YOU CAN CRUSH THE FLOWERS, BUT YOU CAN’T STOP THE SPRING!! Condemn the cold-blooded murder of Kishenji! Stand in solidarity with the revolutionary masses!!

As part of the counter-revolutionary war being waged by the Indian state spanning across vast swathes of the country, the central paramilitary and West Bengal state police forces have murdered a leader and politburo member of CPI (Maoist), Mallojula Koteshwar Rao alias Kishenji in a cold blooded fake encounter on the 25 of November in the Burishol forests of Jangalmahal, Bengal. The Joint forces as usual are floating the stories of ‘encounter’ and claiming that Kishenji was shot down in a ‘fierce gun battle’. However, be it the tell-tale torture marks on his body as identified by his family members and revolutionary poet Varavara Rao, or the absence of any other casualty on both sides due to the supposed ‘two hour long gun battle’, creates sufficient grounds to believe that Kishenji was arrested, tortured in custody and subsequently murdered in cold blood by flouting all the provisions of laws which the Indian state’s ‘law-enforcement’ agencies claim to uphold. “During the last 43 years I have seen a lot of dead bodies but none like this. They cut him, burnt him, then pumped bullets into him. There isn't a single part of his body without an injury. They kept him in custody for 24 hours and tortured him.” These are the words of Varavara Rao, after he saw the body of Kishenji. Kishenji’s niece Ms. Deepa Rao also points out torture marks over his body. CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta is on record as to how Kishenji was picked up a day before and killed in custody.

The manner in which Kishenji was killed bears similarities in the way Maoist spokesperson Cherukuri Rajkumar, alias Azad was killed in 2010. Azad was picked up from Nagpur railway station when he was carrying the letter of peace talks, taken to the forests of Andhra Pradesh and killed in cold blood. The fascist Indian state was once again enacting its drama of holding ‘peace talks’ with the Maoists when they zeroed down on Kishenji to eliminate him. The selective targeting and elimination of the leadership of revolutionary movements is a lesson-well-learnt by the Indian ruling classes from its imperialist masters, especially from the US.

The murder has been executed right after the new Chief Minister of Bengal Mamata Banerjee blurted out lies after lies before the media in Delhi that there is no Joint Operation going on in Jangalmahal. This is not the first time that a political representative of the ruling classes has denied the reality of Operation Green Hunt. Chidambaram has done it in the past as well. They denied when the fingers of a 2 year old were cut and the breasts of a 70 year old women were severed by their mercenary forces in Gompad in February 2010, they denied when adivasi women were raped and murdered by their forces, they denied when popular mass leaders like Lalmohan Tudu and Wadeka Singana were eliminated. Now they are once again denying that Kishenji has been killed in cold blood. Denial is what Operation Green Hunt has been all about – denial of basic right to life, to their jal, jangal and jameen for the most oppressed masses of the country, the denial of a new society.

As the Indian ruling classes celebrate what they call their biggest success in West Bengal with a jingoist media baying for more blood, its mercenary forces are once again at it for what they are known – terrorize the people of the entire area. Additional forces have been sent to Jangalmahal to counter the possibility of ‘retaliation’ on the part of the Maoists. However, they know very well that the revolutionary movement does not believe in attacks of ‘revenge’. The revolutionary movement has worked painstakingly amongst the most oppressed masses and organized them for their basic rights to life and dignity which the Indian state has denied them all along, and for a new society free of oppression and exploitation. This murder and the combing operations are the tactics of the Indian state to coerce the fighting people of Jangalmahal into submission. Houses of the villagers are being ‘searched’, their commodities have been stolen, women are being specifically targeted for harassment and many people have simply been picked up by the Joint Forces. However, the people of Jangalmahal have seen this and much more. They refused to acquiesce during the 30 year reign of social-fascist CPM. They refuse to do so now and in the future as well.

The new Chief Minister of Bengal has only intensified the fascist legacy which her predecessor CPM had perpetrated. The main “pre-election promise” of Mamata Banerjee was that she will stop Operation Green Hunt, release political prisoners and hold dialogue with the Maoists. She tried to garner support from Jangalmahal as well as from the ‘civil society’ of Bengal by trumpeting these false assurances. However, just after winning the assembly elections and fulfilling her ambition of becoming the chief minister, she predictably revealed her class character to turn against the people. The pre-meditated murder of Kishenji is a flashpoint of this very intensification. Like any other agent of the ruling classes, her agenda is the fascist repression of all dissent to her government and its policies. Her open threats, intimidation, and repression of students and democratic rights organizations like APDR clearly show the deepening crisis within the ruling classes, and the real face of the fascist Indian state. This targeted killing exposes the hoarse cry by sold-out pseudo-left organizations like CPM and CPI (ML) Liberation which croaked about the alleged ‘alliance’ of the Maoists and TMC. And past masters they are CPM has called it a genuine encounter.

A revolutionary is never buried, but sown. It is the unflinching commitment of Kishenji to work among the most oppressed and exploited, being one with them responding to the CALL OF NAXALBARI that he steeled himself as a revolutionary. An engineer by education and a former member of the Andhra Pradesh Radical Students' Union (APRSU), he along with his comrades worked among the people to propagate the revolutionary ideology of Naxalbari. Armed with invincible ideology of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism he rallied round vast sections of the masses braving the worst kind of state brutality in Lalgarh which came to be known hence as the second Naxalbari. It was the hope that he sowed among the masses who had nothing to lose but their chains that earned him the ire of the blood thirsty ruling classes. Those who sow hope never die. They are reborn in their death in the memories and struggles of the people; in the class war in which the people have seized the moment and sown hope for the future. Friends, revolutionaries never die. They live in the dreams of those who have already lent their lives for a world free from all forms of exploitation and oppression. And this is what drives mad the ruling classes. Kishenji was not just an individual, he represented the invincible ideology of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism in the concrete practice of building a new society.

Of Imperialism, ‘Destiny’s Children’ and Counter-Revolution: Expose AISA/Liberation’s Criminal Profiling of the Revolutionary Movement!

