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.

Nation, Nationalism and Nationalities

There has been a lot of discussion and debate ever since the incidents of 9 February 2016 on the issues of nation and nationalism.

While the RSS-BJP-ABVP ran a massive campaign painting JNU as a centre of “anti-national activities”, the absurdity of the RSS - which was not part of the anti-colonial struggle of the Indian people against British rule - talking about nation and nationalism was obvious.

Nathuram Godse was an RSS man, and V D Savarkar — the Hindu Mahasabha leader and Sangh ideologue who had repeatedly apologised to the British to get himself released from the Cellular Jail in Port Blari — was also an accused in the murder of Gandhi, and was let of only on technical grounds.

The RSS’s majoritarian, communal-casteist-patriarchal, ruling class idea of the nation

The RSS's ideal of India is enshrined in the notorious motto “Hindi-Hindu-Hindusthan”. It refuses to accept the equality of all the different nationalities that constitute and comprise India, and which fought together in the freedom struggle against colonial rule. The RSS seeks to impose a monolithic, communal idea of the nation, which is evident, for instance, in the writings of M.S. Golwalkar, the Hindutva ideologue and the second Sarsanghchalak of the RSS. He wrote in his work We or Our Nationhood Defined:

“The foreign races (non-Hindu people) in Hindusthan must either adopt Hindu culture and language, must either adopt the Hindu culture and language, must learn to respect and hold in reverence Hindu religion, must entertain no idea but those of the glorification of the Hindu race and culture, i.e., of the Hindu nation and must lose their separate existence to merge in the Hindu race, or may stay in the country, wholly subordinated to the Hindu Nation, claiming nothing, deserving no privileges, far less any preferential treatment - not even citizen's rights.”

In other words, the minorities in this country would have no place in the RSS's concept of India. The Hindutva forces’ notion of India is exclusionary not just to non-Hindus, but even to those within the “Hindu fold”, as the vast majority of them do not enjoy the same socio-economic rights or cultural freedom. By avoiding any move that will further the cause of the annihilation of caste, the Sangh Parivar seeks to ensure the continuing support of the reactionary, casteist sections of society. The untouchability still prevalent in Gujarat and the criminal silence of the Sangh Parivar in this regard expose their agenda of sustaining Brahminical supremacy. It is instructive here to note Babasaheb Ambedkar's stark observation that as a caste-ridden society, India is still a nation in the making: "How can people divided into several thousands of castes be a nation? In India there are castes… The castes are anti-national."

The students of JNU, however, have always opposed the Sangh Parivar's bigoted ideology and held up the equality of all people, belonging to all religions, communities, ethnicities, languages and nationalities. They have stood up to oppose the RSS ideology which treats women as second class citizens and as “being fit only for domestic chores”. Precisely because of our determined opposition to the chauvinistic project of the RSS, the Hindutva forces have made JNU a target.

Not only is the RSS's idea of India utterly communal, casteist and patriarchal, in essence and practice the India that it promotes is that of the Adanis and the Ambanis and other big corporates. The workers, peasants, petty produces, Dalits, Adivasis and women belonging to all communities lie outside this ruling class idea of India. The economic policies of the RSS-led Modi government benefit only the ruling classes led by the big corporates, who ultimately form a tiny section of our population. To paraphrase what Marx and Engels wrote in the Communist Manifesto, the working people of India, consisting of the workers, peasants, Dalits, Adivasis, women and other toiling sections, must constitute themselves the nation (though not in the bourgeois sense of the word) in order to resolutely oppose and defeat the RSS and its communal-fascist vision of what India ought to be.

Secular, Anti-Imperialist Nationalism

While the RSS and its affiliates like the BJP and the ABVP have been trying to turn India into an intolerant Hindu Rashtra, the left and democratic movement in India, including the SFI, has stood resolutely in opposition to this, holding aloft the flag of secular, anti-imperialist nationalism. The very first line of the SFI Programme (the key document that outlines the vision of the organisation) says: “Students’ Federation of India inherits with pride the anti-imperialist, patriotic, secular, democratic, and progressive legacy of the Indian people’s struggle for national liberation from the British colonial rule.”

Uphold the Equality of Nationalities in India!

