DSU's Resolution Rejecting Lyngdoh Committee Recommendations in JNU gets passed in the UGBM Unanimously!

The students of JNU have unanimously passed with overwhelming enthusiasm and show of unity the DSU resolution placed in the UGBM that concluded in the wee hours of 26th October, after a night-long debate. The text of the resolution is:

'The JNUSU Constitution expresses the democratic ethos and norms of the JNU students evolved over 37 years of collective struggle. The Supreme Court’s stay on the JNUSU Elelctions and the attempt to impose Lyngdoh Committee recommendations in JNU is against the letter and spirit of the JNUSU Constitution. This UGBM therefore resolves to reject the implementation of Lyngdoh Committee recommendations in JNU in any form.'

The struggle must now be intensified to defeat Lyngdoh committee recommendations not only in JNU but everywhere, in its totality. We must unitedly fight to finally scrap Lyngdoh, which is against the very spirit of students' movements, its autonomy and voices of dissent.

Reject Lyngdoh in toto! Defend our JNUSU and its Constitution! Resist the attack on our democratic tradition!

The JNU students’ movement is today facing a grave threat in the form of Lyngdoh Committee Recommendations. The Supreme Court stay on the JNUSU Elections is a direct attack on our democratic rights, our democratic space on the campus. Lyngdoh, if imposed, will completely crush and suppress our institutions like JNUSU and its Constitution, which has been at the forefront in the JNU student’s struggle against administration’s anti-student policies, as well as that of the Indian state. JNUSU represents our collective voice of resistance and is the most formidable platform of struggle, and we must defend its weakening or dismantling through the reactionary Lyngdoh. We need to be aware that in this planned attempt to curb our democratic institutions, the Youth for Equality (YFE) has over and over again betrayed the current collective struggle of students in upholding the JNU constitution and the democratic traditions against the stay and the Lyngdoh Committee recommendations. They presented their own lawyer on the day of yesterday’s hearing on the case in Supreme Court who supported full implementation of Lyngdoh. In subsequent all organization meetings they had taken inconsistent and dubious stands on the issue and have lied and contradicted their position. They have publicly called the previous two JNUSUs ‘illegal’ and have slandered against an ex-Chief Election Committee member. So lets isolate YFE in our struggle against Lyngdoh and in defense of the JNUSU.

But the struggle against Lyngdoh cannot be confined only to JNU. In the garb of controlling criminalization of student politics, the Lyngdoh recommendations strengthen the hands of the University administrations. In universities like JNU have a history of progressive struggles, and that has been possible precisely because the students’ movement have successfully prevented the administration from interfering in students’ affairs, and whenever such attempts were made, the students fought back. Now JNU’s student movement must spearhead the countrywide struggle against the imposition of Lyngdoh, and any compromise or confusion in this matter will pave way for the destruction of our hard-earned democratic space.

In this historic juncture, DSU appeals to the student community of JNU to speak out against Lyngdoh Committee recommendations and the Supreme Court stay of the JNUSU Elections on its basis. Come out and pass a mandate in the UGBM tonight in total rejection of Lyngdoh Committee recommendations. Only through this we will be able to defend our JNUSU and the JNUSU Constitution.

Unite for an uncompromising fight against the reactionary Lyngdoh Committee Recommendations! Join tomorrow's UGBM in large numbers!

The Supreme Court served a notice to the JNUSU and JNU administration stating that the JNUSU elections are in violation of the recommendations of the Lyngdoh Committee. Today was a hearing of the case. The JNUSU EC and representatives of all organizations had come together to respond to the situation and legal counsel was engaged to argue on behalf of the JNUSU and the student community. This assault on JNU’s tradition of independent elections is a cleverly timed one: in the absence of a elected JNUSU to lead a struggle.

Today’s verdict confirms our position expressed in our pamphlet yesterday that not informing the students about the imminent threat of Lyngdoh and not mobilizing them actively against it immediately is not a correct approach to fight this onslaught on the hard earned democratic space of JNU. In the coming days, an uncompromising struggle can be the only answer to the attack on JNU’s democratic tradition and institution.

The Blatant HYPOCRISY and BETRAYAL of Y4E: Till last night the Youth for quality (Y4E) was standing in consensus with the rest of the organizations rejecting Lyngdoh Committee recommendations in all organization meetings. Today in the morning however Justice Lahoti appeared in Supreme Court and said he was representing Y4E, and that his clients are in favour of Lyngdoh Recommendations in JNU! This immediately weakened the case of JNUSU and the Judge got a clear pretext to impose the stay order. This complete betrayal of the movement is shameful and condemnable, but is expected from the Y4E who had always been doing sectarian, unprincipled and discriminatory politics. Being pushed to wall in the AO meeting they admitted that YFE supports Lyngdoh Committee recommendations in JNU. Organizations like this must be isolated and we strongly feel that no movement against Lyngdoh can be fought in the same platform with YFE which is inviting Lyngdoh to JNU. Therefore, although DSU has been and will be a part of all the struggles that are going to be launched in the coming days in JNU against Lyngdoh and although we agree to the broad spirit of the joint statement issued by other organizations WE REFUSED TO BE A SIGNATORY TO THAT SINCE Y4E HAS ALSO SIGNED IT. The struggle against Lyngdoh is going to be the prime and most crucial challenge in the days to come and we insist that only a principled and uncompromising struggle rejecting Lyngdoh in toto in JNU and elsewhere can safeguard students’ movement across the country.

The context of the Lyngdoh Committee is one of the state’s withdrawal from education. The World Bank and its cronies are aggressively pushing for privatization of education. The Birla-Ambani report on Higher Education clearly identifies student politics as the chief impediment to privatization. A politicized student body is a stumbling block for neo-liberal designs; Lyngdoh is designed to depoliticize students and crush consciously articulated political dissent and opposition. Lyngdoh claims to be a champion of democratic space for students, directed only against money and muscle power. But the stated aim of the Lyngdoh recommendations is actually to do away with or at least limit the politicization of student bodies and the intervention of political parties in student elections. JNU has a history of struggles against fee-hikes and the privatization of education led by a politicized students union. Had it not been for the presence of a political JNUSU with clear ideological affiliations with left movements, this university would have been privatized a decade ago and many of us would not have been able to afford an education in JNU.

The use of money and muscle continues in numerous places despite Lyngdoh; because powerful ruling class student organizations can easily buy and beat their way around Lyngdoh and indeed any other law. It is the dissenting student voices that face a crackdown. In JNU if elections are free and fair, it is not because of some code of conduct but because the student body rejects lurid shows of wealth and power. The only answer to the criminalization of student politics is a pervasive politicization of student politics and NOT the regulation of student politics by the state. We must fight the imposition of the Lyngdoh recommendations in JNU and in every other campus.

We appeal to the students of JNU to come out in large numbers in tomorrow’s UGBM and participate in all the struggles in the coming days against the onslaught of Lyngdoh. We the students must give an unified mandate to decisively defeat the onslaught of Lyngdoh. This is a decisive moment in the history JNU’s student movement, and the students are called to play their historic role in defense of our democratic space, our JNUSU and its unique Constitution.

Reject Lyngdoh! Oppose the Stay on JNUSU Elections!

JNUSU EC has resigned. The old JNUSU Council takes over the charge of the Union! The UGBM scheduled on 25 October (sat.) will be conducted by the JNUSU and Chaired by the JNUSU President.

In an all organization meeting convened at 8pm today evening on 25th October 2008, the JNUSU all the Election Committee members have submitted their resignation citing their inability to continue with this year’s JNUSU election process in the wake of the Supreme Court’s stay order today. The JNUSU Council now takes over the charge as per the JNU Constitution after the EC has resigned. It is for the UGBM to decide till how long this JNUSU will continue in office, apart from deliberating and deciding on the further course of action. In this hour of grave danger and crisis to our much cherished democratic tradition and institution, we repose our faith in JNUSU to spearhead the struggle against the imposition of Lyngdoh and in defense of our democratic space. We at the same time believe that a Struggle Committee be formed with representatives from all organizations to work in co-ordination with the JNUSU leadership in mobilizing the campus community for this struggle. It is only the path of an uncompromising and principled struggle challenging the Lyngdoh Committee Recommendations as well as the Supreme Court stay order both inside and outside the court that we will collectively be able to overcome this crisis.