18 November 2011

Those at the top say: Peace and War are of different substance.
But their peace and their war are like wind and storm.
War grows from their peace....
Their war kills whatever their peace has left over

– Bertolt Brecht

Reading through AISA’s latest anti-DSU pamphlet (13.11.11) leaves one with little illusion on what is becoming of AISA and their parent outfit Liberation in the unfolding class struggle in the subcontinent. AISA has left no stone unturned in their latest rants at DSU — its political understanding vis-a-vis Operation Green Hunt, the Maoist movement (in theory and practice), all. Indeed, its efforts shall make every office of the anti-people Indian state and their imperialist masters proud. Reading between the lines, AISA/ Liberation’s is a quaint attempt to shape the perceptions and understanding of the subcontinent’s people (the gullible petit-bourgeoisie in particular) regarding the revolutionary peoples’ movements that are questioning the status-quo. This time, the slanderous lies are of gigantic proportions, so much so that more than responding to those wild insinuations, it is pertinent to make sense of the method in the madness indulged in by the AISA leadership. All these tirades are launched in the name of Marxism-Leninism (though one has to push oneself up the hill to believe that they are still Marxist-Leninists!). AISA and Liberation smarts themselves like the ‘destiny’s child’. For those who had renounced class struggle this is what the irony of the politics of survival inflicts on them! True to their character, Liberation and AISA project themselves as the repository of truth, expecting the toiling masses to tag on to this wishful thinking. The world, however, does not wait for ‘destiny’s children’. It moves forward with those who have seized the moment, who have refused to stop dreaming and working for a world free of all forms of exploitation, who are uncompromising in their practice in building a new world and who, hence, are in control of their future.

But then what characterises this wishful thinking of AISA and their parent organisation? Who or what has made them the ‘destiny’s child’, the ‘CHOSEN ONE’? Is there a strange coincidence between what they write and this born-again avatar? It is for anyone to see that in all their ‘criticisms’ of the Maoist movement there is little that can be discerned as class analysis. All the pretensions about their so-called opposition to Operation Green Hunt — the biggest ever military mobilisation of the Indian State against people fighting for their lives and livelihoods — falls flat as some of the worst kinds of anti-Maoist propaganda in recent memory. Whether it is the articles in their organ Liberation or the pamphlet with the authorship of Arindam Sen and his ilk—all are senile and replete with the kind of insinuations against the revolutionary movement that even the state-sponsored intelligence reports will think twice before taking to the press. Apart from the perfunctory few lines against Operation Green Hunt, the rest of their pamphlets or booklets are set aside for Maoist-bashing running amok, so much so that the claims of their opposition to Operation Green Hunt becomes sadistically obnoxious. How should we therefore understand this War Like Posture of AISA and Liberation vis-a-vis the revolutionary movement in the unfolding class struggle in the subcontinent? In all their reactionary propaganda, the underlying intention is to demean the revolutionary politics and revolutionaries as no less than criminals hand-in-glove with the parasitic corporate sector (See AISA and Liberation’s tirade of Essar ‘funding’ the Maoists) or with ruling-class politicians, or as plain and simple professional killers (pamphlet dt. 13.11.11).

More than the criticism, what irks AISA is that DSU is silent on the alleged ‘excesses’ or ‘criminal acts’ of the Maoists. AISA has the same problem with the JNU Forum Against War on People. To reiterate, AISA/Liberation’s tirade against the revolutionary movement cannot be understood as ideological/ political differences of a fellow ML organisation as it lacks nothing but class perspective! So for AISA/Liberation, you can be legitimate /authentic only if you vilify the Maoist revolutionaries. It seems that AISA is not sure about their position. They therefore want DSU as well as the JNU Forum Against War on People to also criticise the Maoists so that then, AISA’s position will become more authentic. So then what are the tangible gains for AISA/Liberation by indulging in such vilification of the revolutionary movement which has propelled the cause of the most deprived, exploited and oppressed people of the subcontinent — Adivasis and Dalits — to the centre-stage of discourse in this country? By criminalising revolutionary dissent as “mindless violence”, “militarism”, “professional killers” etc., AISA/Liberation is not going to help the vast sections of the masses. Their desperate act of separating the Maoist revolutionaries from the people as if the people have nothing to do with them (AISA on Lalgarh, Nandigram etc) is one of the cardinal propaganda principles of counter-insurgency doctrine which the US imperialists have taught all reactionary elements in the world — in South America, Africa, West and Central Asia, South East Asia, South Asia etc. And AISA expects DSU to also take such a position!

Revolutionaries as gun runners and drug-traffickers fed by predatory corporations are yet another imperialist sponsored counter-revolutionary propaganda that is peddled around the world towards criminalising the peoples’ revolutionary. All uncompromising anti-feudal, anti-imperialist struggles be it in Philippines, Peru, Algeria, Vietnam, Latin America etc., have faced the most sophisticated psychological warfare led and funded by the bloodthirsty US imperialists. On the supposed Essar funding of the Maoist revolutionaries in India, AISA has reportedly relied on a Wikileaks cable as the source. Taking the premise forward that AISA/Liberation take the Wikileaks seriously, one wonders if they do consider for their perusal another cable titled 47006: India faces growing Naxalite menace (Wikileaks cable), posted on March 24, 2011 by one Mat. The text of the cable is a confidential message from the US embassy New Delhi by the then Ambassador Mulford to the US government in 2005. This cable is instructive of the deepening tentacles of imperialist intervention in the geo-politics of South Asia. Further, it sheds light on the exact role of the so-called civil society in engineering dissensions and confusion within movements that are committed to social transformation. While reporting on the growing Maoist movement and the ways and means to counter it there is a sub-heading titled: The View from the Left which elucidates the opinion of “Journalist and political activist AS Verma [Anand Swaroop Verma], himself a former Naxalite”, now reporting to one Poloff. AS Verma urges Poloff “not to take Naxalite assertions of eternal class war at face value”.  To quote further from the cable, “If Nepal’s Maoists eventually give up armed struggle and come to a negotiated settlement, it will provide the impetus to India’s Maoists to do the same, as the chances for a Maoist victory in India are much less than in Nepal.”  The cable goes on, “Verma argue that Indian Maoists are well aware that they cannot win a class war, and intend to negotiate a settlement when conditions are right. A negotiated outcome in Nepal would provide a further impetus.” Verma further insists that for “a negotiated settlement” with the Maoists the attitude of the Indian Government towards the CPI (ML) [Liberation] – “the above ground political party formed by former Naxalites” – should change. After extensively quoting AS Verma, Mulford finally signs off with WHAT IS TO BE DONE with the “the above ground political party formed by former Naxalites” committed to parliamentary politics. To quote: “The fledgling CPI (ML) is committed to bringing the Naxalites out of the underground and into parliamentary democracy, but faces opposition from both the LF and the GOI. In order for India’s Naxalites to renounce violence, the GOI would have to treat the CPI (ML) as a legitimate political party and provide reformed Naxalites an opportunity to join and agitate on behalf of STs and SCs.” No wonder AISA/Liberation has become the ‘destiny’s child’ entrusted with a particular ‘mission’!