India is a multi-national country, and there are two streams of national consciousness in our country - one is the pan-Indian national consciousness and the other is the national consciousness associated with the various nationalities or linguistic-cultural groups that comprise India. The negation of either of these two (the multi-national character of the country on the one hand and the unity of the country on the other) to the exclusion of the other would be a mistake. The common struggle of the people of India against social oppression and economic exploitation will be facilitated by the preservation of Indian unity on the basis of the firm equality and real autonomy of the nationalities that constitute India. The growth of secessionist forces, on the other hand, help the ruling classes to disorganise and disrupt the people's struggle to build an egalitarian country free of all oppression and exploitation.

On the Question of National Self-Determination

What about secessionist demands in some parts of the country, some might ask. To argue that under all circumstances the secessionist position should be supported as opposed to the position that favours union is essentially to argue that all multi-national countries are illegitimate, which is clearly an illogical stance to adopt. The overarching question here is whether such demands will serve the interests of the working people or not. Thus in the 1840s Marx supported the Polish and Hungarian national movements while opposing those of the Czechs and the South Slavs. Marx's support to the former was guided not just by the fact that they represented oppressed nationalities. It was also rooted in the fact that the Polish and Hungarian movements were directed against the absolutism of the Russian and Austrian Empires, for political democracy which was of vital interest to the European working class at that time. He opposed the Czech and South Slav movements because this "was at that time equivalent to indirect support to Tsarism, the most dangerous enemy of the revolutionary movement in Europe".

Post-World War II history is replete with instances where secessionist demands in various countries have been used to shore up imperialism. Imperialist support to Katangan secessionism in Congo led to the coup against Patrice Lumumba (the first democratically elected Prime Minister of the country) and his subsequent assassination, resulting in a massive setback to Congo’s efforts to embark on an autonomous path of development. The best example from more recent times is the dismantling of Yugoslavia. The secessionist tendencies within Yugoslavia emerged as the direct result of the “market-friendly” policies that were pursued in the country, and its actual break-up was directly encouraged by imperialist powers which played one group in Yugoslavia against the other. The declaration of “independence” by Kosovo in 2008 was the final act in the disintegration of Yugoslavia. Kosovo is today an imperialist protectorate, housing one of the largest overseas military bases (Camp Bondsteel) that the US has built since the Vietnam War.

Will the secession of any part of India strengthen the movement of the working people, or will it play into the hands of imperialism? Take the case of Kashmir for instance. Its secession can only mean either of two scenarios — i.e. accession into Pakistan or setting up an independent state. That merger into Pakistan is not going to deliver the Kashmiri people is too obvious to require any argument. The other option of independent Kashmir is equally if not more disastrous. Such a landlocked and not particularly resource-rich entity is bound to become a client of imperialism in case of secession. It will provide US imperialism a base to unleash its machinations against all neighbouring countries. In today's circumstances, secession of any part from India will not be into some socialist haven but into the ambit of imperialism. This has grave implications for the working people of the seceding nationality. They will go out of the pale of the pan-Indian movement, thereby weakening both themselves and the general movement of the Indian workers and toilers. The different nationalities of our country cannot liberate themselves in isolation from each other.

As for Kashmir, there should be demilitarisation, and the people in the valley should be free from the oppressive security structures and controls. The draconian Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) should be repealed. The excesses and human rights violations by the security forces have to be investigated and the guilty brought to book. Urgent steps have to be taken to revive the economy of Jammu and Kashmir. The genuine grievances of the people of Jammu should be addressed, and the dignified return of Kashmiri Pandits to the valley must be taken up as part of the restoration of peace and normalcy. There should be internal dialogue, which should proceed on the basis that maximum autonomy should be given. The Indo-Pakistan dialogue also should advance, and more confidence building measures can be taken to further encourage people to people movement and contacts across the LoC as the dialogue moves forward.

Government policies and the uneven development that is inherent to capitalism have nurtured and increased inequalities between different states. The inexorable law of uneven capitalist development is bound to assert even more viciously in circumstances marked by the retreat of the State from economic activities. This will lead to growing demands for justice among different nationalities. Their genuine demands must be championed while steering clear of any form of nationality chauvinism and secessionist trends, in the true spirit of Indian unity and proletarian internationalism. Fraternal/sororal bonds of class and national solidarity must be forged among different nationalities and linguistic States.

