Democratic Students' Union

Whither “Relaxations”? Defeat the lapdogs of Lyngdoh and the Administration! Resist the capitulation to Lyngdoh by AISA, SFI, AISF, ABVP, NSUI, Y4E - the opportunist alliance of the agents of privatization!

2012-01-13T23:33:00.000+05:30

Enact legislation “banning any form of political activity on campuses of universities & educational institution

including in any union activities.”-Birla-Ambani Report on Education

“it is not appropriate to permit the level of interference being exercised by political parties at present, as the primary function of a university is, after all, education, and not political indoctrination” – Lyngdoh Committee Report

“Students must pay the increased charges this time and let me tell you clearly - there will soon be further hikes in the coming days….This issue should not be unnecessary politicized” – Dean of Students, JNU on the hiked establishment charges this semester

The fight against Lyngdoh Committee Recommendations (LCR) was never an easy fight. And so are not the fights against privatization, neoliberal policies and imperialism. LCR was instituted in line with the Birla-Ambani report on higher education which had clearly identified students’ politics as the main hindrance towards privatization of higher education. In line with the larger neo-liberal agenda of LPG ruthlessly pursued by all parliamentary political parties, the report clearly stated its aim of converting education into a commodity and a business venture to be bought and sold. Under the garb of curbing ‘money’ and muscle power’, both of which were never an issue in JNU, the real fangs of LCR was laid bare when the JNUSU was one of the first students’ union election to be stayed. The real issue at hand was the assault of the forces of privatization, which the militant students’ movement in JNU has always challenged.

The students of the campus, aware of this nefarious game plan had thrown a direct challenge to Lyngdoh by declaring an in toto rejection of the Lyngdoh Committee Recommendations. But the revisionists and reactionaries soon betrayed this resolute struggle against LCR and opened the doors of compromise in the name of “relaxations”. It is this unity of compromise that forged the grand rainbow alliance that today stands naked in their abject surrender to Lyngdoh. Bereft of all principles and scruples, afraid of questions and discussions, these forces today are at their shameless best. And that is why they can still afford to call this abject surrender of theirs as a “great advance” and a “qualitative change” even after the Supreme Court has rejected almost all of their claimed “relaxations”. Here they are today advocating the total capitulation to the designs of the neo-liberal agenda of the state, the dream of the Birlas and Ambanis, the idea of Lyngdoh. It is this capitulation that is reflected in the emboldening of the administration in its drives towards fee hike and privatization.

The façade of “relaxations” was built up through persistent lies over the last semester by all these pro-Lyngdoh forces in unison. These were projected as great prizes even when it kept the most potent clauses of Lyngdoh intact. Not a word was spoken regarding the brahminical casteist merit criteria enshrined in Lyngdoh. The Grievance Redressal Cell that embodies the most draconian measure of Lyngdoh to emasculate the students union turning it into a puppet in the hands of the administration remained intact. The former Gen Sec of AISA even lied to the students from the stage of the UGBM pleading the case for GRC. While claiming that the GRC would only be active during the elections, she carefully omitted the very next line which states that it would remain a permanent feature of the university. The most salient feature of the JNUSU election process – public meetings, political figures from outside politics, debates – still remained banned according to LCR amidst lies and silences. The age restrictions on BA/MA students still remained intact despite the fact that in JNU many students start their education late or are forced to discontinue in between. All these reactionary and anti-student clauses regarding which there were no “relaxations” still persist today. And alongside, the so called “relaxations” – the greatest achievement of these compromised forces – also stands rejected today after the 8^th December Supreme Court judgment. The sham of it is illustrated overleaf.

Today, when after the empty promises of relaxations have fallen flat, the opportunist alliance still wishes to conduct elections accepting Lyngdoh in the name of”restoring JNUSU”. Therefore it is extremely important to remind ourselves that JNUSU for us had never been merely a electoral platform. It was always a platform of struggle. What made JNUSU the most potent weapon in the hands of the student community was its sovereignty and power to fight for the rights of the students, for peoples’ struggles across the country. And for all these it derived its strength from the JNUSU constitution. The spent forces of the opportunist alliance are only interested in electoral politics by any means, which is nothing but the reflection of their degenerate parliamentary politics. For them the 40 year history of struggle of the JNUSU is not worth much. Being the agents of privatization, they have nothing to lose by turning JNUSU into a puppet in the hands of the administration by arguing in favour of LCR in the name of “elections at any cost’. It is this very politics of compromise that DSU stands against and poses the alternative of elections to the Joint Struggle Committee according to JNUSU Constitution. It is only this sovereign body – free of Lyngdoh and the administration’s interference – that can wage an uncompromising struggle against LCR and reclaim our union.

The façade of “relaxations” exposed…

JNUSU Constitution vis-à-vis Lyngdoh	The claimed “relaxations” in last UGBM	Status of “relaxations” after 8^th December Supreme Court judgment
While the JNUSU Constitution provides for full autonomy of the Election Committee, Lyngdoh asks for the formation of a Grievance Redressal Mechanism.	The institution of the JNUSU Election committee would be preserved. However a Grievance Redressal Mechanism would be formed.	REJECTED. “Insofar as grievance mechanism is concerned, we think no change is called for.”
While the JNUSU constitution puts no bar on age limit for contesting elections, LCR puts restrictions of 22 yrs, 25 yrs and 28yrs for BA, MA and Mphil/PHD respectively.	30 yrs for Mphi/PHD	ACCEPTED.
While the JNUSU Constitution pts no limits on repetition of candidature, LCR says once on office bearers and twice on council.	Twice each for office bearers and councilors.	REJECTED. “So far as the repeat criteria is concerned, we do not think that any change is required. We reiterate that the elections should be held in accordance with the Lyngdoh Committee recommendations.”
While JNUSU Constitution has no such requirement concerning disciplinary action, the LCR requires that candidates has no previous criminal records, i.e., have not been tried or convicted of any criminal offence or misdemeanor. It also requires that candidates have not been subject to any disciplinary action by university authority.	Changed to ‘Can contest unless charged or convicted in’ for Criminal Cases.	REJECTED. “Similarly, in cases of criminal record of candidates, the recommendation of Lyngdoh Committee should be followed.”
While JNUSU Constitution puts no restriction on photocopies and printed materials during election campaign, LCR requires that no photocopies or printed material is used for this purpose.	Photocopies would be allowed along with hand-written material.	CONDITIONAL “Photostat copies of pamphlets and manifestosmay be permitted within the limit of Rs 5000 as recommended by the Lyngdoh Committee.”
While JNUSU constitution requires that the elections are held within 12 weeks of opening of university and the entire duration of election process should be completed within 4 weeks after formation of the EC; LCR demands that it is held within 6-8 weeks of opening of university and the entire election process be completed within 10 days.	Elections to be held within 12 weeks of opening of university and to be completed within 10 days after withdrawal of nomination.	REJECTED. “One of the issues is for the time period of holding of elections. After considering the suggestions given by the learned amicus and learned counsel for the parties, we do not think that any variation in Lyngdoh Committee recommendation in that aspect is called for.”

No Puppet Union!

Reject Lyngdoh Committee Recommendations in toto!

Hold elections to the Joint Struggle Committee as per the JNUSU Constitution!

“Relaxations”: A tale of Lies, Betrayals & Surrender! Defeat the spineless sell-out to Lyngdoh!

2012-01-13T23:28:00.000+05:30

What had started in February 2008 with an unanimous in toto rejection of Lyngdoh in a historic UGBM has reached a position today when we are about to conduct an UGBM to ask ourselves whether we are willing to hold elections as per LCR. What a pity. What had started in 2008 with the reactionary Y4E being isolated in one corner, here we are today with rainbow alliance of the revisionists and reactionaries all united in an opportunist alliance, ready to surrender our struggle against Lyngdoh. But to us, and to all those students who are still resolute in their fight against LCR, this does not come as a surprise. What more can be expected from these renegade degenerate sold out forces and their politics of compromise and surrender? Ever since the move to enter into the arena of negotiations betraying our resolve to wage an uncompromising battle, the outcome was inevitable. Despite the very many face-saving tactics being deployed by these pro-Lyngdoh forces in the name of “relaxations”, the logical outcome of it has unfolded gradually and is most obvious today: kneeling down to Lyngdoh. Today, after the 8^th December judgment, there aren’t even any face-saving tools for these cronies of Lyngdoh to couch their spineless sell out.

Debate on Lyngdoh Committee Recommendations (LCR), in the last semester ended with the pro-Lyngdoh forces claiming that they have negotiated (read begged) and “won” 6 relaxations from the Amicus curie. With this they went to the UGBM. The pro-Lyngdoh band wagon led by SFI-AISA did not have anything written to defend the claims that they were making regarding the relaxations that they had supposedly got from Gopal Subramanium, Though this was pointed out repeatedly by DSU, they lied to the students taking them for granted. DSU opposed them in the UGBM too precisely because even with those bogus relaxations the very purpose of LCR which was to emasculate the elected union and depoliticize the election process remained intact. We also knew very well that the Supreme Court which in the first place stayed JNUSU election, was under no circumstance going to compromise on the LCR even as an interim measure. And on the 8^th of December, the Supreme Court judgment has stripped the agents of Lyngdoh laying bare their betrayals and lies. No wonder they are in such hurry today to seal the surrender even before the students are aware of the latest developments that has undone the entire farce of “relaxations”.

On the 8^th of December, the Supreme Court gave its verdict on the interim application which not only showered praises upon LCR, but also completely rubbished all the claims of “relaxations”. Regarding LCR the verdict reads: “We are happy to note that after those recommendations are given, the standard of fairness in the matter of holding elections to students' bodies across the country has substantially improved…Since we are of the view that the recommendations of the Lyngdoh Committee are very salutary in nature, we have not allowed any major changes except those which are absolutely necessary.” During the arguments, Gopal Subramaniam placed both the arguments – for relaxations and that of Y4E for full implementation of LCR. This amply exposed the farce of the so called promises of relaxations being parroted so boisterously by the ambassadors of Lyngdoh in the last UGBM. And what followed thereafter burst the bubble of relaxations built up with insistent lies over the last semester.