We are all witness to what is unfolding in Nepal. What is becoming of the erstwhile revolutionary movement of Nepal needs another detailed analysis. But it can be safely said that from these developments in Nepal we can learn the exact role of the so-called civil society mired deep in the politics of “conflict resolution”. All the mutual admiration of this so-called civil society and Liberation/AISA falls in place as their hunt is on and the game is the same — running with the hares and hunting with the wolves. With the vast sections of the toiling masses turning their back against Liberation, and stuck between CPM led Left Front (LF) and the Indian Government as Mulford puts it, one can understand their predicament. The only way Liberation can stay afloat is by being eclectic in politics, which is visible in their readiness to take any position other than that based on the thoroughgoing principles of Marxism-Leninism. The muck and mire of parliamentary politics have further pushed them into the whirlpool of degeneration, opportunism and counter-revolution so much so that they have become the ‘CHOSEN ONE’ for US imperialism! The beast has identified its’ ‘destiny’s child’ in Liberation. The bankrupt politics of eclecticism (NGO-ism) couched in empty revolutionary phrase-mongering whenever necessary is an essential manifestation of this decadent politics of Liberation/AISA. It also unequivocally explains why there is little class analysis in the assertions of Liberation/AISA when it pertains to the revolutionary movement led by the Maoists. Still if AISA is not convinced or satisfied (no doubt, they won’t) and if they still believe that they are the repository of truth, then there is one possible way to conflate this truth with reality. If AISA/Liberation is so opposed to the armed revolutionary struggle raging in the country today, they should take the propaganda they do here (in urban centres among the ‘civil society’ and other petit bourgeois sections) to the areas and the people they insist are being held by Maoists at gun point. Yes, take this campaign to all those regions — Lalgarh, the entire Jangal Mahal, Jharkhand, Bihar (Chhapra and Aara too!), Bastar, Andhra Pradesh. Also, go to POSCO, Kalinganagar, Kashipur, Manesar, Narayanpatna, Sompetta, Kandhamal and alert the struggling masses against the Maoists!

Finally, AISA’s tirade against DSU should also be seen in this context as attempts to consistently profile it as a front organisation of the Maoists. They are the nothing but the pen-wielding henchmen of Chidambaram, and are doing his job as forcefully as possible. DSU’s political activity and interventions on this campus – be it in the Anti-Lyngdoh agitation; for the full and proper implementation of SC/ST, OBC reservations; to ensure workers’ rights; in throwing out Nestle from the campus and against privatisation; for upholding the democratic space and students’ rights; against communal fascism and anti-student administrative policies – is for the student community to see and judge. It is not an exaggeration to say that had there been no DSU, the SFI-AISA-NSUI-ABVP-YFE game of smuggling in Lyngdoh Committee Recommendations to muzzle the student movement would have long been over. Moreover, AISA’s so-called ideological difference against JNU Forum Against War is pointless if one takes the trouble to go through the stated objectives of the Forum. It is not a platform to play the role of the referee to peoples’ movements as AISA/Liberation would very much want it to be. It has the single point agenda of exposing the fascist Indian state’s war against the most oppressed and exploited people of the subcontinent — the Adivasis and Dalits. The Forum has acknowledged the Maoist movement as one of the forces that has organised the resistance of Adivasis and Dalits against imperialist loot and plunder and brutal feudal exploitation. And hence is the need and responsibility to expose the covert war of the Indian state to wipe out the Maoist movement. Liberation/AISA cannot accept this fact. Nor does it want others to acknowledge this fact. And hence its tirade to mislead the student community. The reality, however, will not be changed a bit by AISA/Liberation’s refusal to see the writing on the wall! Looking through the coloured glasses of revisionism, ASIA/Liberation completely fails to recognise the stark reality of the sharpening class struggle or the contending class forces.

On every issue AISA does a song and dance about its ‘nation-wide’ campaigns, the latest being the breast-beating against the anti-corruption rath yatra of LK Advani. That this ‘nation-wide campaign’ extends from Ganga dhaba to Chandrabhaga is anybody’s guess. As media savvy as they are, AISA’s penchant for the TRP (Television Rating Point) as the pulse of the masses have made them the tail of the corporate funded anti-corruption movement led by the fascist Anna Hazare. There again, AISA saw only what the media reported about the Maoists. They never bothered to cross-check what the Maoist spokesperson had issued in writing. Despite the sharp criticism from the progressive sections, AISA/Liberation has laboured to find common cause with Anna Hazare. If TRP is the only indicator that makes sense to AISA, then Swami Agnivesh is a step ahead of AISA/Liberation with his new adventure in ‘reality’ shows! If AISA/Liberation is serious about Marxist-Leninist politics then it first has to evaluate where it stands today in the sharpening line of contradiction with the vast sections of the toiling masses on one side and the dog-eat-dog politics of US imperialism ably promoted by the feudal-comprador ruling class alliance on the other. Here there can be no middle-path. And the revolution will not be televised! It will be fought by the most oppressed, exploited and discriminated braving all forms of repression, bloodshed and cynical vilification, in the most trying conditions not of their choice but in the given historical conditions.

‘When Crooks Fight, Many Truths Come Out’! Defeat the United Assault on JNU's Progressive Students' Movement by SFI-AISA and YFE! Carry Forward the Struggle Against Lyngdoh, Privatization of Education and Brahmanical Hegemony in Knowledge Production!

17 November 2011

In a desperate attempt to hide their own pro-Lyngdoh agenda, SFI-AISA have been projecting YFE as the single enemy of the progressive students movement. Students of this campus are more than aware of the casteist and reactionary politics of YFE. Since 2008, YFE has unequivocally maintained a pro-Lyngdoh position. In every court hearing, the YFE lawyer has argued in favour of LCR imposition in JNU. It is SFI and AISA that have shed their pretensions and showed us their true colour by bringing in Lyngdoh in the name of relaxations. Over the past few weeks, they have had a series of secret meetings with YFE, a force which was politically defeated by the students through the 2008 UGBM which mandated that it be kept out of the JSC. Now, with their shadow boxing, SFI AISA are trying to give their own pro-Lyngdoh agenda a ‘progressive’ and pro-students colour.

On the issue of holding the JNUSU elections in this very semester, SFI-AISA have taken the student community for a ride and have undermined the JNUSU constitution and all the democratic processes that have evolved through forty years of progressive students struggles. Being true to their politics of opportunism and revisionism, SFI-AISA used lies and deceit to mislead students. In the process, they have consciously weakened students’ three years struggle against the imposition of the draconian Lyngdoh committee recommendations (LCR). In the last UGBM, SFI-AISA, with the support of ABVP and NSUI, passed a resolution which stated that we should initiate the process of holding the JNUSU elections as per the recommendations of Lyngdoh committee with few ‘relaxations’ given by the Amicus Curiae Gopal Subramaniam. These so called relaxations in no way weaken the draconian character of LCR, whose main agenda is to control the organised students politics in campuses in order to facilitate the privatization of higher education and to further fortify the control of brahmanical forces in knowledge production. The ‘relaxations’ SFI-AISA hail as ‘victory’ from the rooftop are nothing but insignificant technical relaxations. The important clauses of Lyngdoh remain intact—the restrictions on public meetings and political debates, the establishment of the Grievance Redressal Cell which not only gives immense power to the Administration to intervene in and control the election process but also turns the very students union as a puppet one at the beck and call of Administration .