The emancipation of people belonging to all nationalities in India and the success of their struggle against all traces of national inequality rests with the unity and united struggle of the working people of India. The SFI, whose 23 comrades have been martyred at the hands of separatist elements in the country during the 1980s and the 1990s, stands resolutely in defence of this cause. 

(From 'Resistance', the newsletter brought out by SFI JNU Unit in March 2016)

Who is Anti-National?

Defeat the ABVP's Poisonous Agenda of Communalising Education and Branding Students as “Anti-National”

06/09/2015

Friends,

The very first agenda in the ABVP's campaign leaflet for the JNUSU Elections this year is “Restructure of syllabus” (sic). And another one in the list of their main agenda items is “a strong check on all anti-national activities”. Both these expose the venomous politics of the RSS, whose student wing is the ABVP.

What does the ABVP mean when it says it will restructure the syllabus?

The answer is obvious to JNU students. When the BJP-led NDA was in power the last time, the government had tried to introduce obscurantist courses in JNU such as “Human Consciousness” as part of the undemocratically prepared X Plan Proposals in 2001. Such attempts were unitedly resisted by the students under the leadership of the SFI-led JNUSU. Even as the UGC imposed fund cuts on JNU during that time, it was offering crores of rupees to educational institutions which were ready to start courses such as Astrology, Pourohitya and Karmakand. The courses that were being promoted by the RSS-controlled Ministry of Human Resource Development symbolised the communal, casteist and patriarchal ideology of the RSS and the BJP which seek to attack the very fundamentals of a rational, modern education system. The RSS-BJP's attempts to communalise education by rewriting NCERT text books is, of course, well-known.

The systematic assault by the RSS-BJP on reason continues today and has intensified. The killing of the famous anti-superstition activist Narendra Dabholkar signified the Hindutva forces' attempts to silence all voices of dissent. The ascendancy of the RSS-BJP to power has emboldened the forces of unreason even further, as shown by the subsequent murders of Comrade Govind Pansare (who wrote a popular biography of Shivaji which the Sangh Parivar found unpalatable) and Prof. M M Kalburgi, a prominent critic of superstition and idol worship.

The contempt of the RSS towards reason and science can be seen in the statements of none other than the Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself. According to him, the birth of Karna in the Mahabharata is proof of the existence of genetic science in India during ancient times, and Ganesha's elephant head on a human body was proof of the existence of plastic surgery in ancient India! Such absurd, crackpot theories have also been peddled by pseudo-historians of the Sangh Parivar, who have claimed that Taj Mahal was a Hindu monument, that the Kaaba in Mecca was a “Hindu temple, stolen by Muslims” and even that Christianity is actually “Krishna-Neeti”. The objective is to impose the Sangh Parivar narrative that all the scientific knowledge that exists in the world today already existed in ancient India, that the caste system is a great thing to have (as the current ICHR head, an RSS stooge, says) and that mythology can replace history.

The “restructuring of the syllabus” that the RSS-ABVP aims at will surely go beyond communalisation. It will also entail a systematic attack on academic freedom and rigour in our university, which has enabled many of our faculty members and centres to mount challenges to the dominant ruling class narratives in various disciplines. The idea is to let saleability in the market be the sole determinant of what should be taught and should not be taught in our university. At a time when the worldwide economic crisis which has been persisting since 2008 is forcing even mainstream economists to rethink about the role and efficacy of the markets, the RSS-ABVP's absolute faith in the market to solve the problems of society could have been described as comical if it were not so dangerous.

Who is Anti-National?

The ABVP also says that they will impose “strong checks on anti-national” activities. Now, the RSS-ABVP talking about nation and nationalism is an absurdity in itself, like the devil preaching the Bible. The RSS was not part of the anti-colonial struggle of the Indian people against British rule. Nathuram Godse, the assassin of Mahatma Gandhi, was an RSS man. V D Savarkar, a prominent Sangh leader, was an active participant in the conspiracy to murder Gandhi. He was an accused in the case, and was acquitted only because the approver, Digambar Badge's evidence lacked independent corroboration; a common flaw in conspiracy cases. But the Judge Atma Charan accepted Badge as a truthful witness. Later, the Kapur Commission (set up in 1965) which examined evidence that was not provided in the court, especially the testimony of two of Savarkar's close aides, concluded that Savarkar was guilty. Had the two aides testified in court, Savarkar would have been convicted.

