The HRD Ministry and the UGC have recently sent letters to the JNU Administration asking it to implement the Lyngdoh Committee recommendations with regard to conduct of the JNUSU elections. The recommendations are:

· an attack on the autonomy of the university system.

· assault on the independence of the students’ movement.

· a move to facilitate privatisation of higher education by
restricting organisd interventions from the campus community.

· to implement Birla-Ambani Report to privatise and corporatise higher

education under the garb of ‘cleaning up’ campuses.

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DSU PUBLIC MEETING

LYNGDOH COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATIONS:
Another assault on shrinking democratic space
and the students’ movement in campus

Speakers

Anil Sadgopal
Former Head, Deptt. of Education
Delhi University

K. J. Mukherjee
School of Biotechnology, JNU

Rakesh Ranjan
Deptt. of Economics, SRCC,Delhi University

Kumar Sanjay Singh
Deptt. of History, Delhi University

Tapti Mess 9.30 pm 1 Sept. (Saturday)

OPPOSE THE IMPLEMENTATION OF LYNGDOH COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATIONS IN JNU!

The HRD Ministry and the UGC have sent letters to the JNU Administration asking it to implement the recommendations of the Lyngdoh Commission with regard to conduct of the JNUSU elections. The Administration in turn has forwarded the letter to the JNUSU for response.

Some of the important recommendations of the Lyngdoh Committee [You can access the full Report by following the LINK on the left]:

The maximum age limit fixed for students to contest elections is to be 28 years for research students.

75% minimum attendance is compulsory for students to be eligible for contesting student union elections.

Candidates will have only one opportunity to contest the elections for office-bearers.

Any student against whom ‘disciplinary action’ has been taken by the University authorities cannot contest elections.

The Lyngdoh Committee recommendations are aimed at destroying students' democratic organisations, their independence and the power of resistance. It is aimed at making the Students' Union subservient to the university authorities, to make it a harmless, apolititcal and undemocratic body, which will be in no position to resist the anti-student policies and practices of the administration. And this is what the JNU administration, or for that matter any university administration, wants. If allowed to be implemented, it will crush the independence and democratic character of JNUSU election process, and will totally undermine its constitution. This will ultimately make the JNUSU a representative body of the administration and not of the students. So we must unite and say in one voice that the Lyngdoh Committee recommendations have no place in the student's movement of JNU.

LET'S FIGHT THIS LATEST ATTACK ON THE STUDENT MOVEMENT OF JNU.

SILENCING DISSENT: REPORT ON THE STATE'S REPRESSION OF STUDENT ACTIVISTS AND OTHERS IN HARYANA

For the last few months, the Haryana police -the mercenaries of the feudal and comprador classes- have unleashed a reign of terror in the districts of Yamuna Nagar, Kurukhshetra, Kaithal and Jind. Since mid-April this year until the first week of May as many as 13 activists of three organizations: Jagruk Chatra Manch (JCM), Krantikari Mazdoor Kisan Union (KMKU) and Shivalik Jan Sangharsh Manch (SJSM) have been picked up and charged under several sections of IPC and Arms Act, including the charge of sedetion.

These organisations have been in the forefront raising issues related to wages, fee hikes, dalit oppression for a long time. Repression is not new to the activists of these organisations. What is new, is its increased level that the people associated with and sympethetic to these organisaions are facing for the last two years or so. More than 100 people had been picked up, kept in illegal confinement, tortured in custody and then let off over the last two years. More than 50 people were implicated in false cases with serious charges like attempt ot murder.

Peoples' Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) visited the districts of Yamuna Nagar, Kurukshetra, Kaithal and Jind on 8 and 9 May, 2007 and talked to the people there. They have prepared a Report titled 'Silencing Dissent: Caste Oppression, Peoples' Movements and Charge of Sedition in Haryana'. The report documents the age caste-class exploitation in the state, and also the recent wave of oppression on the democratic movement in Haryana. DSU appeals to you to stand up in support of the incarcerated activists, and against state's systematic assault on peoples' organisations.

You can access this Report through the LINK on the left.