Following the last UGBM, the pro-Lyngdoh SFI-AISA initiated the process of holding the JNUSU elections by forming the Election Committee through school GBMs. One month has passed since they hurriedly conducted these GBMs without allowing any debate or discussions. These flagbearers of LCR went to the extent of implementing LCR even before they completely surrendered to and officially invite the LCR. Till date, they are completely silent about what happened to the election process that they initiated and the EC that they formed. According to the JNUSU constitution, the EC should complete the election process within the four weeks of its formation. SFI-AISA have time and again undermined democratic processes and the JNUSU constitution. On the 20th September, when they realised that majority of the students are against their design to bring Lyngdoh in this campus, SFI-AISA in a highly undemocratic manner tried to stop an ongoing UGBM. Undermining the mandate of this UGBM, which rejected the LCR in to-to, these pro-Lyngdoh forces along with other right wing organisations went running to get some ‘relaxations’ from the Amicus Curiae.

Pro-Lyngdoh SFI-AISA simply lied to the student community about ‘negotiations’ and  ‘relaxations’ in order to pass their resolution in the last UGBM. The Amicus Curiae has never even given any commitment to argue in favour of these so called relaxations. In the last two hearings in the Supreme Court, Gopal Subramanium presented to the judges the opinions of both YFE, which wants imposition of LCR in to-to, and of the SFI-AISA-ABVP-NSUI which want LCR with few ‘relaxations’. We know very well that there is not much difference between SFI-AISA and YFE position. Through their deceitful touting of the relaxations as pro-students, SFI-AISA are trying to mislead students. But this nefarious agenda must and will be defeated by the progressive students of JNU. We must unite in our efforts to carry forward the struggle against Lyngdoh, privatization of higher education and the brahmanical and casteist forces.

Reject JNU Administration’s Letter Seeking Permission to Provide Personal Information of OBC Students! Demand Immediate Stop to the Process in Larger Interest of Upholding Social Justice!

17 November 2011

OBC students who have taken admission in JNU since 2007 have received a letter from the administration. The letter issued by the Information Officer of JNU administration seeks permission from the OBC students to provide personal information including father’s name, registration number and home address to a third party who has filed an RTI with the administration. The RTI applicant has also sought the caste certificates of the OBC students. In its letter, the JNU administration has asked OBC students to communicate their ‘objection’ or ‘no-objection’ within a period of ten days. The letter also states that in case of no response from a student, s/he will be considered as having no objection to the provision of information.

According to the RTI Act, while the consent of the OBC students can be sought, the ultimate decision on whether or not to give the information rests on the Information Officer of JNU. The act says, “Provided that except in the case of trade or commercial secrets protected by law, disclosure may be allowed if the public interest in disclosure outweighs in importance any possible harm or injury to the interests of such third party.” The authority is supposed to make this judgment within forty days of filing of the RTI. In this case the Information Officer of JNU has to take the final decision. When a joint delegation of many organizations met him, he accepted that the decision and responsibility is ultimately his.

In the name of adhering to the letter and spirit of the RTI Act, JNU administration has shown remarkable promptness and readiness to provide the personal details of OBC students. Over the course of the struggle to implement 27% OBC reservation, we have seen how this administration has time and again taken extremely reactionary and casteist positions. Even when the historic Delhi high court judgment rejected the Administration’s faulty criteria of ‘merit’ cut-off which denied admissions to many OBC students, and instructed the Administration to bring out a fresh list of OBC students, the JNU administration did not show even 1% of the promptness and readiness they are showing right now. With administration clearly taking sides and parroting the logic of reactionary forces like YFE, the entire progressive sections of JNU community, including members of faculty came together to force this administration to implement 27% OBC reservation over a three-year long struggle. Still with the slightest of pretexts this administration tries and scuttles the whole process.

We have no reason to trust this JNU administration, which is communal, casteist to the core. Given the casteist and reactionary track record of  JNU administration in the implementation of 27% OBC resevation  and in absence of any satisfactory clarification that why such information is being sought and by whom, DSU appeals to OBC students  to reject this farcical letter sent to them seeking their permission with resounding NO! DSU also appeals to the entire student community to come together and collectively demand that in no circumstances JNU administration should provide such personal information like house addresses, registration number etc. which can be used against the interests of the students coming from  deprived background and the struggle for social justice.

DSU Public Meeting: Damning the Dam: Peoples’ Resistance to Polavaram

15 November 2011

Polavaram Project is a plan of construction of a mega-dam on the river Godavari to irrigate Coastal Andhra and the dry Rayalseema region of Andhra Pradesh (AP). On paper it is a multipurpose project with promises of hydro-electricity production and navigation through two canals built on both sides of the Godavari connecting North Telangana with the coastal belt. Named after the town closest to the site of the construction, the height of the proposed Polavaram dam is 150 ft. The catchment area of the dam stretches along Sarbari river, a tributary of the Godavari, and covers a vast area extending to the borders of Jharkhand and Orissa. According to official reports, at least 276 villages lying along this vast mineral-rich tract that include irrigable and non-irrigable land will be submerged due to the construction. This ‘developmental’ project aimed at extracting the natural resources of the region is going to dispossess and displace at least 2.8 lakh people, overwhelmingly adivasis. This area is notified as a ‘Scheduled Area’ by the Indian government and is inhabited by tribal communities like Koyas and Konda Reddys. If this project comes up, their existence itself will get jeopardized. And that is why the adivasis of North Telangana are today at the forefront of the peoples’ movement opposing the Polavaram project. According to them, the government data on submergence affecting the lives and land of the adivasis is highly flawed. It does not correspond to the grim reality of the destruction to be caused by the project. On the Godavari valley, even at the time of normal floods most of these 276 villages get completely flooded. Now with the construction of the 150 ft dam, more than 300 villages will be completely destroyed and will displace close to3.5 lakh people.
 
The proposed Polavarm dam is not a new ‘development’ project. It was proposed way back in 1940s as a part of the plan to divert ‘surplus –water’ of the Godavari to Krishna river. However, with the budget soaring high, the project was dropped at that time only to be revived momentarily in 1985 by the AP government. However in 2004, Y S Rajsekhar Reddy’s government rediscovered the ‘benefits’ of the project and aggressively pressed for it. Since then the Polavarm project has been synonymous with the trampling of peoples’ rights. AP government has shown little interest in taking the opinion of the people who are going to get affected by this project. In most of the cases the opinion of the gram panchayats has been bypassed. Places where the state has reported to act with the consensus of the villagers, heavy presence of state machinery with high-ranked bureaucrats and heavy deployment of police have ensured that some of the villagers have been coerced into giving their ‘consensus’. Villages which passed resolutions opposing the project are being targeted by the state’s police force. It is anybody’s guess what kind of democratic decision-making rights the adivasi villagers enjoy in this so-called ‘biggest democracy of the world’. Ration cards and other entitlements are withheld when villagers objected to give up their land for the project. Threat & persecution coupled with promises of ‘fair compensation’ are strategies that are being used by the state to manufacture ‘consent’ and acquire land.