In a time of this unprecedented attack on the JNUSU and its Constitution in the wake of the stay order of the Supreme Court, we demand that the JNUSU:
Immediately Convene a Emergency JNUSU Council meeting!
Establish a Struggle Committee comprising of representatives of all organizations to lead the struggle against Lyngdoh and to uphold the JNUSU Constitution!

When Lyngdoh Comes Knocking…

The Supreme Court has served a notice stating that the JNUSU elections for the last three years including the present one has been violating the recommendations of the Lyngdoh Committee. The Election Committee has received this notice on the 21st of October. An All Organization meeting was called on the same day. This latest assault on JNU’s democratic institution is a very cleverly timed one: there is no elected Students Union at the moment and there was little preparedness to counter Lyngdoh. An effective struggle against Lyngdoh will be constrained by the lack of an elected JNUSU. Tomorrow (24th October) is the first hearing. Legal counsel has been engaged by a committee formed in the first AO meeting (consisting of the CEC, ex-CEC and one representative from every organization). This battle is a legal battle, but it is at the same time a political battle. It is only our political mobilisation that can influence the legal proceedings in favour of the present JNU election procedure.

However, there is no plan for a political mobilization of the students against Lyngdoh or the Supreme Court notice at this crucial juncture, and this is a cause of concern. Various organizations, including the pseudo-left SFI and ‘radical’ AISA has maintained a calculated silence on this issue. They have argued that the student community should not be informed for this would create a “panic situation”, let alone mobilizing the campus community to defend our democratic space. Both AISA and SFI believe that by remaining silent on the issue and not confronting the reality will save us from this onslaught. By doing so, they are not only fooling themselves, but also abdicating their responsibility to lead the students against the very real danger of an interim stay to the present election process. We believe that this IS a dire situation! The case will be handled by a bench notorious for giving some of the most reactionary judgments in recent memory. It is a distinct possibility that the JNUSU elections might be either stayed, or conducted according to the Lyngdoh recommendations. Earlier, the scuttling of OBC reservations, the scrapping of the offer system by the administration, and also the coming of a Nestle outlet to campus was possible because the student community was kept in the dark by the JNUSU leadership of that time. The same applies to this attempt by the state to crush the student movement in JNU. The life-blood of the JNUSU, the JNU students’ movement has always been the students. Political organizations sitting in closed door meetings have decided to withhold information from the larger student community, but this approach of surrender and compromise cannot effectively combat the threat of Lyngdoh.

The Lyngdoh Committee recommendations are highly regressive and against democratic functioning of students’ unions, because it justifies and allows for administrative control of students' elections. The fixing of eligibility criteria will result in a pro-administration and depoliticized union, for a functional union can never follow such parameters set by the university administration. The administration will have the power to cancel an elected candidate if he/she is found to have academic arrears or insufficient attendance. Students with disciplinary action against them cannot contest. Students who stand up to the establishment regularly have disciplinary action and false cases against them. Academic performance of students will also be a factor in their candidature being accepted. These and numerous other provisions constitute a frontal attack on the politicization and autonomy of student politics.

The context of the Lyngdoh Committee: The World Bank and its cronies are aggressively pushing for privatization of education. The Birla-Ambani Report on Higher Education clearly identifies student politics as the primary impediment to privatization of education. A politicized and militant student body is a stumbling block for neo-liberal policies; Lyngdoh is designed to depoliticize students and crush consciously articulated political dissent and opposition.

Lyngdoh claims to be a champion of democratic space for students, directed only against money and muscle power. It is deeply disturbing that this claim has been accepted so uncritically by “progressive” “left” organizations. A stated aim of the Lyngdoh recommendations is to do away with or at least limit the ‘unnecessary’ politicization of student bodies. JNU has a history of struggles against fee-hikes and privatization, struggles led by a politicized students union. Had it not been for the presence of a political JNUSU with clear ideological affiliations with left movements, this university would have been privatized a decade ago and many of us would not have been able to afford an education in JNU.

The claim of combating money and muscle power is a smoke screen. It is a pretext for the state to control dissent among students. It is the student wings of ruling class parliamentary parties that use money and muscle: the NSUI, ABVP, SFI (where their parent party is in power) and so on. Student politics is also a reflection of the larger politics. Administrations have nearly unlimited punitive power even without Lyngdoh; the fact is that these punitive powers are not used against ruling class elements, but students and organizations that stand against the establishment. The JNU administration chose not to punish those found guilty of the presidential debate violence, while students protesting for workers rights were served suspension notices the day after they confronted the Registrar. So if the JNU administration or any administration is given more powers, who will they be used against??

The use of money and muscle continues in numerous places despite Lyngdoh; because powerful ruling class student organizations can easily buy and beat their way around Lyngdoh and indeed any other law. It is the dissenting student voices that face a crackdown. In JNU if elections are free and fair, it is not because of some code of conduct but because the student body rejects lurid shows of wealth and power. The only answer to the criminalization of student politics is a further politicization of student politics and NOT the regulation of student politics by the state or the admibistration. We must collectively fight the imposition of the Lyngdoh recommendations, not just in JNU but in every other campus.

Defeat the Communal Fascists! Reject the Politics of Opportunism and Compromise of AISA & SFI!

The attempt to scuttle UGBMs and other democratic forums of the student community has been set in place by both AISA and SFI and this year the school GB Meetings were no different.

In SSS and SAA the convenors from SFI left the campus without informing the student community beforehand. Running away from the forums to hold them accountable has now become a tradition for SFI—in 2004 the JNUSU VP from their organization had left the campus in a similar fashion. At least that time SFI had accepted their mistake whereas this year they did not even care to clarify or apologise for such irresponsible behaviour. The school GB is both for the school to hold the elected Councillors accountable for the last year’s action (or inaction as the case may be) as well as for the students of the school to deliberate and voice the larger issues of concern. Earlier school GBs and UGBMs used to be held each semester. Now they are held only once a year. Therefore the annual school GBM becomes all the more important and SFI’s undemocratic and irresponsible politics has cost SAA the chance to have such a debate this year. In SIS the students have not seen the Councillor from SFI and one Councillor from AISA in almost any program this year. Most undemocratically the SIS Councillor and one councilor in SLL&CS from SFI did not even bother to attend the GBM.

In other schools where the debate did happen such as SSS, AISA-led JNUSU attempted as far as possible to scuttle all democratic norms. Most undemocratically common students get much less time to speak than the school councilors and JNUSU office-bearers. However, this was taken to the limit in the SSS GBM where the JNUSU president who was chairing the meeting in the absence of the convener granted himself unlimited time to speak and spoke for 33 minutes when common students were given just 4 minutes each! The logic given was that the president was responding to the questions posed to the JNUSU. However these questions had been directed to the JNUSU as a whole not just the JNUSU President and they are together given ample time to answer them. At the UGBM the students have already witnessed the extreme arrogance and indiscriminate flaunting of the ‘discretion’ of the president starting from not reading out and even tearing up resolutions at his will to putting JNUSU’s own resolutions to vote without clarifying what they meant. The SSS GBM saw an extension of the arrogance and undemocratic functioning of the JNUSU office bearers. After the GBMs are over the students community is not even informed of the names of the new EC members.

The school GBMs are increasingly being turned into just another forum to gauge the electoral support for both AISA and SFI. The practice of actively keeping students away from the debate and asking them to come only at the time of voting is deeply problematic and condemnable. In SIS, for instance, a miniscule number of students actually came for the debate but at the time of voting this number was around 150. 150 however is a very small proportion of the total school population. This clearly indicates the extreme de-politcization and undermining of democratic platforms. In SSS and SLL&CS as usual the practice of herding students in during the vote continued. Many people could not enter SLL&CS including some known AISA activists who then tried to force their way inside resulting into an unwarranted tussle among students of mainly AISA and SFI. What followed was a shameless show of desperate fighting among the activists of these two organisations in which some women activists were also heckled.