CONDEMN STATE'S ATTEMPT TO SILENCE DISSENT. FIGHT FOR THE RELEASE OF SHIELA DIDI.

Sheila Didi is a popular women’s activist among the most deprived women of Jharkhand, Orissa, Chhattisgarh, and Bihar. She was the former President of Nari Mukti Sangh, Bihar. She was arrested on 7 October 2006 at Aamjhor Village under the police limits of Lathikata, Sundargarh district of Orissa. The police fabricated cases against her in the name of waging war against the state. After the arrest they immediately shifted her to a nearby CRPF camp where she was tortured physically and psychologically for two days. Later she was produced before a magistrate court which allowed four more days of police custody. She was once again tortured physically and psychologically. She sustained injuries on forehead and stomach during the police torture. The police brutally tortured her constantly by inflicting severe blows on her legs and the soles of her feet. The police, after blindfolding her, kept on shifting her from one place to the other. She was interrogated by the teams of police from West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

Since then she has been incarcerated in Rourkela prison. Her health has deteriorated as she has been denied any medical care. She hasn’t been given even a pen or a sheet of paper, let alone books or periodicals to read. After she was given bail in all existing cases on 11th July she was arrested again as soon as she came out of prison with more cases being foisted on her.

Sheila Didi belongs to a poor Adivasi family. A woman of courage and conviction, she was convinced about the need for building up a strong women’s movement as she realized that women in our country had to fight every step for their rights and freedom, to do away with the customs and traditions that treat her as an inferior being, a second class citizen. The founding of Nari Mukti Sangh along with a host of other women was the result of this realization.

Soon this organization developed into a strong women’s organization. Thousands of the most deprived women today are conscious about their rights. This organization has been consistently fighting all forms of patriarchy while at the same time resisting any kind of exploitation, domination or discrimination. Hundreds of women, along with Sheila Didi have become literate in the due course of empowerment of this real and genuine movement.

The condition of women in our country is so pathetic and wretched that if they stand on their own legs in order to move ahead in their lives, patriarchic oppression along with all kinds of attacks of the contemporary society will brow beat them to submission. It is in this context that Sheila Didi has evolved as a valiant and uncompromising leader of the oppressed women and waged several struggles for the betterment of their lives in these regions. It is highly deplorable and is a grim reflection of all of our sensitivity that this women’s activist who has emerged from the most oppressed rungs of Adivasi life and who worked day in and out to awaken thousands of oppressed women, has been incarcerated in the jail.

We demand that Sheila Didi be released immediately and unconditionally. In this context we urge you to intervene immediately and ensure that she receives proper medical care and relief. We also demand that she be treated as a Political Prisoner as she has been arrested and incarcerated for her convictions to fight for women’s rights. In this connection, we also appeal to you to join the fight against the continued incarceration of this senior women’s activist while demanding for her unconditional release.

THE WORLD'S SHORTEST HUNGER STRIKE BY SFI !

...and what it tells us about the campus and the nature of Indian politics



They are waiting for the call from Guinness Book of Records. The world record for the shortest ‘indefinite’ hunger strike was won by SFI when the fines on JNUSU (SFI) office bearers were revoked, after a few hours of hunger strike by just 3 SFI members, without any mass support or mobilization. A truly amazing feat, considering what it took to make the administration even ‘reconsider’ the rustication of the non-SFI students. For the record, it took more than a month long intense agitation, 12 harrowing days of hunger-strike, no less than 6 protest marches and 3 demonstrations, all heavily attended by students, a number of JNUSU and JNUTA protest meetings addressed by prominent teachers, eminent public intellectuals and activists, and former office bearers of JNUSU; and overwhelming support from democratic sections across the country (including a former Vice-Chancellor, senior academicians and democratic rights organisation like PUDR). With the treatment being so starkly differential, naturally the campus is abuzz with questions regarding the ‘real’ relation between the administration and SFI.