Ø “One of the issues is for the time period of holding of elections. After considering the suggestions given by the learned amicus and learned counsel for the parties, we do not think that any variation in Lyngdoh Committee recommendation in that aspect is called for.”

Ø “So far as the repeat criteria is concerned, we do not think that any change is required. We reiterate that the elections should be held in accordance with the Lyngdoh Committee recommendations.”

Ø “Similarly, in cases of criminal record of candidates, the recommendation of Lyngdoh Committee should be followed.”

Ø “Insofar as grievance mechanism is concerned, we think no change is called for.”

Therefore today, with one farce of a relaxation on age-limit (two years for only research scholars) and photocopy (granted with conditions), the rest of the LCR comprising the most dangerous Grievance Redressal Cell remains intact. But, the celebratory tone with which this opportunist alliance led by SFI/AISA accepted the above judgment is not surprising. Relaxation, or no relaxation, these revisionist forces, shameless as they are, want to clear the grounds for Lyngdohized elections at the earliest. The chronicle of this compromise has been long foretold.

But at the same time, we must remind them that the struggle against Lyngdoh is far from over. DSU calls upon the student community to defeat this conspiracy of abject surrender and defeat being scripted by the opportunist nexus of AISA-SFI-AISF-Y4E-ABVP-NSUI and support DSU in holding the elections for the JSC according to JNUSU constitution. It is the responsibility of every progressive minded student of this campus to carry forward the uncompromising battle against the reactionary anti-student Lyngdoh Committee Recommendations. History will remember these renegade spent forces of SFI/AISA as liars and traitors and they will not be forgiven.

Resist the politics of compromise & abject surrender to Lyngdoh! Demand immediate postponement of UGBM to ensure more informed debate!

2012-01-13T23:23:00.001+05:30

In an all-organisation meeting held yesterday to decide upon the date of the UGBM, AISA-SFI proposed it to be held on 9^th January. Earlier they intended it to be held as early as the 6^th of January, an absurd proposition that DSU has consistently opposed considering many students would not even be in the campus by then. Now, they have postponed the date by a mere 3 days, and that too not to ensure a more informed debate, but rather at the behest of their sangh coalition partner ABVP’s for national convention! All the bootlickers of Lyngdoh however, opposed any demand to postpone the UGBM to the second half of this month proposed by DSU and some other organizations. And today the administration has officially extended the last date of registration till 9^th January, while AISA-SFI have already collected a requisition for the UGBM for the very same day!

The hurry and scramble on the part of the pro-Lyngdoh alliance to officially bring in Lyngdoh to the campus is nothing new. In their urge to surrender, they have already accepted Lyngdoh in practice by scuttling debates in school GBMs and UGBMs, undermining all democratic norms of functioning, fleeing from UGBMs, holding secret meetings with the most ardent champion of Lyngdoh - YFE and most of all lying repeatedly to the students. The current Supreme Court verdict, which denied even the spurious relaxations claimed by these renegade forces, came during the winter break. A large section of students, whom they shamelessly lied to in the previous semester about the relaxations supposedly guaranteed to them by the Amicus Curie are not even aware of the implications of this new development. Not even left with what they claimed was a ‘relaxed’ Lyngdoh, they now want to dispose of the matter in a UGBM as soon as possible without any informed debate.

Threatened by the anti-Lyngdoh mood of the students, they had earlier fled from a UGBM. Now, readying themselves for a complete surrender to Lyngdoh, they once again want as few students to witness it. While the leader of the pro-Lyngdoh bandwagon SFI has been the most trusted ambassador of Mr. Lyngdoh in campus; the most spineless of the motley pro-privatisation gang of liars, AISA had even gone to the extent of pointing out advantages of Lyngdoh (becoming the second organization to do so after YFE) under the veneer of ‘informed debate’. Now, when pushing for a move that will change the very fabric of the university, it wants as little deliberation as possible on the consequences of such a move.

The decision of either accepting the Supreme Court verdict, or exploring other modes of ensuring a students representative body without compromising our struggle against Lyngdoh is extremely crucial to the future of campus politics. And as such, any move to curb debates on the issue by these renegade forces needs to be opposed. In the fight against Lyngdoh and privatization they have already chosen their side. When the administration has already hiked the establishment charges and has pointed out that it will do it in the future as well, these cronies of Lyngdoh have instead of intensifying the current mobilization against fee hike, are preparing themselves to officially welcome Lyngdoh – instituted to bring in more privatization. Our campus which is known for its progressive legacy of democratic functioning and debate enshrined in the JNUSU constitution today stands at its brink. DSU appeals to the student community to intensify the struggle against Lyngdoh. We should also demand immediate postponement of the UGBM to the second half of January so that there is more deliberation on the consequences of any attempt by these stooges of Lyngdoh to accept the reactionary Lyngdoh Committee Recommendations.

The fight against privatization is inseparable from the fight against Lyngdoh! Defeat the cronies of Lyngdoh and neo-liberalism!!

2012-01-13T23:19:00.000+05:30

Amidst all their cacophony, the pro-Lyngdoh alliance of AISA-SFI-AISF-ABVP-NSUI have, since the last semester, repeatedly tried obscuring the real agenda behind the Lyngdoh Committee Recommendations (LCR). Knowing completely well the anti-Lyngdoh stance of the students, they have avoided questions from the students, even fleeing from a UGBM and scuttling school GBMs. What they have instead tried in vain is to restrict the debate within a false binary of ‘for or against elections’ when the real polarization is pro or anti-Lyngdoh. Now once again, when even their farce of negotiations stands exposed, they declared unilaterally that the UGBM will be conducted on 6^th January, even before the registration for the new semester gets over, knowing that many students will not even be in the campus at that time and won’t even be informed about the debate. The need of the hour is to intensify our struggle against LCR. Not surprisingly, these neo-liberal stooges are bent upon implementing LCR to bring in a puppet union, thereby facilitating the administration’s drive towards privatization of education and introducing ‘user charges’.

It is not a coincidence that LCR was instituted after the Birla-Ambani report indentified students unions as the major impediment towards privatization of higher education. To convert students unions into puppet unions, a series of draconian measures were imposed. The students of JNU were aware of this nefarious game plan of the ruling classes and rejected any proposal in favour of LCR. Now, when after much shadowboxing the entire bunch of opportunists, from the revisionists to the communal-fascists have ganged up to pave the way for Lyngdoh, the administration has hiked establishment charges by a whopping 210 rupees. It has been emboldened by the surrender of these renegades to the larger agenda of Lyngdoh which is intrinsically connected with privatization of education.

In the absence of an elected union, JNU administration had in the past also tried imposing a series of anti-students measures, even going to the extent of banning an organization. However every time it was forced to step back in the face of the united struggle of the students. It is this very uncompromising struggle that disturbs the ones in the higher echelons of power, and also their local agents – AISA/SFI/AISF/ABVP/NSUI. And it is precisely the space for uncompromising struggle of students which Lyngdoh wants to curtail. Knowing this very well, along with these renegades, the JNU administration was the happiest after the Supreme Court judgment on 8^th December. However, despite and in the face of all these, struggle remains our most potent weapons against these forces of privatization.

The student community has witnessed during the past few months how this grand pro-Lyngdoh reactionary alliance has done everything possible to embroil the students into a sham fight. What we have also seen is a simultaneous ugly display on their part of trying to restrain the students from gearing up for a real battle against Lyngdoh. However, to expect otherwise from these sold-out degenerate forces is to expect too much! These are the very same organizations who have accepted Lyngdoh everywhere and the non-imposition of Lyngdoh in JNU had become an eyesore for them. We should also not remain in any illusion about the pro-privatization character of these organizations. And thus, the struggle against Lyngdoh and privatization is simultaneously also a struggle against these local agents of the ruling classes. The fight against Lyngdoh is however far from over. DSU appeals to the students to reject Lyngdoh in toto and stand by the proposal of holding elections to the Joint Struggle Committee to ensure a representative body to lead the struggles of the students while also carrying forward the struggle against Lyngdoh and the forces of privatization.

Insensitivity, Deceit & Denial! An arrogant administration justifies Fee Hike & brands the students as “liars”!

2012-01-13T23:17:00.000+05:30

“Students must pay the increased charges this time and let me tell you clearly - there will soon be further hikes in the coming days.” - Prof. Nafey (Dean of Students)

In an arrogant display of insensitivity towards the students, the administration yesterday said that there would be no roll back on the increased establishment charges. In complete compliance to the neoliberal agenda of forcing students to pay for their facilities, the Dean of Students and the Rector defended the whopping 140% fee hike. The administration blatantly justified the hiked charges to pay for the increased salary of the mess managers. Simultaneously the Dean of Students added that the establishment charges would soon be further increased along with the enhanced minimum wages in the days to come. The administration also stubbornly refused to undertake any measure to alleviate the plight of the students who have been deprived of their scholarships for months together and are now faced with this sharp hike. Alongside, it also shamelessly denied the fact that the hostel presidents had staged a walkout in the last IHA meeting expressing their disagreement with the proposed hike. Borrowing the words of Mr. Lyngdoh, the Dean accused the student representatives of “unnecessarily politicizing” the issue. Further, he denied all the accusations being made regarding the highhandedness of the Shipra warden and without any clarification out rightly branded the student representatives as “liars” who had “misrepresented facts”. The administration did not even discuss the other pressing demands of the students concerning hostel allotment primarily of those in the OBC list.

The deceitfulness of the administration was most evident when the Dean insistently harped upon a 1983 “agreement” that supposedly decided in favour of payment of the mess managers’ salary from the hostel-residents. When the student representatives demanded the copy of the “agreement”, most nefariously he denied any knowledge regarding its whereabouts. His continual reluctance to divulge any information regarding the details or nature of such an “agreement” or even the parties involved makes this claim most suspect. But it must be emphasized that whatever may be the exact nature or details of it, there is nothing sacrosanct about an “agreement” made 30 years back that would make it applicable for eternity. Any agreement that supposedly shifts the burden of the salary of the mess manager from the administration’s shoulder onto the students must be revisited and challenged, more so in today’s context.