Big landlords have been awarded with large amounts of compensation for their land are more than willing to part with the land which they never work on themselves, because they always have other source of income to fall back upon. Absentee landlords owning lands of three hundred acres and more are not uncommon in this region. This brings into light the feudal-comprador nexus and its continuing grip over the impoverished population of the region, mostly consisting of adivasis bout also belonging to the oppressed castes. The project has been pursued so vigorously because it is going to be a big financial incentive for the feudal forces and the comprador capitalists of the region. They are the ones who rule from Hyderabad and Delhi, and make all decisions such as Polavaram ‘on behalf of’ the people, even though such decisions are totally opposed to the interests of the vast majority of the people. The haste and secrecy in which the regional ruling classes comprising of both coastal Andhra and Telangana have acted in the last four years to carry out the project clearly exposes the lies behind AP government’s promises. The two canals dug up on either side of the Godavari as a part of this project connects the mineral-rich areas of Bastar in Chhattisgarh, parts of south Odisha and North Telengana with the Coastal belt of AP. These canals are aimed at facilitating the looting and plunder of the mineral resources of this remote region by the Indian and multinational corporations which will then be cheaply shipped out of the country from the coast of AP.

Polavaram project is yet another example of the systemic exploitation of Telangana region by the coastal Andhra ruling classes. 80% of the river Godavari and its waters come under the Telengana region. With this project, AP government wishes to create irrigation and electricity for Coastal Andhra and Rayalseema region at the cost of the people of Telengana. The people of Telangana are totally opposed to this project. Yet, AP government revived the project precisely at a juncture when the fight for separate Telengana has got intensified, as if to declare that Telangana and the adivasi people have to pay the price for the ‘development’ of the coastal Andhra feudal-comprador forces.

As the peoples’ movement against Polavaram intensifies, the opportunist character of the parliamentary parties which shed crocodile’s tears for Telangana too stands exposed. People are aware that all parliamentary parties have a stake in the Polavaram project, connected as they are to corporate money and big contracts. Congress, BJP, TDP, CPI(M), and even Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) which claims to lead the Telangana statehood struggle are actively working in favour of the project eyeing for the huge money involved in it. Some of them have occasionally objected to the ‘corrupt’ manner in which tenders are being floated and accepted, demanding better compensation for the displaced, better assessment of the cost to be incurred for the project, and so on. However, none of them have forthrightly objected to the project and stood in solidarity with the people’s demand to scrap the proposed project. In 2006 the movement was sought to be dissipated by the leadership of the parliamentary parties and NGOs with false promises of fighting the case in the court. The futility of such a course of action has been proven by now in case Polavaram, as has been with the Narmada project and numerous others. The anti-people Polavaram project can be resisted only through a militant struggle, the path of which has been shown by Nandigram, Lalgarh, and by following the revolutionary legacy of adivasi leader Komaram Bheem fighting against the feudal oppression of the Nizam. Moreover, the people’s aspiration for a separate Telengana free of oppression and exploitation can only be realized by recognizing the marginalized people’s demand for justice. DSU calls upon student community to come and participate in tonight’s public meeting in large numbers and stand in solidarity with the people fighting destruction, displacement and looting and imperialist agenda crouched in the so called  ‘development’ package.

 

Long Live Progressive Students’ Struggle! Expose and Defeat the Politics of Opportunism and Betrayal!

12 November 2011

On 8th Nov, Tuesday, JNU administration was finally forced to withdraw the authoritarian circulars issued against JNU Forum Against War on People, that virtually banned the platform from functioning in the campus. For last six months, the JNU Forum, with active participation of students and teachers, battled with administration against the ban and for students’ right to freedom of expression and right to dissent. On Tuesday, the 5th day of the indefinite hunger strike, a teachers’ delegation met the VC in solidarity with the Forum’s struggle and pointed out that the administration is violating all democratic ethos and the sensibility that JNU is known for. Students too once again came together in a protest demonstration to voice their grievances in solidarity with Forum. The administration finally yielded to JNU Forum’s demand and revoked the ban by late evening of the same day. This is a victory not only for the Forum but for the entire students’ community standing united in defense of campus democracy.

This victory is historic precisely because of the time in which it has been won. The ban on JNU Forum is not simply an issue for one particular organization. Banning is actually one of the most repressive expressions of authoritarian and anti-student policies that JNU administration keenly seeks to employ in this campus. By preventing students from screening certain films on the pretext of them being ‘anti-national’ movies; locking up the JNUSU office and not allowing public meeting in messes like in Periyar or Tapti; restricting students from entering and utilizing their own spaces; attacking and branding organizations struggling against Brahminical hegemony as ‘casteist’—the JNU administration is trying to actively intervene in and control and restrict students’ politics. JNU Forum’s victory is therefore a resounding NO to this sort of administrative crackdown. Forum’s struggle and this victory are immensely important because they have come at a juncture when Lyngdoh is threatening the very fabric of democratic space, by seeking to turn the campus into a depoliticized one. Forum’s movement reiterates the fact there is no short-cut to democracy. The history of this campus shows that the relatively democratic and progressive character is a result of sustained and uncompromising struggles. Forum’s struggle is a part of this longer history.

Being true to the class character of their parent parties, ABVP, NSUI and SFI support Operation Green hunt, and therefore did not oppose the ban on JNU Forum. True to the nature of its own parent party, AISA, once in a while still claiming to uphold Marxism-Leninism, in reality practices NGOised politics. This NGO politics of AISA is most clearly visible in its stand on Operation Green hunt—opposing Operation Green Hunt in rhetoric but legitimizing and strengthening the anti people policies of state in actual practice. By demonizing the revolutionary peoples movement, AISA tries to maintain a neutral position, knowing fully well that it thereby strengthens the state, corporate and feudal forces. In this campus, too, AISA was initially part of the JNU Forum. But the moment there was an attack on the Forum by the Administration and the right-wing, it not only distanced itself but also branded the Forum as a “Maoist” front! It thereby tried to provide more ammunition to the Administration for its crackdown.  Although AISA, the trusted agent of ruling classes in this campus, participated in the hunger strike called by Forum, it did so because of its opportunistic calculations to gain the legitimacy it has lost time and again. The history of AISA in this campus is a history of compromises, betrayals and opportunism. We don’t need to go too far in the past; the student community is witness to the revisionism and opportunism of AISA, which was at its peak in this very semester. AISA and its parent party CPI [ML] Liberation endorsed and actively participated in RSS backed and corporate funded ‘movement’ against corruption. On the issue of holding JNUSU elections, AISA betrayed the three years of struggle of JNU students against the imposition of draconian Lyngdoh committee recommendations and forged an alliance with SFI, ABVP and NSUI in order to facilitate holding of JNUSU elections according to Lyngdoh guidelines with some insignificant relaxations.

