and again in an indiscriminate fashion.

The second point is related to the nature of the police force in our country. The Indian police force and its organisational structure have been inherited from the colonial times, with no police reforms being undertaken since Independence. Being an integral part of the bourgeois-landlord state machinery, the police force in essence is a repressive apparatus in the service of the ruling classes and the reactionary, hegemonic ideas and values prevalent in the society. The Kerala Police is not an exception to this either. The bourgeois-landlord character of the State does not change with the participation of the Left in state governments with limited powers. Only those who fail to comprehend the nature of state power in our country would think otherwise.

We should not harbour the illusion that the nature of the police will undergo a fundamental transformation in a progressive direction just because there is a Left-led government in a province. But the Left and a state government led by it must have a pro-people policy vis-à-vis the police. This is the understanding that formed the basis of the adoption of a pro-people police policy by the first Communist ministry in Kerala which came to power in 1957. This policy entailed disallowing the police from intervening in labour disputes, for instance – because police intervention would inevitably and in the vast majority of cases be in favour of the oppressing classes. The policy of Left-led state governments has been to refuse to let the police be used against democratic movements and the struggles of the working class, peasantry and other democratic sections.

Therefore the Left and Democratic Front government of Kerala cannot remain silent when draconian laws like sedition are used indiscriminately by the police. The actions of the Kerala Police in the present case are condemnable, and the state government should intervene immediately. It should rectify the mistakes made by the police and take necessary action against the police officers who are guilty of excesses. The LDF government should live up to the faith reposed on it by the people by protecting democratic rights and civil liberties, and not letting the police trample upon these rights and liberties with impunity.

Kashmir Bleeds, Yet Again!

SFI condemns the brutal violence unleashed by the security forces on protesters following the death of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani. Until now, more than 30 people have been killed including an M.Com. student of Delhi University. Most of those who have been killed are youth. This growing unrest is also an expression of people’s intense alienation and anger against the oppressive policies and killings of unarmed civilians by security forces over the years. Rather than initiating a political process of dialogue, utterly irresponsible comments insulting the sentiments of the people who have hit the streets are being made by government spokespersons like Venkaiah Naidu.
 

The Indian State’s engagement with Kashmir: A saga of broken promises

The history of the Indian state’s engagement Kashmir is a history of denial of democracy. It is a history of broken promises and commitments and the inability of the Indian ruling classes to recognize that Jammu and Kashmir has a special status in the Indian Union given its history at the time of independence and partition. While there were some promises initially with the enactment of Article 370 which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir, the steps which followed from 1953 with the arrest of Sheikh Abdullah, the tallest leader of his times in Kashmir on the pretext that he was attempting to lead a secessionist movement, initiated a process of complete reversal of steps which gave special status to Kashmir and sowing the seeds of alienation among the people. Sheikh Abdullah was released in 1964 only to be arrested again 1965. The alienation of the people was further accentuated by the massive dilution of article 370 and other provisions which denied even minimal autonomy to Kashmir to the extent that Central government intervened even in matters in which normally the states in the Indian Union have autonomy.  

To make things worse, even basic democratic rights were denied to the people of Kashmir. The election nomination papers of candidates who did not share the stand of the central government were continuously rejected, elections were rigged and political parties in the state were forced to toe the line of the government at the centre. The non-stop violation of human rights by the Indian army in the form of murders and rapes, with the immunity provided by draconian laws like AFSPA behind them, only worsened the matters. It is the combination of all these which contributed to the massive alienation of Kashmiri youth, leading many of them to join separatist groups. Predictably, the response of the Indian state was to consider this merely as a law and order problem and not dealing with the matter politically, which exacerbated the situation. The present killing of unarmed civilians by security forces shows that government is unwilling to learn any lesson from the past. The only response to this deepening political unrest seems to be relying exclusively on security forces. 

On Burhan Wani and Hizbul Mujahideen 

The move by the armed forces to kill Burhan Wani in an “encounter” has had extremely serious repercussions in the valley. While we recognize and fight against the brutalities and violations of democratic and human rights of the people which provide fertile ground for the growth of organisations like Hizbul Mujahideen, we completely reject the reactionary fundamentalist politics for which the Hizbul Mujahideen stands for.

However, the reaction of certain “ultra-left” sections inside and outside JNU unfortunately seems to be to blindly celebrate Burhan Wani and his politics. These sections forget that more often than not, religious fundamentalist forces flourish in objective conditions where a significant section of the population is disillusioned and angry due to the state of their conditions of living. For example, the massive suffering and chaos as a result of the American invasion of Iraq provided the objective conditions for the ideological growth of the Islamic State in West Asia. The support received by the right-wing bigot Donald Trump from significant sections of the American working class who are facing numerous economic hardships is another example of a reactionary group utilizing the genuine problems and anger of the people in order to further their nefarious designs. In short, factors which motivate a person to join a reactionary group are often rooted in genuine grievances against the conditions in which they find themselves. But when these real grievances are channelized through a reactionary ideology which is thoroughly undemocratic in nature, it is the duty of every progressive organisation to oppose them tooth and nail while fighting to resolve the grievances. The SFI rejects the ideal of a theocratic state as envisaged by the dominant sections of secessionists. It is ironic that certain sections support such demands and yet call themselves “secular” and “progressive”.

Regrettably, attempts are being made to create a binary in this campus by both the ABVP and certain “ultra-left” groups, as if only two solutions exist – to either support the brutalities of the Indian State on the one hand, or Burhan Wani on the other. It is important that the democratic, progressive student community of JNU reject these designs.

Bring back Democracy to Kashmir 

It is only by recognizing the special status of Kashmir in the Indian Union that peace can be given a fighting chance in Kashmir. Steps in this direction will include engagement with all political forces in Kashmir including the separatists, demilitarization of the region and revoking draconian laws like AFSPA and Disturbed Areas Act. Maximum autonomy to Kashmir which was promised at different points of time, but which never materialized, should be made a reality. But with communal-fascist forces which have from the very beginning viewed Kashmir through a communal angle in power, this is going to be extremely arduous.  It is up to us, therefore, to take them to task in order to restore peace and to fight to fulfill the democratic aspirations of the people of Kashmir. Both the Central Government and the State Government must immediately initiate the political process of dialogue with all political forces and groups to end the growing strife in the state.