The payment of the minimum wages of the employees of the university is solely the responsibility of the administration. And alongside, it is the right of each student to have access to higher education in a government university at nominal charges or free of cost. The logic of “lack of funds” that has been projected every time to justify fee hikes is nothing but the agenda of the state to withdraw from its responsibility of providing subsidized education. DSU had pointed out that the issue is not primarily one of ‘accountability’ and ‘transparency’, as the revisionists had tried to project it. The Dean also had no problems with their demands and agreed to produce the exact break-up of the hostel audited accounts of the collected establishment charges. We rather need to challenge the neo-liberal agenda of turning universities into self-generating privatized enterprises where students will buy education as commodity. However, when nothing but empty rhetoric can be expected from the revisionists who hypocritically claim to fight privatization while surrendering to Lyngdoh, it is the responsibility of the students to build an uncompromising struggle to resist fee hikes, commercialization and its most potent weapon – Lyngdoh.

The chronicle of a compromise foretold! Defeat the conspiracy of abject defeat & surrender to Lyngdoh!!

2012-01-13T23:15:00.000+05:30

The 2008 stay order on JNUSU elections with regard to ‘violation’ of the draconian Lyngdoh Committee Recommendations (LCR) marked the desperate attempt of the ruling class and the state to ring the death knell for any assertive militant students’ movement in campus. It came as an attempt to depoliticize the students’ union elections with the hope to erase our painstakingly built history of a vibrant democratic culture. It came to render the students’ union into a toothless pliant body that would remain at the mercy of a vastly emboldened administration with sweeping powers. This effort of the ruling class of course was in compliance with the Birla Ambani Report that had (rightly) identified students’ politics as the single largest obstacle to the forces of LPG, the merit-market and privatization of higher education. But alongside, the 2008 stay order was also marked by the unprecedented unanimity of an entire student community which in a historic UGBM sent an open challenge that echoed in the corridors of power. Thousands of students took to streets, underwent detention and participated in massive demonstrations. The message was loud and clear: Lyngdoh must be rejected in toto. And it is this uncompromising politico-legal battle that successfully challenged the LCR and deemed its interference with students’ union election unwarranted. A Bench of Justices Markandey Katju and AK Ganguly said, “We don’t agree with the appointment of the Lyngdoh Committee. Can the court do anything it likes? There are certain principles of exercise of writ jurisdiction. We don’t feel in everything the SC should interfere.” Castigating the apex bench headed by then Justice Arijit Pasayat for interfering with the student body elections, Justice Katju said, “No writ lies against a private body except the writ of habeas corpus. A student union is not a statutory body….how does writ petition lie in connection with its election?” This didn’t merely call into question the stay order on JNUSU elections, but also challenged the very constitutional validity of LCR. And as such it was an immense achievement of our struggle, us being still the only case against Lyngdoh being heard in the country and being referred to the constitutional bench.

But from hereafter, instead of building on the gains, the revisionists started showing their real colours and began the long saga of what they do best – compromise. Instead of pitching the battle against Lyngdoh at a higher level so as to carry on a nation-wide uncompromising struggle, the revisionists – AISA/SFI/AISF – were characteristically terrified to see an opportunity for a militant movement. This gang of stooges and bootlickers, who had already accepted Lyngdoh elsewhere, were obviously in the hunt for an alibi to find an exit route in the face of a genuine and militant students’ struggle. And hence the motley alliance of convenience amongst the revisionist ‘left’ and the reactionary right that we see today.

The long labyrinth of compromises and the impressive display of trickery, gimmicks and ill-propaganda that has been weaved ever since by these lackeys has had several twists and turns. All of course to one end – find a convenient compromise formula, betray the students and open the gates for Lyngdoh at any cost. The possibility of defying the court order was opposed through a fine display of fear-mongering thereby creating a frenzy and hysteria of ‘sine-die’. Then came the ‘negotiations’ with our direct adversary the Amicus Curie to extract certain ‘relaxations’. Instead of upholding the non-negotiability of our constitution and politicizing the students regarding the very anti-student idea behind the LCR in its entirety, the drama of certain ‘benchmarks’ was created. And in the process a whole year was lost in these ‘negotiations’ that finally failed in July 2011. Hence unfolded an even more naked advocacy of Lyngdoh. Perceiving the die-hard anti-Lyngdoh spirit among the students they ran from the floor of an UGBM to resume the failed negotiations and in their undaunted urge to compromise accepted each and every draconian clause of LCR with certain bogus ‘relaxations’ that were inadequate even for a feeble attempt at face-saving. With even the so called ‘benchmarks’ being shamelessly cast away, they began their naked dance of celebrating the sham of their ‘glorious fight for relaxations’. Today, after all these trickery, even these so called ‘relaxations’ have been rejected by the Supreme Court in its judgment on 8^th December. With the one farce of a relaxation on age-limit (two years for only research scholars) and photocopy (granted with conditions), the rest of the LCR comprising the most dangerous Grievance Redressal Cell remains intact. And of course our revisionist friends with their grand rainbow coalition of opportunism are not only still ready to accept it, but also consider this blatant sell out as a ‘great victory’.

Involved in their various stages of posturing, shadow-boxing, camouflaging and underhand dealings with the Y4E and administration, they naturally wished to scuttle what they feared most – debates, discussions, arguments, questions. During the execution of this entire grand compromise formulae, faced as they were with an overwhelming anti-Lyngdoh sentiment amongst the student community, the bootlickers themselves took up the mantle of depoliticization. Things needed to be shrouded in rampant misinformation campaigns, withholding of facts and of course haste. Hence the unabashed scuttling of debates and the unprecedented haste in which the school GBMs were wrapped up last semester. And today while they are at their naked best, it is therefore no surprise that they wish the least audience while they intend to celebrate their abject surrender to and brazen compromise with the forces of Lyngdoh. Therefore the hurriedly called UGBM scheduled on the 6^th of January - when even the registration for the new semester will not be over;- when the students who had gone home last semester before the judgment came, won’t even be aware of the issue.

Rather than conducting elections as per LCR, we must hold elections to the JSC as an interim measure and intensify our struggle against Lyngdoh. DSU calls upon the entire student community to once again rise up to the need of the hour and stand guard against these agents of Lyngdoh and put an end to this chronicle of compromise being written by them. Four years back it was the historic responsibility of the students to close the doors to Lyngdoh in this campus which they did by rejecting it in toto. Today, we must stall this hurried conspiracy of surrender and defeat, demand an immediate postponement of the UGBM for a more informed debate and finally carry forward our struggle against LCR that is sin-qua-non with our larger fight against the forces of privatization that thwarts the very fabric our hard-earned political existence.

Of acquittals, arrests and continued minority withchunting!

2011-12-18T20:08:00.000+05:30

The so-called ‘war on terror’ declared by the US imperialists has completed more than ten years. The war propelled by the US desire for the gas, oil and natural reserve resources has also been fueled by a consistent Islamophobic campaign. Xenophobia, racism and attacks on Muslims reached a new limit in the wake of the WTC attacks. In a continuation with the ‘war on terror’ declared by George Bush, the Indian state, a loyal lapdog of US imperialism, imposed a ban on the Muslim organization- Students Islamic Movement of India(SIMI) on 19^th September 2001. Without even a shred of evidence, hundreds of its activists were arrested from all across the country over the next few days. When in August 2008, Delhi High Court judge Geeta Mittal rejected the Centre’s ban on SIMI citing this very lack of evidence; it took less than 24 hours for the Indian state to impose a stay on the judgment. Harassment and arrests of its members are a routine affair after every bomb blast and many still continue to languish in prison. Fictitious organizations, like Indian Mujahideen (IM), supposedly linked to SIMI have been propped up. All of this while SIMI has been fighting a continuous legal battle against the unjust ban.

“Till date, not a single allegation against SIMI has been proved while the planned attacks of the Sangh Parivar against Christians, Dalits and Muslims have been exposed by various inquiry commissions.” said Shahid Badr Falahi, the last president of SIMI before it was banned. Year after year, despite direct evidences linking the Hindu fascist organizations like RSS, Abhinav Bharat, VHP to bomb blasts across the country, the brunt has been directly faced by the Muslim community. The police, the courts, the army and also the corporate media all work in tandem to prove how ‘global Islamic networks’ are ‘breeding’ and striking the Indian (read Hindu) masses. Young boys have been arrested, detained, tortured, and even eliminated (as it happened in the Batla House fake encounter two years back) as the sleuths of the intelligence claim their success at busting new terror ‘modules’ every few days.

Three years after they were falsely implicated in the Jaipur bomb blast, a fast track sessions court in Jaipur on 9^th December acquitted 11 of the 14people. The judge noted how the prosecution was not able to produce even a trace of evidence to prove its claims that, inspired by ‘terror camps’ in the Kota region, these men were building terror networks across the country. In a press conference after their release, they recounted the ordeal and torture they underwent at the hands of the police, local goons and the jail authorities. Showing notwithstanding the party in power, the colour of the Indian state remains saffron, they pointed out how the regime change in Rajasthan from that of the BJP to now the Congress changed nothing as far their harassment was concerned.

The Batla House fake encounter, in which two young innocent boys were murdered in cold blood by the Delhi police, despite all their machinations to prove that it was a ‘genuine’ encounter, has continued to haunt the Indian ruling classes. To fill in the missing threads of their fabricated story, it thus keeps recurring in a number of cases. The people acquitted in the Jaipur blast also pointed out how Chidambaram’s assertion that the Jaipur bomb blast was linked with the ‘encounter’ at Batla House, emboldened the jail staff in torturing them. Thus the day after Chidamabaram’s visit, when they sought permission to offer prayers on Eid, they were dragged out of their cells and beaten for hours. The remaining three of the fourteen who are still in prison, have not been acquitted for their supposed involvement in the 2008 Ahmadabad blast. This is another ploy of the state to keep these young Muslims always under trial. Imposition of other false cases keeps them in prison even if acquitted in one case. It moreover gives the police longer durations of police custody, giving them thus more time to torture. Hundreds of SIMI activists have recounted how they were forced to ‘confess’ under unbearable torture.