The JNU administration – a formidable adversary: Throughout the course of the struggle for workers’ rights, the administration has applied the time-tested ‘divide & rule’ tactic. From the initial arbitrary suspensions, followed by Proctorial witch-hunt, and the differential punishments – the effort has been to isolate serious activists, divide JNUSU and to send a clear message to the student community about the perils of activism (unless it’s of the token, SFI variety). Interestingly, one way or the other, SFI has supported all these moves by the administration, first by dissociating itself from the movement, then by calling for punishment against students who refuse to submit ‘individual’ regret letters and supporting Proctorial enquiry, and later by supporting the differential punishment by blaming the so-called ‘ultra-left’ for the JNUSU-led gherao on the 19th. The administration returned the favour by keeping SFI out of the ambit of the punishments; very reluctantly imposing a token fine on the JNUSU office-bearers (anything else would have been too blatant display of favoritism) – fines that they were only too glad to revoke. Just compare this with the repressive treatment of other students – arbitrary suspensions, rustication, fines, out-of-bounds order, eviction from hostel, rooms double locked for 45 days, Mphil dissertations and admissions at stake… Evidently, the administration knows who their friends are. Ably helped by SFI, the administration is trying to cleanse the campus of radical activism and activists.

This movement showed the true colours of the administration. The job of the administration is to enforce the education policy of the UPA government and the Indian state: a policy that pushes for privatisation and corporatisation, making education, subservient to the needs of the market and big capital; a policy that reinforces the exclusionary and elitist nature of education. (In fact, the changes in JNU over the last few years, including the rampant contractualisation of the workforce, are a symptom of these larger policy decisions.) An active Union and student activism has been identified as the biggest impediment towards implementing this policy. Hence the attacks. What the administration wants is a docile, obedient Union, who can perform the dual task of supporting the administration and keeping the larger student mass inactive and under control. SFI fits that bill perfectly.


What makes SFI more equal than others? What makes SFI so endearing to the administration is that there is really no conflict between the administration’s policy and SFI ’s. The CPI(M), SFI’s parliamentary master, is an important ally of the UPA government; party to the policy decisions. The very same policy that they are implementing in Bengal, Kerala and Tripura – where they are in power. Significantly, CPI(M) has mastered the art of supporting and opposing the same thing simultaneously; playing government and opposition at the same time. The recent Indo-US nuke deal is a case to point. On the one hand they will create a media circus with their opposition to the deal, on the other hand they will make sure that their pretty apple-cart of UPA govt, led by a World Bank selected Prime Minister, doesn’t topple over. The watchdog (as Sitaram Yechury had famously described CPM in UPA) barks, but never bites. Worse, it eats out of the hands of the thieves who are looting the resources of the Indian people and handing it over to their imperial masters. The pattern repeats itself – oppose SEZ in rhetoric and then try to implement SEZ in practice (at gunpoint if necessary, as we have seen in Nandigram). Oppose repressive black laws like POTA in parliament, and then legislate virtually the same law under a different name POCA in Bengal; oppose TADA, and then impose the same to smash Gorkha nationality movements. As their relationship with the administration shows, SFI too has mastered the art of political double-speak.


The make-believe war: Proctor H.B.Bohidar tells The Hindu, “Dhananjay submitted a letter to the VC on behalf of both on Thursday morning appealing to him to reconsider the punishment handed out to them. On the basis of this letter, the University decided to waive off their penalties. They can now register.” This is indicative of the real relationship between SFI and the administration. The administration doesn’t consider the SFI a threat. Weren’t they the first one to rush in with individual regret letters? In an ultimate act of bad faith as Union office-bearers, they demanded punishment for individual students for participating in a JNUSU demonstration. Didn’t they go all out in pointing out activists who should be punished, urging the authorities to continue with the anti-student, anti-JNUSU Proctorial enquiry? Didn’t they try best to scuttle the UGBM so that students can’t democratically discuss future course of struggle against the administration? First the JNUSU President ran away with the quorum sheets, and later abandoned the UGBM in mid-session when SFI motions started getting defeated – shameful acts unprecedented in JNU history. After the UGBM resoundingly rejected SFI’s demand for ‘individual’ regrets and Proctorial enquiry, they decided to sit idle, without any effort to implement the UGBM mandate in letter or spirit. It is their inaction (as well as their continual support for the anti-student administration) that emboldened the authorities to carry on with suspensions and forced suspended students from DSU, who had fought so long against ‘individual’ regret and selective punishments, to give in their regret letter despite their wish and the UGBM support. The same tamasha got repeated during the revocation of punishments. The same JNUSU leadership brokered a compromise deal with the administration, pushing for ‘reconsideration’ instead of ‘revocation’, making it contingent on ‘individual appeal’. Despite their opposition to it, DSU agreed with a note of dissent, in order to maintain the unity of struggle within JNUSU. When the punishments did not get revoked, but only commuted to fines, the SFI again played their old trick – bold rhetoric and complete inaction. Faced with an inactive union, rather, abandoned by it - students were forced pay the fines, thereby ending this phase of the bitterly fought struggle. Immediately SFI started playing to the gallery, first by refusing to give the appeal, then with the farcical hunger strike, knowing fully well that they are not in the administration’s firing line. They have mastered the game of shadow-boxing. However, they are making one very serious mistake. They are underestimating the intelligence of JNU students.