The RSS's ideal of India is enshrined in the infamous motto “Hindi-Hindu-Hindustan”. It refuses to accept the equality of all the different nationalities that constitute and comprise India, and which fought together in the freedom struggle against colonial rule. The RSS seeks to impose a monolithic, communal idea of the nation, which is evident, for instance, in the writings of M S Golwalkar, the Hindutva ideologue and the second Sarsanghchalak of the RSS. He wrote in his work We or Our Nationhood Defined:

“The non-Hindu people of Hindustan must either adopt Hindu culture and language, must learn and respect and hold in reverence the Hindu religion, must entertain no idea but of those of glorification of the Hindu race and culture ... In a word they must cease to be foreigners, or may stay in the country, wholly subordinated to the Hindu nation, claiming nothing, deserving no privileges, far less any preferential treatment — not even citizens' rights.”

In other words, the minorities in this country would have no place in the RSS's concept of India. The students of JNU, however, have always opposed the Sangh Parivar's bigoted ideology and held up the equality of all people, belonging to all religions, communities, ethnicities, languages and nationalities. They have stood up to oppose the RSS ideology which treats women as second class citizens and as “being fit only for domestic chores”. Precisely because of our determined opposition to the chauvinistic project of the RSS, the Hindutva forces have made JNU a target.

During the tenure of the previous BJP-led NDA government, the RSS tried to target JNU and the SFI-led JNUSU as a den of “ISI agents”. There was an incident of violence during an Indo-Pak Mushaira held in JNU on 29 April 2000, where three drunken disruptors (one of whom brandished a revolver) were beaten up only to later find that two of them were Army officers. The Sangh Parivar then demanded that the ‘ISI activities’ in JNU be investigated, and the notorious ‘Bahri Commission of Enquiry’ was set up in pliant response to this absurd demand. Such targeting, however, was defeated by the steadfast resistance of the students’ movement led by the SFI-led JNUSU.

Not only is the RSS's idea of India utterly communal, but in essence and practice the India that it promotes is that of the Adanis and the Ambanis and other big corporates. The workers, peasants, petty producers, Dalits, Adivasis and women belonging to all communities lie outside this ruling class idea of India. The economic policies of the RSS-led Modi government benefit only the ruling classes led by the big corporates, who ultimately form a tiny section of our population. To paraphrase what Marx and Engels wrote in the Communist Manifesto, the working people of India, consisting of the workers, peasants, Dalits, Adivasis, women and other toiling sections, must constitute themselves the nation (though not in the bourgeois sense of the word) in order to resolutely oppose and defeat the RSS and its communal-fascist vision of what India ought to be.

The SFI would like to assert here that the students of JNU and the people of India would firmly reject the attempts to refashion India to fit the communal-fascist, majoritarian, ruling class idea of the “nation” peddled by the RSS. We will continue to speak the truth, and all fascist attempts to muzzle our voices in defence of the working people of our country belonging to all communities will be rejected.

Emergency Files 05 - A.K. Gopalan writes to Indira Gandhi in Protest

With the derecognition of the JNU Students Union (JNUSU) and the arrests of JNUSU President D.P. Tripathi and Councillor Sitaram Yechury, the repression of the students movement in JNU reached a crescendo, and caught the attention of national leaders fighting against the Emergency. Legendary communist leader A.K. Gopalan wrote a letter to the Prime Minister protesting against the tyrannical attacks unleashed against the students of JNU. The letter was secretly circulated in the JNU campus as well, as per the well-established practice of the democratic forces in the campus fighting the Emergency. The letter is reproduced below.

Read & Circulate

Repression in Nehru University

(Copy of the letter sent by A.K. Gopalan, leader of the CPI(M) group in Parliament

to the Prime Minister on 15^th November, 1975)

4 Ashok Road,

New Delhi-1.

15 Nov. 1975

A.K. Gopalan

Member of Parliament

(Lok Sabha)

Dear Shrimati Gandhi,

I am writing to you regarding the repression against the Students’ Union office-bearers, activists of the Students’ Federation of India and other democratic student organisations in the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Since the proclamation of the emergency, there has been a determined attempt on the part of the police and the University authorities to eliminate student leaders from the University, without any provocation whatsoever. On the evening of 11 November, Devi Prasad Tripathi, an M.A. student and President of the Nehru University Students’ Union was arrested by the police from within the campus and has been detained under MISA. Before this he was expelled from the University for six months on 7^th Nov. after the Students Union was derecognised by the University. He was also not allowed to attend a meeting of the Academic Council on the 7^th and his expulsion followed from the fact that he wanted to record his protest at the meeting.