Even after being conclusively proved that several bomb blasts have been the handiwork of the Hindu fascist forces, the police forces have only arrested young Muslim boys on trumped up charges. Just a few days before the acquittal of these eleven people, on 30^th November, the police arrested six men from Delhi, Chennai and parts of Bihar. Five days later, on 5^th December, they arrested another person from the Purnea district of Bihar, calling him ‘another IM operative’. All these men have now been implicated in the blasts at Chimanaswamy Stadium at Bangalore, in Pune in February 2010 and at Jama Masjid in September 2010. The Batla House fake encounter features again in the attempt of the state to justify these arrests. As per their Gobbelsian propaganda, the Jama Masjid attack was ostensibly carried out on the second anniversary of the Batla House ‘encounter’ to ‘avenge’ the killing of their ‘commander’ Atif Amin! The Delhi police has also released a list of ‘absconding’ IM operatives, to pave the ground for future witch-hunting.

In a déjà vu of what follows after every such arrest, the corporate media is playing its own role of fuelling up the ‘collective conscience’ of the people; something along with ‘faith’ that the courts in India have come to rely more on! Parroting police claims and reproducing, in direct infringement of Supreme Court guidelines, their ‘confessions’ made in police custody, these media houses in a shameless manner are faithfully propagating false stories. Thus for one, this is merely one of the five modules and many ‘sleeper cells’ operating in the country to ‘wreck havoc in Indian metros’(Hindustan Times, 6/12/11). Another, with an eye towards the ‘Hindu majoritarian sentiment’ claims that these men had planned to blow up the Dagdusheth Halwai temple in Pune. (NDTV, 5/12/11). For another, these men had plans to eliminate Narendra Modi. (Rediff, 14/12/11).. According to the absurd claims of another report, IM carried out blasts in Chimnaswamy Stadium because no Pakistan players were selected for IPL! (DNA, 7/12/11)

As these men were remanded to a further ten day police remand on 5^th December, the testimonies of their family members have pointed out how the police, in violation of all norms of arrest, illegally picked them from different places. Dr. Nasrul Jamal, father of Ghayur Jamali arrested from Madhubani pointed out how the local police landed at his place and arrested his son on a fabricated case of fake passport. Ghayur, who has never even applied for a passport was taken to Delhi from his hometown on this charge and then falsely implicated in ‘terror charges’. In fact, the Dharbhanga zone DIG and the Bihar Home Secretary still maintain that the case against him is of a fake passport and nothing to do with ‘terrorism’. Relatives of Gauhar Aziz Khomany, also pointed out how even weeks after the arrest, no official information about the arrest has been made, and the family’s only source of information about the arrest remains the media. However, this remains the standard practice in arresting members of the Muslim community.

The list of persecuted Muslims is endless. The Hindu fascist Indian state, even when it has been forced to accept that Muslims were falsely implicated as in Malegaon, Mecca Masjid and now Jaipur, would never punish the policemen responsible for their unjust incarceration and ordeal. On the contrary, they give them more impunity to further arrest, harass, torture and even kill people from minority groups. Muslims in India, along with the dalits and adivasis remain one of the most oppressed communities. Most of them have been systematically deprived for the last more than 60 years of basic means of livelihood and dignity. Their small shops and businesses remain one of the targets of the state. For all ruling class parties, Muslims in India should play the role of compliant vote-banks. When they refuse to play that role, they are quickly branded as ‘terrorists’, liable to be tortured, detained and even eliminated. This state, hindu brahmanical to its core, can not expected to act otherwise. It is only the unity of the revolutionary movement with the dalits, adivasis and all oppressed masses, for the overhaul of this fascist that will emancipate all exploited sections of the society for a society free of all forms of discrimination and oppression.

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!!

2011-11-27T01:57:00.001+05:30

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!

2011-11-19T02:28:00.002+05:30

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!

2011-11-19T02:20:00.000+05:30

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!

2011-11-19T02:16:00.000+05:30

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

2011-11-19T02:06:00.001+05:30

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!

2011-11-19T01:57:00.000+05:30

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!

2011-11-14T23:12:00.001+05:30

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!

2011-11-07T00:30:00.000+05:30

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!

2011-11-07T00:20:00.000+05:30

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!

2011-11-07T00:17:00.000+05:30

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.

DSU Public Meeting in Solidarity with the Workers of Maruti Suzuki Factory, Gurgaon

2011-10-18T23:09:00.000+05:30

Not Elections, but Lyngdoh is round the corner! Intensify the Struggle against the draconian Lyngdoh Recommendations!

2011-10-07T03:47:00.000+05:30

The two leading organisations of the opportunist pro-Lyngdoh alliance, SFI and AISA, took out ‘victory’ marches after Monday’s UGBM. The victory they celebrated was the victory of Lyngdoh, of pro-privatisation and brahminical forces, and of the University Administration. What was defeated in the UGBM was not merely DSU’s resolution. The pro-Lyngdoh alliance led by SFI and AISA has engineered—as per their promise, by hook and by crook—a major setback to the progressive students’ movement.

Right from the beginning of this semester the game plan of the pro-Lyngdoh alliance was clear. It had nothing to do with elections according to the JNUSU Constitution, but they were simply laying their blueprint for bringing in Lyngdoh. SFI first started creating a frenzy for elections. Elections were flaunted as a mere spectacle, as a carnival and not as the vibrant political exercise which JNUSU elections had always been. AISA which talked of ‘informed debate’ did not take any position against Lyngdoh in the entire semester, rather started seeing ‘advantages’ in a Lyngdoh union. The campus saw their desperation, to bring in Lyngdoh in the garb of ‘bringing in elections’. Their flight from the UGBM on 20^th September, their undermining of its mandate and their resuming of the failed ‘negotiations’ with Gopal Subramaniam, everything pointed at their desperation to usher in Lyngdoh. They had made up their minds to surrender to the forces of privatization, meritocracy, market- everything that Lyngdoh stands for. So they did not dare to inform the students about the hollowness of the “relaxations” instead continued a virulent misinformation campaign. They lied to the students about the reality of the draconian Grievance Redressal Cell and craftily hid the fact that how it will render elected students union into a mere puppet in the hands of the administration. Even in their half-hearted reporting of the “relaxations” they did not divulge that Gopal Subramaniam has denied the holding of public meetings prior to election or that provision for denying student’s candidature on meritocratic grounds will remain intact. Lyngdoh wants elections to be reduced to a mere bureaucratic affair rather than being a part of a vibrant political culture.

The pro-Lyngdoh forces have already accepted Lyngdoh and therefore they craftily avoided a wider debate and discussion on these “relaxations” to mislead students. DSU has consistently critiqued and exposed the ‘relaxations’ and how they are nothing but an eye-wash. Despite our concerted efforts DSU could not adequately counter the misinformation campaign taken up jointly by AISA, SFI, ABVP, NSUI. But our fight will continue. The pro-Lyngdoh forces did not dare to put anybody’s name as proposer or seconder in the resolution which they tabled which is the established norm. They simply don’t want to take responsibility of the consequences of accepting these “relaxations”.

The fight against Lyngdoh in JNU which is the only remaining battle against these draconian set of rules thus stand thoroughly compromised because of these degenerate forces, but it is far from being over. A large section of this campus is uncompromising in this battle because it is their political conviction that forces of Privatization and brahminism can not be negotiated with but must be rejected in toto. A large number of students have taken a resolute position in this fight against the Lyngdoh Committee recommendations, both in the previous UGBM and this one. Our struggle must be intensified and we must continue fighting till the draconian Lyngdoh recommendations are completely demolished. The fight against Lyngdoh is a fight against all the forces which want to render the higher education into a marketable, meritocratic commodity. The fight against Lyngdoh is basic fight for the right to unionize. These are indeed difficult battles but JNU students have always fought these difficult battles to resist forces of privatization in the campus or to ensure social justice.

The opportunist pro-Lyngdoh alliance defeated truth in Monday’s UGBM. But truth has been defeated in many places and on many occasions. Truth is defeated when millions of people are rendered destitute by state and corporate sponsored displacement. When 80% of the country’s population is forced to survive on a mere Rs 20 a day. When millions of children die of malnutrition. When lakhs of farmers are forced to commit suicide. When lakhs of women are forced to sell their bodies. When the state and Hindutva forces kill Muslims in Gujarat, Bhagalpur, Forbesganj, Gopalgarh and Rudrapur. When dalits are lynched in Jhajjhar, Khairlanji, Mirchpur and Paramakudi. When the occupying armed and paramilitary forces unleash a regime of murder and rape to suppress the nationality struggles in Kashmir and North-East. But over and above all these truths, there is the spectre of a larger and much more powerful truth that is haunting the subcontinent. And this is the truth of the uncompromising peoples’ struggles. The people who are fighting braving extreme state repression and feudal oppression for their land, livelihood, dignity or freedom in India, Kashmir or Northeast are waging an uncompromising struggle against imperialism and feudalism. In solidarity with these people’s movement and taking inspiration from them, DSU stands in firm resolve to carry forward and intensify the struggle against Lyngdoh, privatisation of higher education and the brahmanical hegemony over knowledge production.

DSU thanks the Presidium of ex-EC members, Sulli, Savita and Manonitya who successfully chaired the UGBM held on Monday.

After Gopalgarh, now Rudrapur… The Deepening Tentacles of a Hindu Fascist State!

2011-10-07T03:43:00.002+05:30

The veil that shrouds ‘the democratic, socialist, republic of India’ was laid bare once again not so ironically on the 2^nd of October. The farce of ‘Gandhian non-violence’ that the ruling class uses to mask the pedestal of violence upon which the Indian state rests, was again torn apart at Rudrapur. In yet another act of pre-planned violence against Muslims, as per the initial reports around 4 Muslims were killed and scores of them injured in the Rudrapur town of the Kumaon region of Uttarakhand. The attack began on that day when the Muslims of the town following desecration of the Quran, came out to protest. Following this, the mobs of the Hindu right looted and torched the shops and vehicles of the local Muslims. The police, then indiscriminately fired and lathi-charged the protesting Muslims leaving two of them dead on the spot. Two more later succumbed to injuries. One of them was shot point blank on the forehead, as often tends to happen when our officers of the ‘law’ shoot in ‘self defence’. More than 300 people were stuck inside a local mosque in the wake of violence. The police rather than shielding them, has now arrested most of them. All this shows, what is common knowledge in India, the complete compliance of the state machinery in orchestrating pogroms and shielding the communal fascists.