What is even more shameful is the way in which new students are pressurized to vote. New students rooming with old students as TR until they get hostel is an old practice and part of the JNU tradition. But forcing freshers to translate the ‘favour’ into organizational allegiance by voting for the respective organizations of their seniors is highly feudal practice. New students stay in other’s rooms because the administration has failed to provide them with hostels so far, particularly this year the hostel crisis is acute. But that does not give any organization the right to curb the independent political development of the new students and enforce their own organizational allegiance on them.

In SSS, SLL&CS and SIS reports presented by AISA and that of SFI in SSS were defeated by the students. Their defeat reflects the failure to convince students on their own agenda despite their desperate attempts to rally voters at the end. SFI’s politics of opportunism and betrayal of the student community is well known. However AISA, which came with a full mandate, has failed on all the issues facing the campus whether it be reservation or dealing with ABVP lumpenism. AISA’s claims that they have “forced” the administration to “name” the culprits in the Presidential Debate case is as dubious as their position on the reservation and new admission policy issue. They have given full-fledged support to the administration’s line and hence allowed the scuttling of reservation as well as seat cuts in all the schools. Through their reluctance to take up the issue of ABVP lumpenism they have allowed ABVP to go scot-free in various cases of caste and communal violence.

AISA has in the past year demonstrated tremendous ability to follow in traditions set by SFI! The scuttling of the UGBM is only one instance. When AISA talks of the ‘unholy nexus’ between SFI, DSU, NSUI, ABVP against a ‘progressive left secular’ AISA they just resonate the same flawed logic SFI used to give till a year back when they held the office. The fact is all the organisations oppose or support the Convener’s report on their own grounds and to invent or imagine ‘alliance’ and conspiracy in that is a shameless way to justify their defeats.

The progressive demands of the student community such as full implementation of the reservation policy cannot be met by such opportunism of the pseudo-left AISA and SFI. Neither can the rising communal politics of the right-wing be defeated through the politics of compromise. Politics which seeks to de-link the struggles outside the campus, such as in Chengara, Nandigram, Kashmir, Orissa and other parts of the country and struggles of other oppressed sections in the campus, for instance of contract workers, from the student movement, can never sustain a strong militant struggle of the students. It is time to build a real, radical alternative against the communal fascists as well as the pseudo-left.

DSU Press Statement for JNUSU Elections 2008

Another Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) election is around the corner. This election is happening at a time when the people of this country are the target of all round aggression of the State—in the form of anti-people economic policies, the mayhem in the market and the Hindu communal fascist onslaught on the people, especially the minorities with the active connivance of the state.

The richest of the regions of the country—Jharkhand, Orissa, Chhattisgarh—in terms of mineral, water and forest wealth, are inhabited by the poorest of people. Ever since the transfer of power in 1947, these people have been robbed several times of their rights and livelihoods. Yet again, the tribals in Chhattisgarh have become target of the worst attack of the state in the form of Salwa Judum where thousands of them have got displaced from their lands.

The worst anti-people policies, euphemistically called the ‘third generation reforms’, have become a bane for the peasantry, the toiling masses and the most deprived and oppressed sections of this country. More than a lakh and a half peasants have committed suicide. Even today despite all fan fare of the government to stem this, more and more news of the suicide death of farmers are coming from Andhra Pradesh, Vidharbha, Punjab etc. Hundreds of MOUs have been signed by the various state and central governments with the Multi National Corporations and the local compradors which is nothing but an open call to loot and plunder the valuable resources and livelihoods of the people to satiate the needs of the imperialist market.

Scared of the unprecedented defiance of lakhs and lakhs of the people of Kashmir who have thronged the streets of the Valley demanding Azaadi, the only way the so-called largest democracy in the world could respond was through brute military force. The politics of bomb blasts have become a good excuse for the communal, fascist state to make the Muslim community easy fodder for the so-called war against terror. The recent fake encounters in Jamia Nagar only exposes this communal fascist chararcetr of the indian state too clearly.

Any protests or dissent has been met with the worst kinds of draconian laws such as the ULPA, AFSPA, DAA, PSA, MCOCA, POCA etc. The bursting of the bubble of IT, ITES and tourism with the hurricane effect of the sub prime crisis, the so-called ‘high profile’ jobs of the new economy also have taken a tumble. Retrenchment is the order of the day. It is at this juncture that the present JNUSU elections are taking place.

Student politics cannot afford to remain confined within the four walls of the campus. Education, especially higher education should objectively reflect on the unfolding social realities so as to help build a society that is free from all forms of exploitation, oppression and mistreatment. DSU being committed to the politics of building a new world—free of urban-rural divide, free from all forms of national and social oppressions, of the domination of small business by big monopoly capital, free of the divide between mental and manual labour—where the interests of the oppressed, exploited and discriminated hold paramount place once again stresses the need to link the struggle of the student community for a scientific and democratic education with the everyday larger struggles of the toiling masses for fundamental revolutionary social transformation.

Campus issues: This was the first year that OBC reservation was to be implemented in JNU, as in all other campuses. Instead of the implementing 27% reservation in one go, as promised to the students by the administration, only 12 % resertvation with 18% seat increase was offered this year. But through various technical hurdles the administration ensured that not even 10% of the seat reserved for OBCs were actually fulfilled. This has been a huge step back for JNU for till last year, through the system of deprivation points, each new batch for the past few years had 20-24% OBC students. DSU has consistenly argued for the need of a vigilant student community and a millitant student union, to ensure the implementation of reservation. Once the reservation bill has been passed, the struggle for its implementation poses a long and difficult chanllenge. Unfortunately, this year in JNU the students union was not upto the challenge; at many points of time over the past semester they have compromised with the administration. They have misinformed the student community, wilfully withheld information from the students and worst of all, they have failed to live upto their radically pro-reservation claims.

This year, according to figures released by the administration itself, even the quotas for SC/ST and physically challenged (PH) students have also not been fulfilled. In fact the administration attempted to do away with PH category quota altogether and it is only due to the vigilance of the PH students themselves that 1.1% PH students finally entered the campus. It has also come to light that violation of varying magnitude in the fulfillment of SC/ST quotas have persisted over the the last many years. DSU believes that the fight to implement reservation is a difficult one and requires an uncompromising leadership. A leadership that understands reservation as a way to aggressively democratise higher education, not a leadership that bows to the law of the land no matter whether it is pro-people or not.

Last year, around this very time the JNU presidential debate was disrupted by a group of ABVP hooligans under the leadership of an RSS pracharak. These goons indulged in physical violence where some students were badly hurt, but worst of all their actions constituted a frontal attack on the, still independent political traditions of JNU. Nearly a year later, the Sankar Basu committee constituted to look into the matter brought out its report in which it unequivocally stated that the people named in the report were guilty and deserved exemplary punishment. In keeping with its hallowed tradition of sheilding lumpens, caste abusers and sexual offenders, the administration has let them off with a tame warning. The erstwhile JNUSU, on this count too, completely failed to put up a fight to ensure punishment for these lumpens.

JNU last year saw an extensive and militant struggle of workers and students on the issue of minimum wage for workers. It was a fight for the violation of workers’ rights as well as against a fight against contractor-administration nexus which is neck dip in corruption. The fight for workers’ right is continuing under the leadership of the newly formed JNU Sangharshil Mazdoor Union which the administration has refused to recognize. Many crucial demands including ensuring minimum wages in some sectors, esi/pf for all workers, medical facility are being raised by the JNUSMU for which the JNUSU must fight alongside the workers.

The gradual yet consistent efforts to corporatise education is becoming quite distinct in JNU every year. The subsidy that pours into JNU is spent in the so-called ‘beautification’ of campus while the students are faced with many pressing issues related to hostels, accommodation, infrastructure in the centers, library, health center etc. The irregularities in the financial assistance for the students remains a persistent problem and to cover it up the administration is pushing for corporate funding in many courses. We must also remain vigilant against the efforts to corporatise education and reduce it to a marketable product, available only to a handful.

The people across the country are leading revolutionary movements against the imperialist, communal and casteist ruling class of india and the world. Drawing inspiration from these movements going on in Chhattisgarh, Bastar, Orissa, Jharkhand, Nandigram ,Chengara as well as in Kashmir and the North East. We draw inspirations from these movements and are fighting to build a radical alternative in the campus.

DSU Panel:
Banojyotsna (for president)
Amrita, Kalaiyarasan, Priya Dharshini, Uma (for SSS Councilors)

Democratise the Campus! Reclaim the Union!