This is only the latest act of victimisation jointly by the University authorities and the police. On 7^th July police raided the hostels and arrested 9 students under DIR (including the General Secretary of the Students Union) on totally false charges that a meeting was held against the emergency the previous night. Also the former General Secretary of the Karamchari Sangathan was arrested. After this the Vice-Chancellor cancelled the admission of 11 students who had qualified for admission in the written test and viva voce and whose names were finalised for admissions by the respective departments. On 21st August, Miss Ashok Lata Jain, member of the Student Council of the Union was suspended and later expelled from the University as she had signed a Union Council statement protesting the Vice-Chancellor’s action regarding admissions.

On 25^th September a shocking incident took place within the campus in broad daylight in front of many witnesses, when a student Prabir Purkayastha was dragged away to a black ambassador car by four police plain clothesmen belonging to the Hauz Khas police station. They had thought he was the President of the Students Union and had asked him if he was Tripathi before they dragged him away. Then to cover up their mistake he has been put under MISA in Tihar jail. It must be mentioned that this student had only recently joined the University in July. After that one of the student councillors Sitaram was arrested from his residence under Sec. 108 of the Cr.P.C. and later released on jail. Also warrants under Secs. 147 & 148 have been issued against two prominent members of the SFI, Prakash Karat and Suneet Chopra who are research scholars in the University.

So as it stands today, in an institution of around 2000 postgraduate and research students, 9 students have been arrested under DIR and are out on bail; two Union office-bearers have been expelled from the University and two students are detained under MISA. It is pertinent to note here that many of them are prominent members of the Students’ Federation of India in the University who also hold elected posts in the Students Union. The whole policy is designed to eliminate the left and democratic student organisations on the campus and the Students Union which they dominate by virtue of democratic elections.

Such a state of affairs is shocking in a Central Government University which is named after your father. I request you to investigate this matter and see to it that this sort of repression both academic and police-wise is immediately halted and all these students, who have first class academic records are allowed to continue their studies without interruption.

Yours sincerely,

Sd/-

A.K. Gopalan

(To be continued)

Emergency Files - Earlier Episodes:

Emergency Files 01 - Police Raid in JNU and Early Resistance

Emergency Files 02 - Denial of Admission to Students and the First Class Boycott
Emergency Files 03 - Councillor Ashok Lata Jain expelled, Prabir Purkayastha kidnapped 
Emergency Files 04 - Union President D.P. Tripathi and Councillor Sitaram Yechury Arrested

Emergency Files 04 - Union President D.P. Tripathi and Councillor Sitaram Yechury Arrested

The assault on the people intensified as the Emergency progressed, and found reflection in the JNU campus as well. 

The elections to the JNU Students Union (JNUSU) had been banned soon after the Emergency was declared. Hence the Constitution of the Union was amended through an Extraordinary University General Body Meeting (the University General Body Meeting is the highest decision making body of the students), and the terms of the office bearers were extended till such time as elections could be held. This was duly conveyed to the JNU authorities by the Union President D.P. Tripathi in a letter dated 24 September, and the University had transferred the Students Union funds to the Union's account. On 1 October, the Union President received a letter from the JNU authorities in which he was addressed as President, Students' Union, and inviting him to attend the next Academic Council meeting. 

The administration had earlier tried to "do away" with the Union by declaring that membership to the Union would be voluntary. However, to their surprise, almost all students became members of the Union, thus foiling the attempt. And now an Academic Council meeting was scheduled to take place on 7 November to discuss the notorious recommendations of the Deans' Committee, which included the withdrawal of all the rights of the Student-Faculty Committees (see Emergency Files 02 for details) with regard to admission, making "A minus" the qualifying grade to be promoted to Ph.D. after M.Phil. (JNU has an integrated M.Phil./Ph.D. programme), the introduction of purely "merit scholarships" in place of the "merit-cum-means scholarships" (the latter took into account the family income of the student along with academic performance) etc. However, the administration knew that the Students Union would prove a stumbling block in the implementation of these proposals, and that the Union's activities had to be curbed to facilitate the authoritarian designs of the administration and the government in the future as well.