TWO STEPS FORWARD, ONE STEP BACK…

Once this phase of struggles draws to a close,
it’s time to start preparing for the next phase.

Today was the penultimate day of registration for the coming semester, and the JNUSU leadership, keeping up with their track record of inaction and apathy towards real struggles or mass mobilization, failed even to get an audience with His Highness, the VC! The JNUSU president’s rhetorical and dramatized letter to the VC evidently had no effect on the administration. The perceived self-importance of the JNUSU president notwithstanding, it is time the union leadership realize that, without any large-scale student mobilization or ground-level struggle, a letter carries very little weight.


We have been consistently arguing for an incisive and purposeful programme for mass action, which can force the administration to revoke all punishments completely before the registration deadline expires on 14th Aug. Unfortunately, JNUSU leadership’s action has been limited to a mere letter. In their usual display of tokenism, the JNUSU office-bearers today tried to meet the VC, who, true to his character, never bothered to meet them. (As usual, the President and General Secretary went to meet His Excellency separately). The Rector II categorically refused any possibility of complete revocation of punishments. And what did the JNUSU(SFI) and its councilors, who did not care to attend the All Organisation Meeting on Saturday, do? Well, they wrote another letter. (Letter-writing seems to be the chosen mode of struggle with SFI these days – which, we must admit, is a distinct improvement on their Bengal counterparts, who are known to be part of CPI-M murder squads in Nandigram). Anyway, this time they wrote a letter to the Gen Secretary, demanding a council meeting! Significantly, in all these months of struggle, since the campus reopened, the JNUSU did not bother to call or demand for any council meeting, formal or informal. Little wonder that one of the victimized students lost faith in JNUSU leadership and decided to pay the fine on Friday.


In short, there was no JNUSU movement, not even a plan for building one. With a vindictive administration on one side and an inept JNUSU leadership on the other, the four punished activists of DSU had no other option but to come to terms with paying up the fine. A part of the JNUSU leadership, namely the General Secretary and the VP also decided on payment of fines as the next step. Let us be very clear, the fines are a setback for JNUSU, as well as the students’ movement in JNU. However, let us also not devalue the fruits of the long and bitter struggle the students have fought, despite an incompetent JNUSU leadership. Our struggle has managed to scuttle the nefarious plan of the administration to cleanse the campus of student activists through rustication and ‘out-of-bound’ orders. We, the students, have also managed to make the plight of contract workers in JNU a larger, social issue, and have forced the administration to constitute a body to look into workers’ rights. Students and the campus community is even exposing and defying the administration’s policy of isolating individual activists. The payment of fines has become a collective, social act, with all the students and teachers who stood by the movement, contributing. We must remember that whatever we have won has been because of the collective political will of the students, despite the incompetent JNUSU leadership. We have shown the campus that, we, the students,are the union. Though a partial setback, the payment of fines doesn’t mean an end to struggle. Rather, it inspires us to fight back with a more vigorous, spirited and militant struggle for students’ and workers’ rights.