JNUSU is a platform of struggle to fight for the rights of the students in particular and the campus community in general. However, the Union has of late been reduced to being a silent onlooker or a defender of the administration as we have seen in recent times. No doubt, the prime enemy of the JNU students is the JNU administration, which is implementing anti-student, anti-worker policies in campus, and actively trying to curb any space for meaningful students’ politics.

The decidedly casteist character of the JNU administration shone bright this time as it actively worked against the full implementation of OBC reservation. In April this year, the students were promised 27% OBC reservation in one go. However, in May the administration overturned the agreement with the JNUSU and implemented only 12% OBC reservation. The deprivation points for OBC students (which ensured the admission of at least 20-24% OBC students till last year) was stopped even though reservation was only partially implemented. Moreover, a wait-list system was introduced instead of the offer system of admissions, due to which the number of students enrolled has come down in many Centers, and there has been an overall set-cut. The cut-off for OBC students was fixed as a merit cut off (relaxing 10 points form the marks scored by the last General candidate) rather than making it an eligibility cut-off (relaxing 10 points from the eligibility marks which is 40). In many centers there were no OBC students at all, despite reservation. This year, the violation of the SC/ST and PH quotas was also plaint to see. All these constitute a conscious attempt by the administration to turn JNU into an elite, upper caste/urban dominated university in the name of making it world class.

The perpetrators of violence in last year’s presidential debate have been let off without any action, whereas two years back students agitating for workers rights were served suspension notices just the day after the students confronted the Registrar. The Shankar Basu Committee constituted under student’s pressure to look into the presidential debate violence, found the accused ABVP lumpens guilty and recommended exemplary punishment for them. The administration however completely rejected the report and no punishment was given. Similarly, no action was taken against the perpetrators of the Chandrabhaga Hostel night violence. A handful of Sanghi lumpens is greatly emboldened by the administration’s covert and overt patronage. When seen in the context of the nationwide rise of Hindu fascism, these developments are particularly disturbing. On campus, the situation is made more acute by the absence of a militant student resistance to the communal administration as well as communal tendencies in the student community itself.

The administration tried to scuttle two DSU public meetings this year. One was a meeting where SAR Geelani was invited to speak on the condition of political prisoners, and the other where Ajit Sahi and SQR Illyas was invited to speak on the politics of bomb blast, state-terror and subsequent minority witch-hunting. The administration’s logic was that these are ‘sensitive issues’ and might invite violence! These were both meetings where attempts were made to expose the communal and authoritarian character of the Indian state and polity; meetings where inconvenient questions to the establishment were to be raised. That the administration tried to scuttle these meetings on some flimsy pretext, lays bare the authoritarian and communal character of the administration as well. Show-cause notices have been served by the right-wing senior warden of Periyar to the resident who booked the mess for the public meeting, and he has been threatened with ‘strict disciplinary action’. Despite such calculated attempts by the administration to stifle our right to expression and democratic space, large numbers of students attended both meetings and rich discussion took place in defiance of the administrations threats.

The Equal Opportunity Office, the only mechanism for dealing specifically with complaints of caste discrimination, has remained a toothless body. The recommendations of the Equal Opportunity Office are just ignored the administration and no serious punishment has been given till date to those found guilty. Last year, a student beaten up and abused on caste lines by the ABVP lumpens was actually denied admission to JNU, as were the perpetrators of violence of that incident. The student had to move to court to secure justice. Recently, in Periyar hostel, an ABVP lumpen had abused a dalit student for putting up a poster of Dr. Ambedkar, and the warden openly supported the perpetrator and threatened the victim with the connivance of administration.

The fact that JNU is relatively safe for women, is not a gift form administration but a result of students’ strugles (particularly of women students). The GSCASH is also a hard earned achievement of the students’ movement. The administration has repeatedly attacked GSCASH in direct and indirect ways to undermine it, the Ashok Mathur Committee being the most blatant instance. GSCSAH is denied sufficient funds and other technical assistance and every effort is being made to reduce it to a non-functional body. Moreover, GSCASH is not a punitive body and can only recommend punishment. It is in administration’s discretion whether to act on GSCASH recommendations, and is in fact free to ignore them completely.

There are other formidable challenges ahead of the students’ movement in JNU. A steady process of corporatisation of the campus has been taking place over the past few years, particularly in the context of the neo-liberal onslaught. The exorbitantly expensive and famously useless benches, LCD screens, classroom renovations clearly indicate an emphasis on decorative infrastructure as opposed to necessary infrastructure like hostels, books and so on. Introduction of privately funded Centres (for example, Centre for Law and Governance) courses (such as the Global Studies Programme in CSSS), and scholarships (Tata, POSCO, etc) has effectively changed the syllabi, course content as well as the orientation of research, making students more accountable to the market than the society. The university is thereby slowly steering towards privatization.

A more immediate threat to the democratic institutions of the students such as the JNUSU has come in the form of a Supreme Court Notice to JNU received yesterday which has accused that the Lyngdoh Committee recommendations has not been followed in JNUSU elections. DSU has taken a very unambiguous position against the recommendations ever since it came up for debate. The implementation of Lyngdoh recommendations in JNU will destroy the independent nature of the student elections, and will make it subject to administrative interventions. The need of the hour is to fight against the imposition of Lyngdoh in JNU both inside and outside the courts in defense of our democratic space. We need to build up a militant students’ movement and an uncompromising JNUSU to face the daunting challenges of our times.

Of Cannibal Corporates and State Terror: Singur and Beyond

The ouster of the Tata small-car factory from Bengal and their entry to Gujarat has caused a lot of heart-break among the followers of the official left. The ‘left’ intellectuals, the ‘left’ media or the social fascist CPI(M) politicians are all shedding tears at this great ‘loss’ to Bengal and the great ‘gain’ to Gujarat. However, a closer look at the ‘cost and benefit’ of this project clearly exposes the myth of such corporate-driven industrialization and their claims of ‘employment generation’. It also shows how such industrialization presupposes brutal coercion, violence and dispossession of the land and livelihood of thousands of people. This lays bare the false claims of the likes of CPI(M) that India has entered the phase of capitalism, and that the Tatas, Birlas and Ambanis represent India’s ‘national’ capitalist class.

Tata small-car project and the lies of the CPI(M) government: The CPI(M)-led Bengal government had flatly denied from the very beginning that it had forcibly acquired land from the peasants by means of coercion. People have given their ‘consent’, they claimed. Later the CPM was forced to accept in the court that it had no consent for atleast 411.11 acres of the land out of the 997.11 lands acquired. The process of forcible land acquisition and fencing off of the acquired land by the police was marked by the brutal lathi charge on the people of Singur that included old men, women and children, the implementation of section 144 in Singur for a long time, the death of Rajkumar Bhul and the rape and murder of Taposhi Malik. It also dispossessd 12000 families from their livelihood and displaced twelve families of Dobnadi village, from their homes as well. The agreement between the Tatas and the Government of West Bengal was also conveniently kept out of public knowledge with the argument that it was a trade secret! But it is not a liaison between two private corporate parties to be a ‘secret’. Surely, the CPI(M) had things to hide. The agreement actually promised huge subsidy to Tata group of industries, whose overseas acquisitions amount roughly to $14,062 (Rs 56,248 crores)! The subsidy obviously is paid out of the money of the impoverished taxpayers of the country.

The (hidden) costs of the project: Being forced by the Supreme Court, the Government of West Bengal had to make parts of the agreement public. It revealed that the Tata Motors Limited (TML) had been given around Rs. 3000 crore of government subsidy. According to the terms of this agreement, if one calculates in terms of net present value(NPV) ,the subsidy that TML gets for the land in Singur is anywhere between Rs.100 to Rs.150 crores; the subsidy due to the rental payment structure is Rs.78 crores; the implicit subsidy due to the tax holiday and the soft loan would be about Rs.1835 crores; the real estate “gift”, also known in WBIDC terminology as “infrastructural assistance”, is worth Rs.160 crores; and the subsidized electricity will cost another Rs.706 crores. So the giant Corporate Tata was gifted generously Rs.2928 crores of public money by a government that still prefers to call itself ‘communist’! And all this ‘subsidy’ or ‘assistance’ is for a factory that would produce cars for the use of the social fascist party to drive ahead with its of neo-liberal agenda of industrialization.