In early November 1975, a fresh wave of attacks began on the students of JNU. Sitaram Yechury, then Councillor of the JNUSU (and today the General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)), was arrested on 4 November. On 6 November, the JNUSU was "derecognised" by the administration, notwithstanding the fact that the JNUSU was formed by the students themselves and not by the administration. On 7 November, the JNUSU President D.P. Tripathi was prevented from attending the Academic Council meeting. But he insisted that he be allowed to attend the meeting and to express his views, and the meeting was 'adjourned' before it could begin. In retaliation, an order was issued by the Vice-Chancellor on the night of the 7th, expelling Tripathi from the University. The very next day, four and half months after the Emergency was declared, D.P. Tripathi was arrested by the police.

Here is the pamphlet by 'The Resistance' which reported the latest developments:

THE RESISTANCE

The Struggle Will Continue !

13 November 1975

In the last four months the University authorities have in collusion with the police and government been launching one attack after another on the students of JNU and particularly the Union office-bearers. The students have been unitedly meeting these attacks and their determined resistance has foiled all these attempts to suppress the Union and the functioning of the left and democratic organisations on the campus. The latest round of attacks began on the night of 4^th November when Sitaram Yechury (student councillor) was arrested from his residence under Sec. 108 of Cr.P.C. On 6^th November, the Registrar informed the Union of its ‘derecognition’ by the authorities. On the 7^th they did not allow D.P.Tripathi, President of the Union and ex-officio member of the Academic Council from attending the Council meeting. On the same night Tripathi was served with an expulsion order from the University for six months. Finally, on the 11^th evening, Tripathi was arrested by the police inside the campus in the notorious ‘Purkayastha kidnapping’ style. He has now been detained under MISA. All these reprehensible activities once again illustrate the hand in glove working of the Nag Chaudhuri clique with the Congress bosses and the police.

Having failed to stamp out rising protest on the campus, one bunch of henchmen of Indira headed by Nag Chaudhuri ‘derecognised’ the Union’ seeing that it would not disrupt Union functioning, another bunch of henchmen headed by the DSP, Hauz Khas Police Station have resorted to arresting Tripathi. We salute Devi Prasad Tripathi for ably and courageously leading the students in the last four months at such great risk. We are confident that the students will continue to nurture and support the Union in his absence.

The main task of the student community is to preserve our democratic forum – the Students’ Union. It is our duty to see that the Union functions in a new way on a long-term basis in a situation characterised by severe repression. This will be the most effective rebuff to the gang of desperadoes ruling this country and administering our university. Their storm-troopers cannot stomach the fact that a strong leftist union continues to function in a university in the capital city. That is why in the past four months, 9 students have been arrested under DIR (including the General Secretary of the union); 2 students have been expelled from the university. For this record of black deeds the culprits in the University echelons will meet a just and fitting retribution soon.

Prof Nurul Hasan, Union Minister for Education is visiting the campus on 14 November to attend the function being held to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the foundation of the Centre for Russian Studies. On this occasion to mark a venture in Indo-Soviet cooperation, we should like to remind the honourable minister and the pseudo-progressives on the campus that they are celebrating what Lenin called the “barracks method in the treatment of students and liberal intellectuals.”

Concrete plans must be drawn up by mutual consultations amongst left and democratic organisations on the campus to keep the resistance to the dictatorial regime and in defence of our democratic rights growing and link them up with action elsewhere. We appeal to the students to continue to maintain their magnificent unity and unite with the karamcharis and democratic teachers to further strengthen our common struggle.

(Please read and circulate this leaflet widely)

(To be continued)

Emergency Files - Earlier Episodes:

Emergency Files 01 - Police Raid in JNU and Early Resistance

Emergency Files 02 - Denial of Admission to Students and the First Class Boycott
Emergency Files 03 - Councillor Ashok Lata Jain expelled, Prabir Purkayastha kidnapped

Emergency Files 03 - Councillor Ashok Lata Jain expelled, Prabir Purkayastha kidnapped

As mentioned in Emergency Files 02, Ashok Lata Jain, the Student Councillor of the JNU Students Union (JNUSU), was suspended for signing the pamphlet of the Union opposing the arbitrary and illegal action of the Vice-Chancellor who struck off from the admission list the names of students whose political opinions were unpalatable to the ruling dispensation. Ashoka, who had signed the pamphlet in the capacity of the Chairman of the JNUSU Council meeting held on 19 August, was subsequently expelled by the University authorities. This authoritarian act caused widespread anger among the student community, and ‘The Resistance’ called for a three-day class boycott in solidarity with Ashoka. On the second day of this historic strike (which was probably the first comprehensive student strike anywhere in India against the Emergency), a notorious act was perpetrated by the police – a first-year student of the University was kidnapped!