“The arsonists are torching Muslim shops and houses one by one. They seem to have details of Muslim business establishments and shops….The condition is deteriorating fast rapidly. No action was taken on desecration of Holy Quran. When Muslims protested, police fired on them." These were the words of Muhammad Nasir, a local resident of the area. As an indefinite curfew has been imposed in the region, a number of fact finding teams have been stopped from entering the region. When DSU contacted another fact finding team today, they informed how their van was gheraoed by the local goons of the state. They are also being tracked and harassed by the police. A number of Muslim labourers, fearing further attacks and police harassment, have already fled from the region.

The desecration of the Quran was a well planned incident. In fact, it happened not once but twice within 3 days. On September 30, 2011, a bag containing a copy of Quran and flesh of pig was thrown at a local temple. And on 2^nd October, to once again provoke the Muslims the Quran was desecrated and burnt. After both the incidents, the Muslims merely approached the police to demand action. But this was enough to provoke the police which came out with all its fury on the local Muslims. To gauge the reasons behind all this is not difficult to understand. With the impending state assembly elections early next year, the ruling class parties are engaged in actively orchestrating such pogroms to fan their majoritarian vote bank.

This is the second incident of a state sponsored attack on Muslims within 20 days. On 14^th September in the Gopalgarh region of Rajasthan, more than 20 Muslims were massacred by the triumvirate of the local landholding Gujjars, the gangs of RSS-VHP-Bajrang Dal and the state government of Congress. And once again, in another vindication of its inherent fascism, this time in a BJP ruled state, Muslims have once again been targeted. This proves once again that notwithstanding the party in power, the colour of the Indian state is saffron. A revolutionary struggle towards the overhaul of this Hindu brahmanical state, and not merely hollow slogans of ‘secularism’ and ‘communal peace & harmony’, is going to emancipate all oppressed and marginalized people of the sub-continent.

Defeat the attempt of the pro-Lyngdoh alliance of AISA/SFI/ABVP/NSUI/Y4E to bring in Lyngdoh in the name of “relaxations”!

2011-10-05T17:05:00.001+05:30

The Farce of “relaxations”

Ø Grievance Redressal Cell, the most dangerous clause of Lyngdoh that enables the administration to dissolve even an elected union still remains intact!

Ø No public meetings will be allowed during the election campaign!

No Debates, No Politicization!

Ø The Meritocratic clause barring students with “academic arrears” from contesting still exists!

Ø Students with “criminal charge-sheet” will not be allowed to contest!

Ø No age relaxation for BA/MA students! \students who start their education late or are forced to discontinue in between will be barred arbitrarily!

Let us hold elections for the Joint Struggle Committee in the interim and make it an elected representative body following the JNUSU Constitution

Ø Thereby we would defy all the draconian clauses of Lyngdoh!

Ø We would uphold our JNUSU Conastitution in letter and spirit!

Ø Ensure elections upholding our politically vibrant culture, without any administrative interference!

Ø Have a representative body that along with fighting against Lyngdoh would also wage struggles on behalf of the student community with all strength and vigour unlike a puppet union under Lyngdoh!

Reject Lyngdoh in any form!

Uphold JNUSU Constitution!

Reject Lyngdoh! Uphold the JNUSU Constitution! Support the following resolution to be placed by DSU in the UGBM on 3rd October 2011:

2011-10-05T17:01:00.000+05:30

DSU RESOLUTION

This UGBM upholds the JNUSU Constitution and rejects Lyngdoh Committee Recommendations in JNU in any form. The proposal to hold JNUSU Elections according to Lyngdoh Committee Recommendations with the so-called ‘exemptions’ is in clear violation of the JNUSU Constitution. It goes against our four-year long political and legal struggle against the imposition of draconian Lyngdoh Committee Recommendations in JNU, and hence is unacceptable.

As a result of the consistent struggle of JNU students led by the Joint Struggle Committee, the constitutional validity of the Lyngdoh Committee Recommendations has been called into question. This house therefore mandates the Joint Struggle Committee to intensify the struggle to restore JNUSU elections as per JNUSU Constitution. Towards this end, this UGBM resolves to strengthen the Joint Struggle Committee by initiating the process of making it an elected body. The elections to Joint Struggle Committee will be conducted by following the JNUSU Constitution as its guiding framework and as an interim measure till the JNUSU is restored as per the JNUSU Constitution.

The Gopalgarh Massacre: Public Meeting And Release Of Fact Finding Report Speakers: Mohammad Azad, Abdul Gaffar Khan and others from Bharatpur and Gopalgarh Mohammad Ahmed, secretary Jamaat-e-Islami Hind Hafiz Mansoor Ali Khan, National General Secretary, SDPI Rona Wilson, CRPP

2011-10-05T16:56:00.000+05:30

“…We climbed on top of the masjid to figure out what was happening. There were around 8-10 of us on the terrace when suddenly a young boy next to me got hit by a bullet. As I tried to realize what had happened, I myself got shot in the thigh. I could not stand still any longer and started fleeing downstairs.

The Vajra vahan (the riot control vehicle) went towards the Idgah and then came back to the masjid. Many of us tried to hide inside the masjid while some tried to jump off the 35 feet ditch and flee into the bushes in the backyard. Among the 10-15 who tried to go towards the front entrance many got shot from the Vajra vahan that was firing indiscriminately.

The crowd following the police had in the time being arrived at the steps of the masjid and started killing the wounded or those trying to escape who were lucky enough to survive the police bullets. Survivors were trapped between the Gujjars and the police and were mercilessly butchered. The RSS-led Gujjars were carrying lathis, farsa, bhallas, and also guns. As the RSS activists kept standing right outside the mosque, 15-20 local hindus entered the masjid and started beating up the injured. At this point my phone started ringing and I tried frantically to cut the call pressing all the buttons I could while being beaten up mercilessly with lathis. Badly injured in the head and near the jaws I collapsed. By that time almost everybody inside the mosque had been killed while the hindus started ransacking the masjid, burning the chatai and the Quran on one side of the masjid.

They presumed that I had died and thereby dragged me by my leg outside the masjid. There was a police vehicle waiting at the road on one side while on the other side was the fire. I was lucky not to be thrown into the fire and the police threw me into the vehicle like dead animal carcass, bodies were being piled one on top of the other inside the vehicle by the police. There were around 11 bodies. By the time I gained consciousness 5 days later, I was in the Bharatpur hospital”

This was the account of Saphat Khan as narrated to the DSU fact finding team which visited Gopalgarh on the 25^th of September. Saphat Khan was a fortunate survivor of one of the most horrendous massacres that took place in recent times in Gopalgarh, in Bharatpur Rajasthan. A massacre that was craftily blacked out by the corporate media. A few news items that did come, did not reflect the truth. The media did not report the planned pogrom that took place in this small town of Rajasthan which is barely 180 km away from Delhi. The planned massacre of the Muslims was orchestrated by the RSS-VHP in collusion with the dominant landed section of the local Gujjar community. The total death toll is yet unknown. It could be as high as twenty or even more. The Aisha-Binte-Matraf (the Gopalgarh mosque) was completely ravaged and burnt. Charred remains of bodies and bones in and around the mosque which remained as late as after ten days, were mute evidences of the bodies that were piled up and burnt. The police armoury was thrown open to the RSS led mob and 500 rounds of bullets were fired. Some of the bullet marks were plastered with cement, evidences are already being removed. There were burnt/ damaged chappals strewn around everywhere. Some even floated in a nearby deep well. Nine bodies have been retrieved from that well so far.

This was not a “riot” as news snippets of the corporate media would like us to believe. It was rather a planned massacre, where police, RSS-VHP and local hindus all armed to their teeth with either police riffles or local weapons cornered an unarmed muslim mass and massacred them. The central question was that of land. A land adjacent to the mosque was claimed ‘disputed’ by the local feudal Gujjars. The SDM court had verdicted the ownership of the land in favour of the mosque’s Waqf board, not once but twice. But in communal fascist India, where feudal forces are the most dominant, legal ‘settlements’ are never supreme. So first the local feudal section of the Gujjars mercilessly beat up the Maulavi of the mosque and the following day, they forced the District Collector to issue a firing order and with the mobilization of more than 150 RSS-VHP, the pogrom was executed. The killings were followed by a massive loot of muslim owned shops and households. Curfew was declared in the entire area. But as the locals told us, the curfew is binding only on the Muslims. Many of the loots happened during the curfew once again showing the subservience of the state machinery to feudal forces. Justice and humanity that was burnt, butchered, buried, erased in Gopalgarh has further been mocked. No arrests have taken place after this horrific incident, even after the locals identified the goons Kesh Rishi Sing Master, Jawahar Sing from Bedum and Bhola Gujjar from Pahadi among others, who led the pogrom. Some token ‘transfer’ of the police officers is all that the Congress government of Rajasthan did. In fact after the massacre the police initially refused any FIRs from the muslims but in turn slapped 650 cases on them.

This massacre is yet another proof of the communal fascist nature of the Indian state. The feudal landed section of the Gujjars along with the RSS-VHP could wield its clout over the entire state machinery and the media, in first executing and then covering up the massacre. We have seen this in Bhagalpur, Kandhamal and ofcourse Gujarat. The state repeated sponsored butchery of muslims only reflect that notwithstanding the party in power, the colour of Indian state is saffron. We can not expect ‘justice’ from a system that is feudal to its core and a state machinery which is communal fascist. A revolutionary overhaul of this fascist state and the brahminical society can ensure justice to all the marginalized and oppressed section of the Indian society. The unity of struggle of the ongoing revolutionary movement of India along with the struggles of all other oppressed section can end this fascist rule and bring in justice for all.

Bharatpur Massacre: Preliminary Fact Finding Report by DSU (hindi)

2011-10-05T16:51:00.000+05:30

4,000 unidentified dead bodies buried in mass graves across Jammu! Oppose the Indian Occupation of Kashmir! The flames of national liberation in Kashmir shall sweep away the murderous Indian regime and all its stooges!!