The ‘benefits’ of the project The CPI(M) claimed that Tata project was important on two crucial counts. It would ‘generate employment’ and it would create an investment climate for further industrialization. Both these claims however are extremely dubious. The employment claims of the project ranges from a high of 12000 (only 2000 in the plant and 10000 in the ancillary plants) to a low of 750! It was apparent that there was no certainty of large scale employment generation. Moreover, 62% of the projected employment in the automotive sector is going to be skilled labour, 28% is going to be management jobs, leaving only 10% jobs for unskilled labour. So, most of the people in Singur who have lost land, if at all they were absorbed in the plant would have been absorbed only as unskilled labourers. The people of Sanand in Gujarat will also face a similar fate where the plant is coming up now. The second prospect is also bleak if one looks at the nature and growth of Tata plants in Jamshedpur of Jharkhand. The Tatas, far from stimulating industrial growth has merely established enclave economies, as any other multinational company which loots and plunders the mineral resources for super-profits. Further, every time a capital intensive project like that of the Tatas is established, the state is expected to subsidise out of the money of the people of the country.

Looking back at the history of the Tatas: The history of the Tatas is full of labour law violations and of making windfall profits through unrestrained exploitation of common natural resources. This they did under the patronage of British imperialism during colonial period and of the Indian State after 1947. Under the garb of a liberal, ‘national’ and philanthropic company, it has been working as an undisputed leader in crushing trade union struggles and killing union leaders. For instance, in 1989, Tata crushed workers movement for wage hike in Telco’s plant in Pune by bribing union leaders and attacking those who refused to comply with it. Similarly, when about 3000 workers went on an indefinite hunger strike, Tata cracked down on the movement with help of the state government. Abdul Bari and V.G. Gopal- two senior union leaders – were gunned down while they were setting off for negotiations with the management. The massacre in Kalinga nagar in 2006 when the tribal resisted the illegal construction of a compound wall by Tata Steel on lands historically occupied by them is only one recent instance of the collusion between big capital and the Indian state. And the Tata’s big talk about ‘nation building’ and ‘industrialization’ got exposed once more when they blatantly supported Union Carbide Chairman Warren Anderson for his role in causing the Bhopal gas disaster.
Moreover, the Tatas have a glorious past of converting the so called Indian democracy in to a corporatocracy, at times even turning it in to a militocracy when people resist its killer projects. And so much is their love for Indian ‘democracy’ that since 1904, Jamshedpur (also called Tatanagar) has a corporate-owned municipality, consisting of members handpicked by the Tatas. Perhaps this is what they planned for Singur, but the heroic anti-displacement struggle of the peasants ultimately emerged victorious, with the Tatas being forced to evacuate.

Tata, Harrison Malayalam, Ambani, Birla are all the same, and so are Modi-Buddha or Manmohan: These ‘Indian’ companies are no different or better than the ‘foreign’ when it comes to looting and exploiting resources and labour, and the struggle against both these corporates is connected to the peoples’ anti-imperialist struggle. The Tata turned to Modi from Buddhadeb the moment it felt that the situations in Bengal has not yet become ‘conducive’ for it to yield super-profits. This is a clear indication that all the parliamentary parties and the big corporates are hand-in-gloves in exploiting the people to the fullest, and with the most ‘nationalist’ and ‘patriotic’ mask. Political parties when not in power often indulge in shadow-boxing with these corporates, the way Mamata Banerjee of Trinamool did in Singur. But with the first opportunity they are ready to compromise, and start to ‘please and plead’ the same corporates. With such opportunism which characterizes all the parliamentary parties including the so-called left, it does not surprise us that the CPI(M) which laid the carpets red with the blood of Singur for the Tatas in Bengal are at the same time opposing a similar project by the same corporate house in Kalinganagar. So be it the Tata in Singur or Kalinganagar, the Ambanis in Maharashtra, the Harrison Malayalam in Chengara and other big corporates in various parts of the country, the pattern and the process of ‘industrialization’ they follow are the same. It necessarily entails the dispossession of millions of people of their land and livelihoods to generate miniscule employment for some urban educated people and can only be effected through the use of extreme forms of coercion and brutal state terror. Nowhere is the consent of the actual owners of the land taken into consideration. What is promised in return of the land is the farce of ‘cash compensation’ that fails to match the actual loss to the displaced families. And all the ruling parties of various hues are competing with each other to invite more of such exploitative big capitalist projects in the form of SEZs, big dams, infrastructural projects and so on. The question is not about coaxing enough ‘compensation’ from the Tatas as AISA / CPIML (Liberation) will like us to believe. The point is to say NO to all forms of displacement, and intensify the movements rejecting the likes of Tatas, Harrison Malayalam and all other representative of the comprador bureaucratic bourgeoisie.

dsuA step back for the Tatas is a step ahead for the people’s movement against it: The Tata destroying the multi-crop high yielding land of Singur and leaving the state without completing the project is no surprise. Expecting that they would compensate for all the destructions is nothing but the inflated dream of NGOs and a complete misinterpretation of the real character of Tata and all other such big corporates. It also shows that for the Tatas, the Bengal government was not fascist enough which could not suppress the peoples’ resistance successfully enough, so that it is now going to the land of Modi. The answer to the extreme violence inflicted by corporate industrialization lies not in forcing them to compensate. The real way out of the tightening clutches of these corporates has been shown by the fighting people of Nandigram, Chengara, PosCo, Kalinganagar, Bastar, and now Singur. in Nandigram people did not allow the state machinery which was acting simply as the emissary of the Salem group (trying to materialize the project at any cost, by killing, raping, looting people) to enter till the point the project was withdrawn. In Chengara, dalits and adivasis have forced into a land illegally occupied by Harrisson Malayalam to claim it for themselves. In Bastar too, adivasis have resisted the entry of any big corporate trying to loot their land, forests and mineral resources. In Koel Karo in Jharkhand the people have physically stopped the proposed construction of a big dam aiming to generate electricity for the adjoining MNCs at the cost of displacing thousands. In Singur too, the people have finally ensured that Tata moves out. These movements are deemed anti-development and illegal by the state machinery and are being brutally suppressed. Yet they are most legitimate resistance in the eyes of the people who are fighting for their land and livelihood against the corporates, which in reality are the encroachers and looters. The Tatas stepping out of Bengal is therefore no great ‘loss’ for anybody except the CPI(M) and its lackeys, but a huge step forward for the peoples’ movements against state-sponsored corporate land-grab everywhere in the country. It is only by completely rejecting and standing outrightly against these cannibal-corporates that one can fight the neo-liberal agenda and strengthen the fight against imperialism

Defeat the Communal Fascists in the Campus! Reject the Politics of Opportunism and Compromise by AISA & SFI!

The attempt to scuttle UGBMs and other democratic forums of the student community has been set in place by both AISA and SFI and this year the school GB Meetings were no different.

In SSS and SAA the convenors from SFI left the campus without informing the student community beforehand. Running away from the forums to hold them accountable has now become a tradition for SFI—in 2004 the JNUSU VP from their organization had left the campus in a similar fashion. At least that time SFI had accepted their mistake whereas this year they did not even care to clarify or apologise for such irresponsible behaviour. The school GB is both for the school to hold the elected Councillors accountable for the last year’s action (or inaction as the case may be) as well as for the students of the school to deliberate and voice the larger issues of concern. Earlier school GBs and UGBMs used to be held each semester. Now they are held only once a year. Therefore the annual school GBM becomes all the more important and SFI’s undemocratic and irresponsible politics has cost SAA the chance to have such a debate this year. In SIS the students have not seen the Councillor from SFI and one Councillor from AISA in almost any program this year. Most undemocratically the SIS Councillor and one councilor in SLL&CS from SFI did not even bother to attend the GBM.