Here we reproduce two pamphlets issued by ‘The Resistance’ – one, calling for the boycott and the second, reporting the police terror.

Urgent: Read & Circulate

Boycott Classes in Solidarity with

Ashok Lata Jain on 24, 25, 26 September

Ashok Lata Jain, student councillor of the JNU Students Union and Ph.D. student in the Centre for Regional Development has been expelled by the ‘Court of Honour’, set up by the Vice-Chancellor on trumped-up charges. This black deed is the worst act perpetrated on the student community since the foundation of the University. The authorities are continuing their offensive against the democratically elected students union. Coming on top of the order prohibiting Union elections, the expulsion of Ashok Lata Jain is an attack which the students will resist. Ashoka has been victimized for doing her elementary duty as an elected student representative and for upholding the democratic rights of students.

TO EXPRESS OUR TOTAL SOLIDARITY WITH HER ALL THE STUDENTS WILL GO ON STRIKE BY REFUSING TO ATTEND CLASSES, THE LIBRARY, AND OTHER ACADEMIC WORK FOR THREE DAYS BEGINNING FROM 24 SEPT.

Our students have been taught another object lesson about the real face of the Emergency: expulsion of left and democratic student leaders, denial of admission to them and terror on the campus. The Vice-Chancellor having instigated this action has left for the United States to continue his intrigues with US imperialism on behalf of the Indira Govt. on the Indo-US Joint commission.

Let us make every effort to boldly convert the three day boycott into a historic protest. We solicit the active sympathy and support of the teachers and employees in this just struggle of ours.

Withdraw the action Ashok Lata Jain!

Unitedly we will fight for our rights!

— THE RESISTANCE

Shocking events took place amidst the student strike, which were faithfully reported by ‘The Resistance’ in their pamphlet.

Fight this Police Terror Tactics Unitedly:

Continue the Boycott on 26th

Angry over the very successful beginning of the three day boycott call on 24th by the students protesting against the expulsion of Ashok Lata Jain, the police in collusion with the University authorities have perpetrated a cowardly provocation against the students.

After the ninety percent boycott of classes on the 24th, on the 25th morning the boycott threatened to be total. An instance is the School of Languages where with over 600 students, only 3 entered the building in the morning. Since the 24th three police trucks were parked around the campus to intimidate the students. At 10:30 a.m. the police went into action. A black ambassador car with 4 plain-clothes men was parked inside the campus. The men approached Prabir Purkayastha who was standing near the School of Languages and dragged him away to the car, and despite the resistance of some students they whisked him away. This fascist style attack has been launched on a totally innocent person. Purkayastha joined the University only two months ago and is senior fellowship holder in the School of Computer Sciences. This was a deliberate provocation as Prabir had been asked by the policemen if he was Tripathi [the JNUSU President] and he had replied in the negative.

The VC (now safely ensconced in the USA) had informed the last Academic Council meeting that after the 8 July raid the authorities had assured him that the University would be informed within 8 hours of the names of the students arrested and the charges on which they are held. We demand that the Rector and the Registrar get this information and get Prabir released immediately.

The students, teachers and employees have responded to this blatant provocative act with outrage and are determined to unitedly face such onslaughts.

REMAIN CALM AND CONTINUE THE BOYCOTT

TO ITS SUCESSFUL CONCLUSION ON 26th!

— THE RESISTANCE

The man who kidnapped Prabir Purkayastha was P.S.Bhinder, who later became the Commissioner of Police. Prabir was to spend the rest of the Emergency in jail under the infamous Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA), but that, of course, was unknown to the students then.

(To be continued)

Emergency Files - Earlier Episodes:

Emergency Files 01 - Police Raid in JNU and Early Resistance

Emergency Files 02 - Denial of Admission to Students and the First Class Boycott