2011-10-05T16:34:00.000+05:30

"The bodies would come anytime and burials were to be made without involving townsfolk for fear of provoking anti- India protests...They (the police) used to hand over bullet-ridden or disfigured bodies and tell me that they were militants killed by the army in gunfights;…I wrapped the heads in shrouds and buried them. But, they took a receipt of seven bodies... It was the first time I was witnessing such a horror. I broke down…Over a period of time, it appeared fishy and I started refusing heads only. I started asking questions and demanded the full body,"

These are the words of Sofi Aziz Joo, the local gravedigger in the Poonch district of Jammu who was handed thousands of unidentified bodies by the Indian mercenary forces. In yet another vindication of the horrors of the Indian occupation of Jammu & Kashmir, a group of journalists has unearthed the existence of 2717 mass graves in Poonch and another 1127 in Rajouri districts of Jammu. It is estimated that these graves contain nearly 4,000 bodies. This comes only a month after the State Human Rights Commission revealed the existence of thousands of similar unmarked graves across North Kashmir. In fact that report was itself just a cover up operation, with figures far below the original, after a number of fact finding reports had brought to light what is common knowledge in Kashmir – the existence of unmarked graves across the region wherein lie buried thousands of Kashmiris who have been either been killed in tortured to death in custody or in fake encounters.

The gravedigger pointed out how the bodies handed over to him were mutilated with their faces beyond recognition. At times he was given only heads with no other part of the body attached to it. All this blatantly exemplifies how these people were tortured to death and then passed off as ‘foreign militants’. The Indian state even denied these martyrs a proper funeral. As the burials were completed amidst heavy police presence in the graveyard, no local was permitted to help in the burial for fear of their backlash.

Omar Abdullah’s ‘Truth and Reconciliation Committee’ has evoked enthusiasm amongst no one but himself. Omar Abdullah, the local stooge of the Indian expansionist forces in Kashmir, has again come out in full support of the murderous and rapist Indian army. Denying the existence of mass graves once again, he has gone to the extent of saying that calling them such would be a ‘misnomer’! Even when mass graves were unearthed in North Kashmir, he had denied the possibility of any immediate probe, knowing fully well that any delay would make it redundant as chances of DNA extraction would reduce greatly. He instead proposed setting up a ‘Truth and Reconciliation Committee’. The Kashmiris have seen enough of the subterfuges employed by the Indian state in the form of probes and committees to be deceived by this new ‘Truth and Reconcilliation Committee’.

The crimes of the Indian state in Kashmir have far surpassed even that of Pinochet’s Chile. In the past two decades alone, more than 80,000 Kashmiris have been killed, many women raped, and thousands have simply ‘disappeared’ only to be later unearthed in mass graves. Draconian laws like AFSPA have provided complete impunity to these killers. Kashmir right now continues to be the most militarized zone in the world with more than 8 lakh army personnel. However, despite the army, paramilitary, police and its numerous vigilante gangs, fear haunts not the people of Kashmir but the Indian ruling class and their local stooges. It is the fear of having recognized that their military might fails to evoke any fear amongst the Kashmiris anymore. It is the fear of having recognized that none of its overt and covert machinations can silence the rallying cry of Azaadi. It is the fear of having recognized that no amount of repression can crush the vision of an independent Kashmir. It is also the fear of the fact that its propaganda machinery fails to cut any ice amongst growing sections of Indians as they have time and again come out in support of Azaadi of Kashmir, at times even few meters away from the Parliament. Most of all, it is the fear of the growing unity amongst the Kashmiris and the revolutionary movement in India. DSU salutes the valiant freedom fighters of Kashmir and urges all progressive and democratic people to stand in complete solidarity with all the struggling nationalities for the right to self-determination including secession.

Defeat the hypocritical pro-Lyngdoh forces of AISA and SFI! NO LYNGDOH IN THE GARB OF “RELAXATIONS”!!

2011-10-05T16:30:00.000+05:30

The force of progressive students’ movement in JNU had forced both AISA and SFI to posture against Lyngdoh in JNU. But in reality they have no problems with a depoliticized Puppet Union which is debilitated by the draconian Lyngdoh and is at the mercy of the administration.

· SFI National President KK Raghesh wrote in CPM’s organ People’s Democracy in 2006: “Indisputably, the Lyngdoh Committee Recommendations will become a well-built weapon to the progressive student movement that consistently fights to ensure democratic rights of the student community” (http://pd.cpim.org/2006/1203/12032006_raghesh.htm)

· AISA last year joined the bandwagon of SFI/ABVP/NSUI to compromise the struggle against Lyngdoh and go in for “negotiations” with Gopal Subramaniam. But to maintain a “radical” pretence they set certain benchmarks for the “negotiation”! Anything ‘less than that’ was not acceptable to them a year back. AISA pamphlet dated 30^th august 2010 said: “AISA holds that in the interest of holding JNUSU elections, we are ready to enter into negotiation with the SG. In these negotiations we are willing to accept as an interim measure pending the final outcome of the court case, the changed restrictions of age and repeat criterion, provided that we can go ahead with other aspects of the JNUSU elections such as the fact that that they are conducted by an election committee comprised by students, that the timeline and terms of campaign are decided by students, that pamphlets and public meetings will be allowed, and the administration will have no role to play, etc. this should be our baseline for negotiations on which AISA is very clear.” (emphasis in the original)

In the “negotiations” Gopal Subramaniam has made it very clear that the draconian “Grievance Redressal Cell” which gives sweeping power to the administration to even nullify elected candidates even after election will remain intact for JNU elections. The earlier authority of the Election Committee will be hugely curtailed by this Cell and this is a potent weapon for administrations to render unions toothless. Gopal Subramaniam has also made it clear that the public meetings that used to happen before the elections within the campaign period where various people used to come and generate a political debate, will NOT TAKE PLACE! Thus the two primary aspects of Lyngdoh of administrative control and depoliticization are kept intact ALONG WITH barring students beyond a certain age, students with “academic arrears”, with “criminal charge-sheet or cases,” from contesting elections! In what way does AISA accept this sham of “relaxations” which has retained the fangs of Lyngdoh to render Unions puppet? This only shows that their belligerent “conditional support” to ‘negotiations’ was nothing but hypocricy. This is yet another instance of their shadow boxing with SFI while in reality they are hand in gloves with the other pro-Lyngdoh forces.

The struggle ahead against Lyngdoh and for an elected Joint Struggle Committee elections. We have to tell the apologists of Lyngdoh AISA-SFI that we are not going to accept Lyngdoh in any form, not even as charity crumbs which Gopal Subramanium has thrown at us in the ‘negotiations’. A puppet students union at the mercy of the administration will never put up a genuine fight for students. Joint Struggle Committee has been given the task of fighting Lyngdoh and reinstating JNUSU elections according to JNUSU constitution. In this situation, DSU recognizes that the JSC has to be made more accountable to the student community. The way ahead for us is to hold elections for JSC as an interim measure till we win back JNUSU elections according to JNUSU constitution.

Why Joint Struggle Committee (JSC) election? The JSC was formed in 2008. All the organizations in JNU except for the casteist pro-Lyngdoh Y4E have been a part of it. The JSC was mandated by the UGBM to fight a political and legal battle against Lyngdoh to uphold and reinstate the JNUSU constitution. In the absence of JNUSU, the 1700 students requisitioned the JSC for 20 Sep’s UGBM. The JSC is thus entrusted to lead the most crucial battle which is going to determine the character of our university in the days to come. In this juncture, the JSC has to be a more accountable and elected body. Along with fighting the Lyngdoh Recommendations, DSU is of the firm opinion that the JSC representatives should take up other students’ issues in the interim until the reinstating of a JNUSU in accordance to our constitution. The Joint Struggle Committee can be modeled on the line of the JNUSU itself with four central office bearers along with representatives from each school.

The only question that is being raised against an elected JSC as an elected body is that of its ‘legitimacy’. In other words, the pro-Lyngdoh alliance is now asking us— will the administration recognize it or not? But we must remember that JNUSU is not a registered union either and drew its legitimacy only from the students which forced the administration to recognize it. Our representations to various administrative bodies like the AC/BoS, IHA, CDC were all results of struggle by students. So when students rally behind the JSC, the administration will be forced to recognize it as the legitimate representative body of the students. Moreover, this will not jeopardize the case that we are fighting in the constitutional bench against Lyngdoh. If established, the JSC can become a model of resistance to all students in other universities who are fighting the assault of draconian Lyngdoh and JNU students have the historic responsibility of playing the role of the torch-bearer.

Some questions to AISA on AFSPA!

2011-10-05T16:16:00.000+05:30

In the pamphlet dated 11/9/2011, on AFSPA, AISA wrote:

“AFSPA was introduced in the name of countering ‘terrorist’ activity. It is now more than fifty years since AFSPA has been enforced, and there is no evidence that AFSPA has been successful in its stated aim either in the North East or in Jammu & Kashmir”.

· So in AISA’s opinion the national liberation movements that are going on in Kashmir and in various other places in the North East are basically terrorist movements, which the AFSPA, unlike its ‘stated aim’ has failed to curb! Is that how AISA look at the heroic movement of the people fighting for their dignity and denied nationhood?

· Before condemning AFSPA one should first demand the removal of the heavy deployment of armed forces from Kashmir and North East to whom AFSPA has been providing impunity. In yesterday’s pamphlet or before, AISA hardly talks about the removal of lakhs of armed forces who are using AFSPA to kill, torture, detain or rape people. Is talking about ‘repealing AFSPA’, without demanding the removal of the armed forces going to change anything in either Kashmir or North East? Do they fancy that the ruthless armed forces will overnight turn ‘humane’ if AFSPA is repealed?