In other schools where the debate did happen such as SSS, AISA-led JNUSU attempted as far as possible to scuttle all democratic norms. Most undemocratically common students get much less time to speak than the school councilors and JNUSU office-bearers. However, this was taken to the limit in the SSS GBM where the JNUSU president who was chairing the meeting in the absence of the convener granted himself unlimited time to speak and spoke for 33 minutes when common students were given just 4 minutes each! The logic given was that the president was responding to the questions posed to the JNUSU. However these questions had been directed to the JNUSU as a whole not just the JNUSU President and they are together given ample time to answer them. At the UGBM the students have already witnessed the extreme arrogance and indiscriminate flaunting of the ‘discretion’ of the president starting from not reading out and even tearing up resolutions at his will to putting JNUSU’s own resolutions to vote without clarifying what they meant. The SSS GBM saw an extension of the arrogance and undemocratic functioning of the JNUSU office bearers. After the GBMs are over the students community is not even informed of the names of the new EC members.

The school GBMs are increasingly being turned into just another forum to gauge the electoral support for both AISA and SFI. The practice of actively keeping students away from the debate and asking them to come only at the time of voting is deeply problematic and condemnable. In SIS, for instance, a miniscule number of students actually came for the debate but at the time of voting this number was around 150. 150 however is a very small proportion of the total school population. This clearly indicates the extreme de-politcization and undermining of democratic platforms. In SSS and SLL&CS as usual the practice of herding students in during the vote continued. Many people could not enter SLL&CS including some known AISA activists who then tried to force their way inside resulting into an unwarranted tussle among students of mainly AISA and SFI. What followed was a shameless show of desperate fighting among the activists of these two organisations in which some women activists were also heckled.

What is even more shameful is the way in which new students are pressurized to vote. New students rooming with old students as TR until they get hostel is an old practice and part of the JNU tradition. But forcing freshers to translate the ‘favour’ into organizational allegiance by voting for the respective organizations of their seniors is highly feudal practice. New students stay in other’s rooms because the administration has failed to provide them with hostels so far, particularly this year the hostel crisis is acute. But that does not give any organization the right to curb the independent political development of the new students and enforce their own organizational allegiance on them.

In SSS, SLL&CS and SIS reports presented by AISA and that of SFI in SSS were defeated by the students. Their defeat reflects the failure to convince students on their own agenda despite their desperate attempts to rally voters at the end. SFI’s politics of opportunism and betrayal of the student community is well known. However AISA, which came with a full mandate, has failed on all the issues facing the campus whether it be reservation or dealing with ABVP lumpenism. AISA’s claims that they have “forced” the administration to “name” the culprits in the Presidential Debate case is as dubious as their position on the reservation and new admission policy issue. They have given full-fledged support to the administration’s line and hence allowed the scuttling of reservation as well as seat cuts in all the schools. Through their reluctance to take up the issue of ABVP lumpenism they have allowed ABVP to go scot-free in various cases of caste and communal violence.

AISA has in the past year demonstrated tremendous ability to follow in traditions set by SFI! The scuttling of the UGBM is only one instance. When AISA talks of the ‘unholy nexus’ between SFI, DSU, NSUI, ABVP against a ‘progressive left secular’ AISA they just resonate the same flawed logic SFI used to give till a year back when they held the office. The fact is all the organisations oppose or support the Convener’s report on their own grounds and to invent or imagine ‘alliance’ and conspiracy in that is a shameless way to justify their defeats.

The progressive demands of the student community such as full implementation of the reservation policy cannot be met by such opportunism of the pseudo-left AISA and SFI. Neither can the rising communal politics of the right-wing be defeated through the politics of compromise. Politics which seeks to de-link the struggles outside the campus, such as in Chengara, Nandigram, Kashmir, Orissa and other parts of the country and struggles of other oppressed sections in the campus, for instance of contract workers, from the student movement, can never sustain a strong militant struggle of the students. It is time to build a real, radical alternative against the communal fascists as well as the pseudo-left.

The Politics of Bomb Blasts, State Terror and the Witch-hunt of Minorities

"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act": George Orwell

The serial blasts that shook Delhi on the 13th of September which killed around 40 people gave yet another opportunity to the state to target and witch-hunt Muslims, while the sangh brigade went on spreading their communal-fascist politics of hate and violence. The mainstream media which had earlier showed its true colours during the reservation debate by carrying on a virulent casteist campaign, has once again demonstrated its loyalty to the state by parroting the police version of the incidents and contributing in the state endorsed profiling of all Muslims as potential ‘terrorists’. The media’s follow up to the blasts and the ‘encounter’ on the 19th of September, leaving two young Muslims and one police personnel dead, have conveniently remained silent on the possibilities of this incident being orchestrated by the state and the communal-fascists. The design is to increase the communal polarity and pave way for the unleashing a fresh wave of persecuting the minorities. In the long run the state also wants to bring back draconian laws like POTA which will give the state unrestrained powers to clamp down indiscriminately any voice of resistance against state policies from the people.

Who are behind the recent bomb blasts?
Significantly, in Kanpur this August, two Bajrang Dal activists Bhupendar Singh and Rajeev Mishra was killed while the bomb they were making accidentally exploded. The Kanpur SP admitted to the press that the material used (Amonium Nitrate) in making these bombs were the same as the bombs that were used in Delhi. The police have deliberately overlooked this aspect and never pursued the links except interrogating a couple of VHP activists. In the interrogations Awadh Behari (the provincial general secretary of VHP) and Vishwas Kulkerni, an IIT professor and the Vibhag Sanchalak of RSS have been named as being involved in the whole incident. The police however did not pursue these links and investigate their involvement in the subsequent blasts or any other unlawful activities.

The witch-hunt of minorities:
The state has left the RSS, Bajrang Dal and VHP scot free but came down on the Muslims without any mercy. The Jamia Nagar fake encounter of 19th September is only one among a series of pre-planned and cold-blooded murders by the state. The police cordoned off the area around Batla House, kept the media out of the main scene of action and killed two residents. One of the deceased Atif Amin, a young student from Jamia Milia Islamia is said to be the ‘mastermind’ of both Ahmedabad and Delhi blasts. As was shown in Mail Today, in between the two blasts, Atif had submitted the details of his identity proof to the police for residence verification. Will such a ‘dangerous terrorist’ who was obviously on the prime look out by the police and other agencies do such an act? Another ‘dangerous associate to the terrorists’, Saquib Nisar was arrested with the charges of assisting the ‘terrorists’ in multiple ways in Ahmedabad and Delhi. Saquib was however arrested only after he dared to talk openly in the media defending Atif, denouncing any possibilities that he could be associated with any kind of ‘terrorism’. Saquib, by the way, was in Delhi when the Ahmedabad blasts took place and was taking his MBA exams during the Delhi blasts.

The witch hunt of Muslims that followed the Delhi blasts is however far widespread than just these two incidents. The entire area of Jamia Nagar, Zakir Nagar and Batla House etc. which are mainly occupied by students of Jamia Milia Islamia and young professionals who stay as paying-guests or as tenants are currently under attack by the police in the name of investigation and interrogation. Students are being picked up indiscriminately every day and are subject to torture and harassment. The atmosphere in these areas is one of complete terror unleashed by the state. A feeling of ‘who is next’ plagues the minds of the people.

Islamophobia and the ‘War against Terror’:
The ‘terrorist outfit’ that is claimed to be behind these recent blasts is the Indian Mujahideen, which the state tells us is a break away faction or in some other versions the more radical section of the outlawed Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). SIMI was banned by the NDA government in 2001 for two years and the ban was reinstated without a day’s break in 2003. Midway to the ban the NDA government lost the elections. The UPA government after coming to power banned SIMI for the third and the fourth time in 2006 and 2008 again without a day’s break. The reasons showed for the ban were identical in both the regimes and they were extremely flimsy, baseless and without ANY concrete evidence. There were blanket charges that SIMI was in ‘close touch’ with militant outfits and supported ‘extremism/militancy in Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir and elsewhere’. That they were in touch with Al Qaeda and the Palestinian Hamas were working to establish international Islamic order, they published objectionable and provocative literature that they sought to disrupt the peace and communal harmony of India. The state claimed to have seized ‘anti-national’ campaign material and propaganda documents in the form of literature, video and audio cassettes. In no occasion however the state could provide a single evidence of all these charges in any public forum. They kept making these vague, unsubstantiated and generic allegations against SIMI. Also in much similarity to the tactics adapted by the Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels the government also took to repeating mere allegations so often that the media portrayed them as ‘truth’ without bothering for evidences and proves. In March 2001, SIMI had called public protests across India against the burning of Quran in Delhi. This was cited as an unlawful act to justify the ban! Ridiculously, the police across India have repeatedly told the courts that the use of internet by SIMI activists proves their anti-national and unlawful goals. The Maharashtra police said that the accused wanted the state to secede from India!!