Right-wing forces like NSUI, ABVP and SFI stand opposed to any real democratization that will come with genuine progressive students’ movements. They seek to reduce student politics to the mere ritual of ballots and counting. Compromising the movement against Lyngdoh in this campus, AISA, the junior partner of SFI, proactively sought to bring Lyngdoh into campus. However, in the course of Forum’s struggle, AISA sought to reinvent itself (as usual), posturing as champion of genuine students’ struggle for campus democracy. DSU would like to ask AISA: Don’t you know that Lyngdoh is the biggest threat to student politics and democracy in this campus? If so, then how can you facilitate Lyngdoh in the name of bogus ‘relaxations’  (with the most important clause of Grievance Redressal  Cell, among many other undemocratic clauses, which gives the administration complete authority to monitor and control students’ Union activity, still in place)? Don’t you think that for a progressive student politics, across campuses in the country, we must uphold and continue the uncompromising struggle of the students of this campus for JNUSU election as per JNUSU constitution? The fact is simple. AISA’s presence in the recent struggle of JNU Forum has nothing to do with any solidarity for genuine students’ demands.  It is their compulsion to hide their real politics of opportunism, which is servile to right-wing forces like SFI and others. They now and again need to talk about students’ rights and struggle, only so that they can betray it in due time.

AISA has joined hands with right wing forces such as SFI, ABVP, NSUI and YFE in order to pave the way for Lyngdoh in JNU. All these forces have repeatedly undermined the JNUSU constitution and betrayed the 40 years history of progressive students struggles in JNU. SFI AISA are currently shadow boxing with YFE. However, there is no difference between them. YFE, SFI and AISA are all united in their pro Lyngdoh agenda; the only difference is that SFI-AISA wish to save their faces by bringing Lyngdoh in the name of irrelevant relaxations.  In the last one month, they had rounds of secret meetings with the same casteist YFE which was kept out of the anti-Lyngdoh struggle through a 2008 UGBM resolution. SFI-AISA’s shadow boxing with YFE is a compulsion to hide their degenerate and opportunist politics. The fact is: YFE’s pro-Lyngdoh position have remained constant; whereas SFI AISA have now given up all their pretensions and joined hands with YFE in order to betray the students movement. DSU appeals to the students community to be vigilant against the nefarious designs of SFI-AISA and YFE to facilitate Lyngdoh one way or the other. We need to intensify our struggle against Lyngdoh and the privatization of higher education and brahminical hegemony in knowledge production.

DSU Public Meeting: Not AFSPA but Azadi is the Central Question in Kashmir!

 

The recent excavation of series of mass graves in Kashmir was yet another bone chilling and unrefutable evidence of the horrors of the army occupation of the valley by India. It once again sparked off protests and pitched debates internationally. The charred, tortured, mutilated bodies of people who have ‘disappeared’, ruthlessly dumped in those pits, were mute yet eloquent evidences of the horrors with which every single Kashmiri is forced to survive under the occupation. Put into the backfoot in the face of the uncompromising struggle of the Kashmiri people, the Indian ruling class and its Kashmiri agents are forced to make some ‘concessions’ to quell the newly pitched debates and protests. Conveniently they have located AFSPA, the draconian law that provides complete impunity to the horrible Indian army, as the problem. The propaganda that this discourse around AFSPA seeks to create is that the army and para-military, otherwise good, have done some ‘excesses’ taking advantage of this act. However, they are not talking about repealing AFSPA. That remains out of question! They are projecting AFSPA as redundant in some areas and therefore it can be ‘relaxed’. No one suggests withdrawal of troops from Kashmir too. Because that will bring us to the fundamental question of why such massive presence of armed forces is there in Kashmir in the first place? Everyone is aware of the reason behind it. Jammu and Kashmir has been forcefully occupied by India since 1947. To fortify this occupation the valley has been turned into the most militarized zone of the entire world. The Kashmiris, right from the beginning, have never accepted this unjust and brutal occupation and have been fighting tooth and nail against it. To quell and suppress their heroic fight for independence, the number of Indian forces multiplied and AFSPA became a necessity for the forces and the ruling class. To see AFSPA as the central problem in Kashmir is simply to put the cart before the horse. It is simply another smokescreen to cover the REAL issue, which is the historically denied and militarily suppressed independence of Kashmir!

It is not AFSPA but the occupation of Kashmir by India which is providing the main impunity to the bloody Indian army in Kashmir. Historically world over the occupying forces always sustain their coercive rule through brute forces. In Kashmir and North East, AFSPA has given unlimited power to the army to ruthlessly suppress all attempts of strike back by the people. But the army has been sent there to secure the occupation with the consent and active execution by the entire ruling class of India. And time and again we have seen the ruling class machinery safeguard all acts of miscreants and brutality of the armed forces. The innumerous illegal torture chambers in Kashmir run by the same armed forces are not unknown to the Indian ruling class or their Kashmiri counterparts. The routine ‘crackdowns’ in the villages, the daily harassment of people, the severe restriction on mobility, the fake encounters, the tortures, the rapes, the murders, the ‘disappearances’ are all done with the active support and complicity of the same ruling classes. In Kunan Poshpara around 50 women were gang raped by the army in front of the men who were tied up. It led into an international outcry of protests but the judiciary and the entire ruling class machinery ganged up to give complete clean-chit to the rapists. Same story was repeated in Shopian where the ruling class version suggested that Asiya and Nilofer were not raped and killed by the army but had drowned in a knee-deep canal! In every case of grenade attacks on civilians, the people of Kashmir routinely have alleged that the armed forces are behind it. But the ruling class versions, faithfully parroted in the corporate media, hold ‘militants’ responsible for the attacks. It is simply impossible in Kashmir to lodge any case against the atrocities of the armed forces, not because of AFSPA but because the state machinery squarely refuse to acknowledge atrocities. Everything is ‘legitimized’ by the occupation. Will all this change if AFSPA is merely ‘relaxed’ from some areas?