· Again, merely condemning AFSPA or talking about ‘human rights’ violations caused because of it, is just a sham when one does not recognize as to why it had been imposed in the first place. The huge contingents of merciless mercenary forces with complete legal impunity to kill have been deployed in Kashmir and North East to crush the genuine movement of the people in these places who are waging a heroic struggle for their national liberation. India has historically occupied these nations by force and has unleashed a reign of terror to crush these movements. AFSPA is just a ‘legal’ sanction to that state terror. AISA, just like an NGO, has deliberately avoided recognizing or taking a position on supporting the right to self-determination including the right to secession of these oppressed nationalities. Isn’t it utter hypocrisy and opportunism on the part of AISA to call itself Marxist-Leninist on one hand and maintain a criminal silence on the movement for Azaadi and self-determination including the right to secession?

· Down with the draconian AFSPA!

· Remove the armed occupation forces from Kashmir and North-East!

· Long live the heroic resistance for nationality and self-determination!

Post UGBM Notice - 22nd September

2011-09-29T01:42:00.000+05:30

Today (22^nd Sep) a Joint Struggle Committee meeting was convened by AISA. AISA, AISF, NSUI, SFI and DSU were present in the meeting. The meeting was called to discuss on the process of reopening the’ negotiation’ with amicus curiae seeking maximum possible relaxation from Lyngdoh Committee Recommendations. DSU pointed to the fact that recently concluded UGBM on Tuesday has passed the following resolution unanimously:

This UGBM rejects the draconian Lyngdoh Committee Recommendations in JNU in any form, and upholds the JNUSU constitution. This house mandates that in any future referendum on JNUSU elections Lyngdoh Committee Recommendations will not be an option.

As per the resolution JSC is mandated to reject and fight against the Lyngdoh Committee Recommendations in toto and uphold JNUSU constitution. With this resolution, the previous mandate to JSC to conduct negotiations with the amicus curiae has become null and void. DSU has also pointed out that the JSC no longer has the mandate from the student community to continue with the process of ‘negotiation’.

The UGBM of 6th September 2010 mandated the JSC to go for negotiation with the solicitor general seeking ‘maximum possible relaxation’ from Lyngdoh recommendations as an interim measure. The process failed miserably in the last one year as solicitor general showed little interest in negotiating with the members of JSC. He in fact unilaterally called off the process of negotiation after the third meeting. Consequently, Gopal Subramanium, the then solicitor general and amicus curiae resigned from the position of solicitor general. The JSC agreed that the possibility of ‘negotiation’ was exhausted. The UGBM of 20.9.2011, which was requisitioned by 1700 students and submitted to the JSC, was to decide on the future course of action in holding the JNUSU election through the mode of a referendum. DSU firmly believes the resolution passed in this UGBM is binding as per the JNUSU constitution on JSC and all its constituent member organisations.

DSU Delhi University Public Meeting

2011-09-28T17:06:00.000+05:30

DSU Delhi University Public Meeting

2011-09-28T17:04:00.001+05:30

EXPOSE THE ATTEMPTS TO BRING IN LYNGDOH IN THE NAME OF “RELAXATIONS”! REJECT DRACONIAN LYNGODH IN TO-TO! UPHOLD THE JNUSU CONSTITUTION!!

2011-09-28T14:54:00.000+05:30

Gauging the mounting anti-Lyngdoh mood of the students, SFI/AISA/NSUI/ABVP fled from a UGBM held on 20^th September 2011. The UGBM passed a unanimous resolution rejecting the draconian Lyngdoh Committee Recommendations and further mandated that in any referendum held on the JNUSU elections, Lyngdoh Committee Recommendations can not be an option. Completely ignoring the mandate of the students this opportunist alliance went ahead to ‘negotiate’ with the Amicus Curiae to get some ‘relaxations’ from Lyngdoh to hold JNUSU elections. This is nothing but utter disregard to a UGBM mandate and a blatant attempt to sabotage the democratic tradition of JNU to replace it with the draconian anti-student Lyngdoh Committee Recommendations. Their ‘relaxations’ full of sound and fury signifies nothing but is merely an attempt to implement Lyngdoh with some garb.

A closer look at their so-called “relaxations obtained through negotiations”:

· While Lyngdoh in entirety is draconian the most dangerous of its clauses is the Grievance Redressal Cell.

In contravention to the JNUSU Constitution that mandates the autonomous student body of the Election Committee as the ultimate authority during the process of elections, the composition of the Grievance Redressal Cell as per Lyngdoh allows for the direct involvement of the university administration in the election process and gives it unlimited powers to nullify even elected representatives. In Aligarh Muslim University, In Kumayun University and many other places this cell is the most potent weapon in the hands of the administration to debilitate students union as it gives sweeping power to the administration to cancel any candidature at their own discretion even way after the elections. The ‘relaxations’ claim that there will be students’ representative in the cell but that provision is already there in the original Lyngdoh Recommendations.

6.8.1 There should be a Grievances Redressal Cell with the Dean (Student Welfare) / teacher in charge of student affairs as its chairman. In addition, one senior faculty member, one senior administrative officer and two final year students – one boy and one girl (till the election results declared, students can be nominated on the basis of merit and/or participation in the co-curricular activities in the previous year). The grievance cell shall be mandated with the redressal of election-related grievances, including, but not limited to breaches of the code of conduct of elections and complaints relating to election-related expenditure. This cell would be the regular unit of the institution. (LCR, P. 52)

6.8.2 In pursuit of its duties, the grievance cell may prosecute violators of any aspect of the code of conduct or the rulings of the grievance cell. The grievance cell shall serve as the court of original jurisdiction. The institutional head shall have appellate jurisdiction over issues of law and fact in all cases or controversies arising out of the conduct of the elections in which the grievance cell has issued a final decision. Upon review, the institutional head may revoke or modify the sanctions imposed by the grievance cell. (LCR, P.52)

What the agents of Lyngdoh – both AISA/SFI – are championing as “major achievements” from the “negotiation” in terms of “relaxations” is evidently bogus for instance on this crucial point which constitute the crux of Lyngdoh Committee that seeks to turn students’ unions in mere puppets in the hands of the administration.

· The next aim of Lyngdoh along with making unions puppets in the hands of administration is to induce depoliticization. Article 6.3 seeks the “Disassociation of Student Elections and Student Representation from Political Parties” (LCR p.44). Students who get admitted in colleges and universities are adult citizens who take part in parliamentary, assembly and local bodies’ elections. Therefore, the idea that the universities are meant for education and not for politicization of the students implicitly argues in favour of depoliticisation of student body. It keeps students away from the larger issues taking place outside the campuses that directly affect them.

Further 6.3.1 states “During the period of the elections no person, who is not a student on the rolls of the college/university, shall be permitted to take part in the election process in any capacity.” (p.46). This is a clear attempt to make elections devoid of political debates and discussions and reduce them to a mere apolitical bureaucratic affair. Our pro-Lyngdoh ‘comrades’ from AISA-SFI while flaunting the “achievements of negotiation” in their poster, remains criminally silent on this point where there is NO RELAXATION.

· On age and repetition, AISA/SFI is celebrating what had been offered ‘three years back’ and what the JNU students have already rejected. The so called ‘relaxations” has merely increased the age limit only for research scholars by two years. While the age restrictions for BA/MA students (22 and 25 years respectively) are as it is. Students often start their education late or are forced to discontinue education owing to sheer material conditions. Rejecting their right to contest is extremely problematic and elitist. By this clause the entire P2 category of students in JNU (those who have gaps in between their courses) and students who were forced to start their education late will be denied of their right to contest. The JNUSU constitution gives right to all who can vote the right to represent students and to replace it with such an elitist clause is dangerous. On repetition too, what is being trumpeted as “grand relaxations” by the lackeys of Lyngdoh in campus, the outcome again restricts the basic right to contest and be elected multiple times, thereby jeopardizing the political accountability of the candidates vis-à-vis the student community.

· On disciplinary action and criminal case, the “relaxations” is a vague statement which says ‘can contest unless charged or convicted in for criminal cases”. What constitute a “criminal Case”? More than 20 students were slapped with “criminal cases” in the brutal lathi charge that happened in North Gate in 2009. The JNU students were not at fault at all and were protesting against a few drunken outsiders who had harassed some women students. Often as students take part in protest demonstrations outside against anti-people policies of the state or injustice they are detained, booked and even charge sheeted with FIRs. It is the political conviction of JNU students that they have time and again been part of protests outside and have even faced repression. Even inter-organizational settling of scores can lead to false implications and police chargesheet as was done to a student during a public meeting by the right wing. What right does Gopal Subramaniam have to debar such students from taking part in JNUSU elections. This is yet another strong weapon in the hands of the administration to stop students from participating in political protests and also anti-administration protests. No wonder the administration will henceforth start slapping ‘criminal cases’ against students to debar their participation in elections, like they do in many other universities.

· One of the most problematic clause of Lyngdoh Recommendations is 6.5.4 Although, the Committee would refrain from prescribing any particular minimum marks to be attained by the candidate, the candidate should in no event have any academic arrears in the year of contesting the election. (LCR, p.48) This again is a highly meritocratic clause and it is unclear about ‘academic arrear’. Good academic performance does not imply a nuanced political understanding or an effective and strong students’ representative. All students are equally eligible to contest irrespective of their academic performance, so-called ‘merit’ and arrears. We know how students from particular caste/class background and those who are unable to articulate in English are systematically targeted by the faculty. Students are often graded poorly as a result of discrimination which are neither the real reflection of their intellect nor can be any valid ground to deny them from contesting elections. The “negotiators” did not even talk about this dangerous clause!

So, what our pro-Lyngdoh ‘comrades’ from both AISA and SFI are trying to make us swallow in the name of the sweet extract of “negotiations”, is nothing but the Lyngdoh with all its fangs and claws. Along with their rainbow coalition with all possible shades of the right wing, the agents of Lyngdoh in campus today are attempting to usher in Lyngdoh in the garb of “Relaxations”. But, the progressive students of JNU have always given these lackeys and running dogs a fitting rebuff as was again manifest on the last UGBM from which the dalals were forced to flee. A puppet union with depoliticized and meritocratic elections will never be able to fight for the genuine students’ rights or stop the forces of privatization of education!

Expose and defeat the Indian state’s nefarious designs to implicate Kashmiri youth in the Delhi High Court Blast!!