During the course of these bans hundreds of criminal cases were slammed on the alleged SIMI activists across the country. Only a few were lucky to get a bail whereas most spent a year or two in jail. Some served the sentence for a much longer period. Most of the charges slammed on these people were heinous and baseless. Be it SIMI’s ex-president Shahid Badr Falahi or the Rajasthan state secretary Dr Mohammad Hasan, all had been booked over and over again on flimsy and unsubstantiated grounds to be acquitted by the court every time due to lack of evidences. However that does not minimize the harassment and torture they had faced in the course of these events or the subsequent social stigma they have suffered. These are just a few cases which have been brought into light by investigative journalists like Ajit Sahi who travelled across 11 states to look into the trial of hundreds of alleged ‘SIMI’ activists.

The list of persecuted Muslims is seemingly endless. Maulana Abdul Haleem, a cleric in Ahmedabad had been picked up after the Ahmedabad blasts with far fetched claims that he is a ‘terrorist’ without any concrete evidences. His attempts to rehabilitate some children, orphaned during the 2002 Gujarat riots to an UP orphanage had been deemed by the state as a conspiracy to send potential terrorists to UP for training in seditious activities. Maulana Naseeruddin of Hyderabad has been framed and put behind bars for his crime of ‘leading anti-Bush protests’ in the city! Such instances are abound all over the country.

JNU too is not free from Islamophobia!
Even in JNU some Muslim students have been interrogated by the police after the recent blasts. One student have been ‘interrogated’ in his hostel just because his name happens to resemble one of the ‘terror suspects’ widely circulated by the paranoid media! We know that for quite some time Kashmiri students of JNU have been targeted by the police and kept under surveillance. A Kashmiri student was very recently picked up and taken to the Vasant Vihar police station, where he was illegally detained for hours and questioned. Many students have complained that their phones are being tapped and that sleuths from the Intelligence Branch constantly follow and harass them. This is an issue which demands serious attention of the campus community, because the state is trying through these means to terrorise and silence an entire section of the students just because of their religion and identity. We must collectively resist this continued harassment and persecution of students. In this, the JNUSU must take a firm stand and raise this issue in all its seriousness.

The systematic and well thought out witch-hunting of Muslims is not just the domain of the sangh giroh. Even though it is the most fascist manifestation of anti-semitic persecution in India, the ruling class in totality is Hindu fundamentalist in nature. Empty slogans of ‘secularism’ or ‘communal peace and harmony’ is not going to counter this state-sponsored onslaught on the minorities. There is no doubt that we must demand the punishment of the perpetrators of the recent attacks on minorities. At the same time, we must also intensify the ongoing anti-feudal and anti-imperialist struggle for a decisive victory over the fascist and communal Indian state backed by its imperial masters.

SSS Rejects the Opportunism and Inaction of both AISA and SFI!

The SSS GBM this Friday convincingly defeated the two reports tabled by JNUSU Councillors representing AISA and SFI. It was clear rejection of the politics of opportunism and inaction in the last one year.

The mandate in last year’s JNUSU elections was to fight for OBC reservation, against the CPI(M)’s land grab in Nandigram, against the communal forces in campus and to take forward the struggle for workers’ rights. AISA for the first time won in all the four posts of JNUSU office bearers promising to fight for all these issues. However, a whole year’s experience have made it clear to the student community that they have repeatedly compromised in all of the above important issues, and failed to force the casteist-communal administration in taking concrete steps. The defeat of the two reports presented by AISA in SIS and SSS GBMs is a rejection of its politics of opportunism, compromise and betrayal.

This politics of AISA however is nothing new. Its parent party, the CPI ML (Liberation) abandoned the path of Naxalbari politics in 1980s itself by taking part in parliamentary politics. From that time onwards, this Party’s history is a history of degeneration and compromise. In this downward spiral of revisionism, they have aligned with the Samata Party of Nitish Kumar in 1995, which is now an ally of the same communal-fascist BJP which Liberation claims to build a broad alliance with CPI and Lok Janshakti Party. Liberation is now desperately trying to get into an alliance with CPI(M) in Bihar. But for the opportunist AISA it is all right to seek votes in the name of Nandigram and Singur in JNU.

Due to the betrayal of the Naxalbari movement and the aspirations of the people, in the last twenty years the toiling masses of Bihar have abandoned Liberation and are today standing with the ongoing revolutionary struggle. Liberation’s politics has been confined to manage a few seats in the assembly elections in Bihar by building unprincipled alliances. In the rest of the country, their politics has got reduced to managing NGOs or overseeing state-run and World Bank funded projects like NREGA. Many top-rank Liberation leaders are today running hundreds of NGOs funded by imperialist organisations like IMF and World Bank. At the same time, they do not lose one opportunity to malign the revolutionary movement in India, which has emerged as a real challenge to the ruling classes as well as to the revisionist politics of the likes of Liberation.

While Liberation represents pseudo-communists out of power, the ruling CPI(M) represents social-fascist politics in the mask of communism. SFI in JNU has proven many times in the past that they inherit the same brand of politics that CPI(M) practices in Bengal and Kerala, in Nandigram and Chengara. Being democratic and responsible is not in its politics, which is well understood by the student community. The students of SSS have punished SFI for a year of inaction and sectarianism, amply proven by the running away of the School’s convener without any intimation. CPI(M) and SFI’s real class character remains for all to see, when one hand they make big talk of fighting imperialism, at the same time killing and displacing peasants in Nadigram, Singur, Chengara in order to defend the interests of imperialist corporations. These self-proclaimed custodians of secularism portray the Muslims as terrorists/fundamentalists in Bengal and justify AFSPA in the name of fighting ‘terrorism’ in Tripura. Budhhadev’s love for Tata is no less than Manmohan’s love for Bush. In our campus too, SFI has worked as an agent of the administration. It has kept true to its history of betraying the progressive students’ movement of JNU, the agitations on Nestle, workers’ issue, reservation being only a few examples.

The rejection of AISA and SFI’s politics in SSS also brings the necessity of building a radical alternative, which will take the JNU students’ movement beyond the present hypocrisy and bankruptcy displayed by these two organisations. It is only the uncompromising revolutionary class-politics within and outside the campus that can resist the grave challenges posed by imperialist forces and its local allies, the casteist-communal Indian state.

The Delhi 'Encounter': A Preliminary Statement of the Fact-Finding Team

27 September 2008

A team of teachers, students, civil rights activists and intellectuals visited the site of the alleged encounter of the police with the 'terrorists' as claimed by them, on the 24th September 2008. Three DSU student activists from JNU were part of the team. The following is a synopsis of the preliminary findings of the team.

Of fear, terror and suspicion:
The team started its investigation at 11.30 AM on 24 Septemeber in Jamianagar area under Jamia Nagar police station. Even five days after the encounter the tension was palpable in Jamia Nagar & the adjacent areas. People were seemingly scared to talk to the fact-finding team. The stress & tension, generated after the encounter, was evident. People were nervous and requesting us NOT to mention their names under any circumstances. In the University premises the team had to face hostile queries whether we were from the media. The hostile media trial of the entire Muslim community that accompanied the bomb blasts was visible right from the premises of the university to the area of the encounter where the team visited. We felt, this is largely because of the witch hunt that ensued after the 'encounter' story of the police of two students at House No. L-18, Batla House, Jamia Nagar and the scores of arrests of Muslim youth from the vicinity. In fact, the arrests had already started right after the day of the blasts on the 14th.

In such a scenario, to instil confidence in the people was an uphill task, as they were at the receiving end of the state terror out to brand anyone daring to speak in favour of the deceased in the 'encounter' as 'accomplices' and 'masterminds' of the successive blasts in India. The police action followed by the media trial only parroting the 'official version' had created an atmosphere of fear and suspicion among the people. Whosoever the team had talked had the stamp of fear on their face.