Each and every parliamentary party in India has been complicit in the ruthless occupation of Kashmir. For all of them Kashmir is an ‘integral part of India’. And for all of them the movement for Azadi in Kashmir is Pakistan backed ‘Islamic’ movement which must be suppressed for the sake of ‘national integrity and security’ of India. By portraying the debate such, what they completely displace out of the picture is how historically Indian forces occupied Kashmir through subterfuge, deceit and military strength. Way back in 1948, the first Indian Prime Minister Nehru himself had spoken in favour of a plebiscite in Kashmir. However, such promises, specially in the context of Kashmir have always been meant to be broken by the Indian ruling classes. ‘Democracy’ remains a fry cry in Kashmir, and a country which administers the world’s largest military occupation cannot continue to call it such. One cannot forget the completely rigged 1987 elections, in which Kashmiri patriots were replaced by Indian puppets.

The Kashmiris, however, have not remained passive victims of Indian repression. To cast them such would be to elude their uncompromising struggle for Azadi, which right now has drawn sharp lines between their friends and enemies. In the campus also, these lines are sharply drawn and the two pseudo-left organizations, SFI and AISA stand completely opposed to the right of the Kashmiri people to self determination including the right to secede. In the past few days, the campus has seen these two organizations trying to offer ‘perspectives’ on Kashmir in the light of this ‘renewed’ debate. While AISA, notorious for not taking positions on any people’s movement, wants a political solution acceptable to the Kashmiri people to be ‘found and sought’, as if there is STILL any unclarity as to what the Kashmiris want; SFI on the other hand, much like the puppet chief minister of Kashmir, wants a partial revocation of AFSPA! However, the Kashmiri people have seen enough of stooges of the Indian state to even take these two spent, irrelevant forces seriously. The flames of liberation struggle in Kashmir shall wipe out all these stooges of the Indian state, and all Marxists, as Comrade Charu Mazumdar pointed out, should stand in solidarity with the valiant fighters of Kashmir.

DSU Public Meeting

Not AFSPA but Azadi  is the Central Question in Kashmir! 

Speaker:  Dr. Sheikh Showkat Hussein

Dept. of Law, Kashmir University        

9.30pm | 13th November | Kaveri Mess  |  JNU

Stop Administrative Crackdown on Our Right to Dissent and Freedom of Expression! Revoke the ‘Restraint’ Order on JNU Forum and Withdraw the Disciplinary Action on Students!

2 November 2011

The series of repressive and authoritarian measures taken by the administration targeting the student community in this year after the present VC has taken charge is quite unprecedented in the history of the campus. First was the set of two circulars in the month of May which ‘restrained’ all activities of JNU Forum against War on People as a punishment for using an image which artistically depicts state repression and peoples’ resistance against Operation Green Hunt. Such an act of ‘restraining’ of an organisation has never been heard before in the campus. Soon after, the administration locked the JNUSU office in order to prevent the Forum from conducting a public meeting. This again was an act without precedence in the forty years JNUSU’s history. Then making an excuse of the ‘restraint order’, two Forum members have been arbitrarily fined for ‘facilitating’ a subsequent public meeting. Similarly, many other students have been individually targeted, threatened and intimidated by the administration for associating with the Forum’s activities. This is followed by sending a show-cause notice to an office-bearer of AIBSF for reproducing sections of a scholarly article in its poster which exposed the dominant Hindu-brahminical ideology inherent in the Durga-Mahishasur myth.

All these dictatorial administrative acts of suppression and crackdown run totally counter to the much-cherished democratic culture of JNU where freedom of expression, criticality of thought and voices of dissent which are not only respected but also encouraged. Its political culture and democratic space has been a result of decades of struggle by the students and teachers of this university, which are now under unprecedented attack from an administration which has proved itself to be out-and-out communal, casteist and reactionary. The administration is increasingly becoming intrusive in student’s matters and specifically interfering in progressive students’ politics in an effort to police and ‘discipline’ the students according to its own benchmarks. This is while allowing full freedom to the ABVP’s sangh-giroh to indulge in blatant acts of targeted violence and communal hate-speech. The unprecedented assault by the administration is not a threat to just one or two organisations, but is a crackdown on the collective rights of the entire student community. So it must be confronted in a similar manner – by building broader unity and through mass participation in the ongoing resistance. 

Resist the Administration’s Witch-Hunt of Students’ Organisations and Attack on our Democratic Rights!

A mere change in the composition of the administration does not change its character. Though there was a change of VC early this year, the JNU administration under S. K. Sopory remains equally communal, casteist, authoritarian and anti-student as it was under the tenure of the infamous BB Bhattacharya. A series of events in the past few months have decisively proved that.

In May, the administration took an unprecedented step of ‘restraining’ an organization. JNU Forum against War on People has been virtually banned for the past few months. Using the pretext of a campaign slip which used a widely-used image downloaded from the internet – even used on the cover of booklets and prominently displayed in many websites – a proctorial ‘enquiry’ was imposed on the organization. This pre-judged farcical enquiry (or the kangaroo court headed by the chief proctor Bohidar) is apparently ‘continuing’ for months. They stopped the Forum from holding public meetings in the mess or other places which has to be officially booked, and tried to stop it from printing and circulating posters/pamphlets in the campus. When the Forum did a public meeting in JNUSU office which does not need any booking or permission from the authorities it administration locked the JNUSU office itself. It had to bow down after student’s protest and reopened the JNUSU office, only to target Forum members later on by sending show-cause notices and imposing arbitrary fines on them. Two of the Forum members have been fined Rs.3000 each by the administration on the charge of ‘facilitating’ a meeting of the Forum at the JNUSU office, whereas these members had merely entered their identity card details in the register with the guard at the JNUSU office as per the norm.

More than 2000 students had demanded a stop to this unjust and malicious persecution of the Forum by the administration, and around 50 eminent JNU faculty members reiterated the same demands in writing. However, no democratic opinion of the campus community deters the administration, because as the VC himself admitted, this administration is accountable not to the students or the teachers but to the diktats of the home ministry! This exposes the real face of the ‘autonomy’ of this ‘world-class’ educational institution. The home ministry has used all possible weapons to gag the voices of protest or opposition to Operation Green Hunt all over the country, and the JNU administration is playing the role of loyal foot-soldiers of the Indian state’s extermination campaign.

The issue of censorship has not remained confined to the Forum alone. During Durga puja earlier this month, AIBSF reproduced in its poster a scholarly article by Prem Shankar Mani which was published in a regular magazine. Interpreting the Durga-Mahishasur myth from the perspective of the oppressed castes, the author showed that the killing of Mahishasur by Durga in reality symbolizes the victory of the Hindus and their dominant castes over the exploited people resisting their domination. Such mythologies celebrated in Hinduism and Sanskrit texts elevate the brahminical castes to the status of gods while relegating the others to that of demons and evil forces. The article presents a set of well-articulated and historically verifiable arguments challenging the dominant and reactionary representation as well as pejorative profiling of oppressed castes and tribes in Hindu-brahminical rituals and their historical subjugation. The symbolism in these Hindu rituals can also be seen as representative of the class struggles of the past in which the victorious ruling power not only annihilates the exploited classes physically, but also banishes them from history and from cultural representations, or presents them in extremely negative light.