The team had to keep in mind the feeling of incarceration and isolation not to say the terror of an authoritarian and prejudiced state that was writ large on the locality. There is definitely the palpable fear of the people of anyone and everyone picked up and framed by the police, who have a story for every occasion.

Police Siege and the wages of state terror:
To start with, the Gali where the House No. L-18 is located has been barricaded with a huge posse of police laying siege to it and the surrounding buildings. No one is allowed to enter the House No. L-18. The constables of Delhi police told us, albeit politely, that they need to ask for permission from higher authority to let us go close to the building. We are allowed after about 15 minutes. However, we were not allowed to enter the building, L-18. Rather, a man who is a resident of the house was asked to come out and give his version. As we spoke to that man a contingent of police officers, constables, plain clothes officers from special branch were surrounding us. We got this man's 'version' in the middle of all these. We also came to know, the key of the house (L-18) is with the police and they had to go undergo thorough checking whenever they ventured out or returned. Even the people staying in the nearby buildings also had to go through the police scanner. It was as if they were under house arrest. The children in the household were facing trauma-induced depression and had to resort to medical care. We also came to know, the kids missed their all important examination because of questioning by police on 19th September. They get scared of any kind of sound or noise thinking that it was a gunshot. The fear of anyone becoming the target of a vicious police action had taken over the psyche of these young minds. We also came to know two more families residing in L 18 have left the place after the encounter.

On further investigation we came to know that one family which has one woman pregnant left the house, because that woman was getting stressed under the circumstances.

The heavy presence of the police, in uniform and plainclothes, has only aggravated the situation. When we asked police personnel present in and around the area as to why the police is still laying siege to the premises the authority did not have any satisfactory answer.

It is also important to mention here, through out the process, we were followed by special branch officers. Infact, a journalist, who was not the member of the fact-finding team and a member of the team, was routinely questioned about the details of the other team members. Anyone, even from mainstream media visiting the area more than once, is called up by special branch.

The flat where the so-called 'encounter' has taken place in still sealed. The alleged seizure of weapons, laptop, etc., from the flat was done without any proper witness to the whole exercise. None of the members of the flat, not to say, of the locality was witness to the high profile 'seizure', which the police celebrated in the media. The conduct of the police was and is still shrouded in secrecy and arbitrariness that have only invited further wrath of the people. This in no way will instil confidence among the people. On the contrary, it has added further misery to their lives.

"It is a Fake encounter", say the people:
We could not find a single person in the entire locality who could agree with the story of the 'encounter' of the police. There is a complete unanimity in the opinion of the people about the one-sided nature of the firing and the time for which it continued. Further, there are some witnesses, (who would not want their name to be mentioned) who vouched that these youth who had fallen to the bullets of the police were just ordinary youngsters who had taken their career and their studies seriously. These witnesses have said that initially there were gunshots for 15 minutes. Then it stopped for a while. Then after a while the police went on firing intermittently for quite sometime positioned on the terrace and the Gali to show that it was a real encounter. In between, the police went on shouting loudly to create a feeling of real exchange of fire and project a real encounter. Later, the police declared that the encounter was successful. After the firing, the police had destroyed the flowerpots of the L-18 flat and the adjacent flats and used the pieces of the broken pots to break the windowpanes of L-18 to make it look like a REAL encounter.

No one told us about an exchange of fire. It was 'only one kind of sound', they all emphasized.

After visiting the rear and the sides of the L-18 flat, no one could have bought the story of someone escaping as there was only a single entrance, which the police had already been covering. It was impossible for anyone to jump from the fourth floor flat, as it would have resulted in near death or fatal injury. It demolishes the theory of police that two of the 'dreaded terrorists' have run away. More importantly, one of this 'terrorists', Zeeshan, surrendered to Headlines Today Channel, within hours of 'jumping and running away' from a fourth floor flat. Why will he do that - the locals ask.

There are also witnesses to three men dragged down from the fourth floor to the ground floor. None of the body of the deceased was shown to anyone. All the bodies were covered by clothes and were kept in a vehicle which was taken inside the porch of the flat.

The people of the locality are asking unanimously: Where have all the bullets gone?

Why Police is NOT allowing media to go inside L 18 and shoot and talk to people even almost after a week? Do they have anything to hide? Normally it is done within a few hours!

Why the police did not try to arrest these 'masterminds' alive? This is randomly done in India & rest of the world. In that case it could have helped the administration more. Isnt it?

Clear evidence of point-blank shots on the head of Sajid:
The photographs after autopsy of Sajid (17 year old) show clear marks of 7-8 gunshots on his head from above. These shots, which are at point blank, cannot happen in the case of an encounter. Because in case of an encounter, where the shots are fired from a distance, the wounds would open up.

Police Version of fake Tenant verification disproved

Prominent citizens of the locality have already questioned the story of the police of fake tenant verification. They have said that none of the details provided including the driving license, address, rent agreement paper were forged. The claim of the office stamp of the authority as fake was also disproved by the citizens in a press meet as they showed their own copies of tenant verification which was carrying the same official stamp. The Locals also feel, even if the forgery has been done by the owner and the caretaker of the house - NO INFORMATION GIVEN ABOUT ATIF IS FALSE. Factually, as we came to know from local people, not a single information given - whether it is about his last residence, parentage, driving license or permanent address - proved to be wrong

Mystery shrouding the death of Inspector MC Sharma:
No one is ready to believe that Inspector Mr. M C Sharma was killed in an exchange of fire.
There are several witnesses having seen him taken away by two men in plainclothes to a Santro car stationed near the Khalliullah Masjid with bleeding wounds of bullet shots on his shoulder.

It is intriguing to note as to why such an officer of importance for the Special Cell of the Delhi Police went for an operation without any protection and why he was walked all the way to the car. Moreover, the Hospital, Holy Family, which treated Mr Sharma has been told by police not to talk to press or civil society - that what we found out.

The people of the locality are asking: Why would the most dynamic of Special Cell Officers, Mr M C Sharma, would go to an operation - where he may nab the masterminds of deadly blasts - without wearing Bullet Proof Jacket?

Moreover, the police team also made sure that the 'terrorists' are hiding in that flat by sending an officer in the guise of mobile salesman, prior to sending the rest of the squad. So after confirming the whereabouts of the 'masterminds' how could a senior officer go without any protection?

Simmering tension:
Any discerning eye can make out the simmering tension pervading the entire area of Jamia Nagar and its vicinity. Everyday is passing by with a new arrest and yet another story from the side of the police. The role of the media, except a few reports in certain dailies, has more or less demonized the Muslims. More and more Muslim youths are being picked up. Even those who have gone and surrendered before the police or media have been framed under several charges. In these circumstances the people are one in saying that they are being pushed to a situation where they have total distrust of what is becoming in the name of 'war against terror'.

Fact-finding team Demands:
1. Immediately withdraw the police siege of Jamia Nagar in general and the Gali where house No. L-18 is situated.
2. Stop harassing Muslim youth under the garb of 'combating terror'.
3. Initiate a high-level judicial enquiry of the entire episode.
4. Make public the autopsy report of the two youth in the 'encounter'.
5. Make public the autopsy report of Inspector MC Sharma. There should also be a judicial enquiry into the circumstances leading to his death.
6. Press & civil society should be allowed to talk to doctors/authorities of the Holy Family Hospital
7. The State has to provide for the medical counselling of the residents of Jamia Nagar, who have been affected by this encounter
8. Police should stop releasing selective photos from CCTV cameras to Press to build opinions against Muslims.

The team comprised of Prof. Siddique Hassan, Deputy Amir Jamat-e-Islami Hind, SAR Geelani, Reader, Zakir Hussain College, Delhi University, Dr. Waqar Anwar, Jamat-e-Islami Hind, Dr. SQR Ilyas, Editor, Afkar-e-Milli, Suvojit Bagchi, Journalist, Anil Chamaria, Journalist, Dr. Karen Gabriel, Reader, St. Stephens, DU, Rona Wilson, Secretary (Public Relations), Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners (CRPP), Mahtab Alam, Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR), Banojyotsna Lahiri (JNU), Vanessa Chisti (JNU) and Sumati Panikkar (Independent Researcher)