The poster on the Durga-Mahishasur myth initiated a much-needed debate on campus on an issue that has been systematically silenced. However, the ABVP goons sought to seal the debate by not going into any arguments (being well aware of their inability to debate) but by assaulting a couple of AIBSF office bearers. The same goons tore down posters and attacked students participating in a mess campaign the following day. Administration was duly intimated; complaint was lodged and a protest was held. It assured students of prompt action, but so far no action has been taken against the identified ABVP goons, all of whom have a history of perpetrating lumpenism, sexual harassment and violence. Instead, the administration issued show-cause notices to the AIBSF office bearers and ran a smear campaign against them in the media. The excuse used by the administration is that ‘It has hurt religious sentiments of students’. Under the garb of defending ‘religious sentiments’ the administration has defended the ‘sentiments’ of Hindu-communalism, brahminism and class oppression reproduced through the Durga puja ritual, and sought to silence the voices which critique this symbol of oppression. By punishing students for publicising an article that challenges the religious ideology propagated by the past and present ruling classes, the administration of our ‘premier institution’ has once again reinforced the hegemony of brahminism that legitimizes suffering and humiliation of the oppressed people. The administration has also exposed its aversion to freedom of expression and ‘liberal principles’ by taking no action against ABVP goons, its fellow defenders of ‘religious sentiments’!

The administration remained unmoved when ABVP recently brought out a highly communal pamphlet denigrating the Muslim religious minorities, their religion and prophet, as well as the people of Pakistan and Bangladesh. The pamphlet was similar to the hate-speeches of the Narendra Modis, Varun Gandhis and L. K. Advanis. It spewed offensive insinuation, insult and wild allegations against Islam and the Muslims. JNU administration – defender of ‘religious sentiments’ – however remains unperturbed. It was only a large student’s protest that forced it to take action against students responsible for the pamphlet. Though two members of ABVP were suspended, a mere application from them prompted the administration to revoke the suspensions.

The administration is not a ‘neutral’ authority but it represents the ruling-class interests in the university. And we know whose class interest the Indian state is fulfilling through Operation Greenhunt or Salwa Judum and its variants in different states. If JNU is any different it is not for the administration but for the progressive struggles of the students. The administration is already threatening us with the weapon of Lyngdoh. But the administration will not stop at using Lyngdoh and other authoritarian powers it wield to curb the democratic process of JNUSU elections alone. It’s intent of clamping down on every form of dissent that challenges the status-quo or questions the powers-that-be. The series of attacks on students’ politics and freedom of expression will be followed by the imposition of a model of education and research that discourages and prevents critical thinking. Afterall, a depoliticized JNU with a pliant students’ union is what the administration and its masters in the MHRD-MHA want for pushing forward the agenda of privatized, ‘self-financed’ and market-oriented education. Foreign students in JNU are already under strict norms of the Home ministry which regulates their area of research. So the choice is clear before us. Either we sit back to let the administration define the limits our thinking, modes of expression, education and research, art and literature, our rights, our politics. Or we oppose with persistence each and every act of assault by the administration and its lackeys in campus on the democratic rights of the student community – be it in the form of ‘restraint orders’, disciplinary actions, administrative crackdowns or Lyngdoh.

Fight against DU Administration’s Arbitrary and Authoritarian Decision to Tamper with the BA History Syllabus to Placate the Hindutva Forces! Guard against Celebration of Hindu Majoritarianism in the Name of Opposing Communalism!

The arbitrary decision of the DU administration last month to remove A.K. Ramanujan’s essay ‘Three Hundred Ramayanas’ from the BA History syllabus presents a curious paradox. It clearly demonstrates the Hindu-communal nature of the administration in spite of its claimed commitment to liberal principles. This goes to show how Saffronisation of education is not just a thing of the past that can be attributed solely to the BJP or NDA’s government, but is very much a lived reality in universities like DU. No matter whichever parliamentary party is in power or whoever is the VC in the university, the nature of the decision-making bodies and the system which administers the institution have remained deeply communal, casteist and patriarchal. How else can we explain the decision of the Academic Council which rejected the majority opinion of the four-member Expert Committee appointed as per the courts’ directive to examine the essay by Ramanujan, and decided to drop it from the syllabus? Or for that matter, how could an essay celebrating different ‘re-readings’ of Hindu mythological texts like Ramayana and written by someone like Ramanujan who glorifies Hindu-brahminical ideology be included in the syllabus in the first place? If we care to see, we will find that the root of communalism in India goes far deeper than the RSS brigade, and is entrenched among even many of who claim themselves to be secular and democratic.

The sangh-affiliated communal-fascist ABVP has been demanding the removal of the essay for many years, and even attacked and vandalised the DU’s History department in 2008. In this communally motivated attack, Prof. Zaffri, the then Head of the Department was physically assaulted for standing by the essay, bringing back memories of the cold-blooded murder of Prof. Sabharwal in Ujjain University by the ABVP goons. None of the people guilty of this act of vandalism were brought to book. Only a few weeks back, a programme demanding the repeal of Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) from Kashmir and North-East was attacked by ABVP in the campus, but the police and the administration tried to frame the protestors instead of arresting the sanghis! All these are only a few examples that show how the Hindutva forces are the real power-wielders in DU, turning it into a saffron bastion. A Hindu-communal administration along with ABVP-RSS’s reign of terror has severely curtailed the democratic space of the campus community, particularly those belonging to religious and national minorities, dalits, OBCs and women. Looking at the larger context, it hardly comes as a surprise that the administration has arbitrarily removed Ramanujan’s essay by giving up all pretensions of liberalism, secularism and democracy. This was done even after the entire history department unanimously decided to retain the essay. The DU administration and the VC are very much in agreement with the communal-fascist Hindutva forces that the essay has ‘hurt the religious sentiments of the Hindus’, and therefore it must be removed.

DSU strongly condemns this act by the DU administration and demands that Ramanujan’s essay on the Ramayana be reinstated in the syllabus. There is already a strong mobilisation of students and teachers in DU and outside raising this demand, and the struggle must continue till it is fulfilled. However, we must resist any attempt to paint Ramanujan and his works in secular colours in light of the attack by ABVP-administration, as has been done by certain sections protesting against the removal of the essay. It must not be forgotten that Ramanujan’s essay on the Three Hundred Ramayanas does not provide any critical or historical analysis of the texts in question. Rather it celebrates the ‘multiplicity of Hinduism’ by presenting conflicting Ramayana traditions. Ramanujan and his works are widely considered to be representative of a Hindu-communal worldview and ideology which is unfit for any secular-democratic syllabus. We must fight against the communal ideology represented by Ramanujan even while opposing DU administration and RSS-ABVP’s brand of authoritarianism and communalism.