2011-09-28T14:52:00.000+05:30

Hours after the bomb blast at the Delhi High Court on 7^th September, the Indian ‘investigative’ agencies began the witch-hunt of Muslims that has become usual after every such bomb blast. Random arrests and illegal detentions were made the next day onwards from different parts of India and Kashmir. A 14-year-old boy from Jharkhand was arrested by the West Bengal police; two people were arrested from Kolkatta by the West Bengal police; the Rajasthan Police detained two Jammu and Kashmir residents from Alwar district; four former district unit chiefs of the Student Islamic Movement of India were picked up from Mumbai. Over 60 people were detained by NIA for different durations in Kishtwar for ‘questioning’, and three of them, 19 year old Aamir Abbas Dev, 16 year old Abid Hussain and 14 year old Shariq Ahmed were finally ‘officially’ arrested after illegal confinement for a couple of days. Aamir’s brother has also been detained by the police.

The people of Kishtwar have erupted in protest against the arbitrary arrests, detentions and torture. Expressing concern specially over the targeting of minors and school going children, the people of Kishtwar lodged strong protests in different parts. As reports of torture poured in, many came out on the streets and gheraoed the police station. Kishtwar also observed a complete shutdown on the 12^th of September against the continuing detentions and harassment. In the face of huge protests against the false arrests and branding, the police and the NIA surreptitiously whisked away the two of them, Aamir and Abid, during night to Jammu from where they were flown to Delhi, while Shariq was left in the police custody of the Kishtwar police. As journalists were not even allowed to be part of the court proceedings, Abid Hussain was remanded to NIA’s custody till 5^th October while Aamir has been sent to judicial custody.

The entire course of ‘investigations’ have once again brought out the communal fascist character of the Indian state. What else they have once again brought to the fore is the rat race that ensues between different investigative departments to come up with their own versions, each more ‘true’ than the previous. So for one, it is the work of the non-existent Indian Mujahideen to avenge the Batla House ‘encounter’, while for NIA it is the work of the Dhaka based HuJi to avenge the death sentence given to Afzal Guru! In both the cases, by ripping up what it terms as the ‘collective conscience’ of the people, what the Indian state seeks to obscure is how in each of the two cases – be it the fake encounter at Batla House or false implication of Afzal Guru, all the institutions of the state, be it the police, judiciary or the media, worked in collision to manufacture evidence and implicate and execute innocent Muslim youth.

What these agencies will never bring to the fore is the involvement of the Hindu fascists in these attacks. The media’s follow up to the blast has been once again extremely shameful and has remained wilfully silent on the possibility of the Hindu fascist forces behind this attack. One has not forgotten the chilling confessions made by Aseemanand last yearwhich clearly exposed the involvement of the sangh giroh in the Ajemr sharif, mecca Masjid, Malegaon, Samjhauta Express or Nanded blast. What this systematic brutalisation and witch hunt of the Muslims vindicates once again is how it is not just the domain of the Sangh and the ruling class in totality is Hindu fundamentalist in nature. On the other hand, the attack on Kashmiri youth yet again is another attempt on the part of the Indian ruling class to silence the voice for Azadi. But Kashmiris have braved all this and much more valiantly for the past 60 years in their struggle for Azadi. The false cases, arrests, torture, disappearances, fake encounters and all the military might of the Indian state can never suppress the struggle for Azadi of Kashmir.

Not empty rhetorical slogans of ‘secularism’ or ‘communal peace and harmony’, but a united resilient struggle of the oppressed massesalong with the ongoing revolutionary movement can only challenge and defeat this brahminical communal fascist-expansionist state and it is only by strengthening the ongoing revolutionary movement that we can put an end to this.

In yet another mockery of justice the perpetrators of murder and heinous caste violence in Mirchpur go scot free!

2011-09-28T14:42:00.000+05:30

In Mirchpur last year the ghastly incident of caste violence and murder had taken place. An eighteen year old polio stricken dalit girl and her old father were burnt alive by the dominant jaat community. A mob of around 100-150 jaats ravaged their houses along with many other dalit houses and set them ablaze. The houses of dalits who were relatively economically well off were particularly targeted as those houses were eye sores to the feudal pride of the jaats. The police, a mere puppet in the hands of the Jaats openly granted one hour to them to carry on with the rampage. The crime was committed in broad daylight infront of many witnesses. But feudal powers have always overwhelmed judiciary or administrative investigations in India. Kherlanji is already a burning example of gruesome killing and caste violence in which justice was blatantly denied. In Mirchpur killing too, the Delhi high Court “honorably” acquitted 82 accused while framing minimal charges against the other 15 accused, who were not found guilty of committing murder. A few days ahead of the verdict, the Jaat Mahakhap panchayat had warned Bhoopindar Hooda the CM of Haryana, of dire consequences if their ‘innocent boys’ are harassed any further. The feudal clout of the Jaats clearly yielded results as the judiciary acquitted bulk of the perpetrators. Most crucially, the charges of caste violence have been dropped by the court and minor charges of ‘unlawful assembly and stone throwing’ have been put on the perpetrators. The police officers and constables against whom cases were lodged of indulgence and helping the perpetrators have been acquitted too. The case was shifted to Delhi High court from Haryana to ensure ‘fair trial’ and safety of the witnesses. But in a complete mockery of justice once again, the perpetrators of the heinous crime are moving scot-free.

The incident once again bares the cruel and grotesque feudal power of the dominant castes and their manipulations and control over all ruling class machineries from the police, civil administration, to judiciary. These so-called democratic institutions have always been tools of oppression in the hands of the dominant class/caste in India. The mockery in the name of ‘justice’ in the Mirchpur incident is yet another glaring proof of that. The oppressed sections be it the dalits, adivasis, religious or ethnic minorities are always denied of their basic rights, dignity and justice in this country. The overhauling of this brahminical semi-feudal system can only bring justice to these oppressed yet fighting masses.

Public Meeting on An Elected Joint Struggle Committee (JSC): A model of resistance against Lyngdoh SPEAKERS: K.J. Mukherji Prof, CBT, JNU Raghu Ram Prof, IP College, DU Krishna Dev Rao Prof of Law, National Law School University, Delhi 24th Sept,9:30pm, Kaveri Mess

2011-09-28T14:40:00.000+05:30

The students of JNU have been fighting a historical battle against the draconian Lyngdoh Recommendations for the past three years. This fight is not just against a set of draconian guidelines that seek to turn students’ elections into a depoliticized bureaucratic exercise giving sweeping powers to the administration. This fight is also against privatization of education, commercialization of basic facilities and brahminical hegemony over knowledge production. Behind the smokescreen of ‘curbing money and muscle power in students politics’, the real aim of Lyngdoh is to facilitate and fortify all these forces of privatization and casteism in higher education and to scuttle students’ right to unionize and organize in opposition to these forces. It is because JNU students have consistently organized themselves under the guidelines of the progressive JNUSU constitution that our campus is more socially sensitive and inclusive than other central universities, where students from diverse backgrounds can afford quality higher education. It is the vibrant students’ movements led by the JNUSU over the years that have repeatedly resisted any attempts to privatize education, scuttle social justice or commercialize basic facilities.

It is because of JNU students’ sustained political and legal struggle against Lyngdoh, that the Supreme Court judges have questioned its constitutional validity. The Court observed prima facie that Lyngdoh amounts to judicial legislation and infringes upon the fundamental right i.e. Right to Association of the students. Given the fact that JNU’s petition is the only one against Lyngdoh that has received a consistent hearing, it was a huge step ahead for the entire student movement in the country. At this juncture, any compromise with Lyngdoh, in any form, will be a big setback noy only for the JNU students movement but also for the students movements across the country.

In the name of negotiations with Gopal Subramanium, the reactionary AISA-SFI-NSUI-ABVP gang is trying to bring in Lyngdoh to the campus in another form. Last year, the UGBM mandated the JSC to negotiate with the then Solicitor General, Gopal Subramanium, so as to get some ‘relaxations’ from Lyngdoh as an interim measure to hold elections. Subramaniam was never serious about the ‘negotiations’ and one full year was wasted in our struggle. It was collectively decided in the JSC that the ‘negotiations’ have failed and when the students geared up to explore other possibilities to fight Lyngdoh these organizations ran away from an ongoing UGBM (20 Sep) on the pretext of ‘negotiation’. This UGBM unanimously rejected Lyngdoh in any form in JNU. This mandate is binding on the JSC and all its constituent organizations. The mandate of this UGBM overrules last year’s UGBM’s, which had mandated the JSC to negotiate. The pro-Lyngdoh forces are now undermining the mandate of the UGBM and are trying to bring Lyngdoh through the back-door in the name of negotiations.

At this juncture, we have to reassert our political defiance to Lyngdoh. We have to tell the apologists of Lyngdoh AISA-SFI that we are not going to accept Lyngdoh in any form, not even as charity crumbs which Gopal Subramanium might throw at us in the ‘negotiations’. A puppet students union at the mercy of the administration will never put up a genuine fight for students. Undermining UGBM’s mandate and the JNUSU constitution, these pro-Lyngdoh forces are now trying to subvert JSC itself—the very JSC which has been given the task of fighting Lyngdoh and reinstating JNUSU elections according to JNUSU constitution—in order to bring in LCR. In this situation, DSU recognizes that the JSC has to be made more accountable to the student community. The way ahead for us is to hold elections for JSC as an interim measure till we win back JNUSU elections according to JNUSU constitution.

Why Joint Struggle Committee (JSC) election? The JSC was formed in 2008. All the organizations in JNU except for the casteist pro-Lyngdoh Y4E have been a part of it. The JSC was mandated by the UGBM to fight a political and legal battle against Lyngdoh to uphold and reinstate the JNUSU constitution. In the absence of JNUSU, the 1700 students requisitioned the JSC for 20 Sep’s UGBM. The JSC is thus entrusted to lead the most crucial battle which is going to determine the character of our university in the days to come. In this juncture, the JSC has to be a more accountable and elected body. Along with fighting the Lyngdoh Recommendations, DSU is of the firm opinion that the JSC representatives should take up other students’ issues in the interim until the reinstating of a JNUSU in accordance to our constitution.

If established, the JSC can become a model of resistance to all students in other universities who are fighting the assault of draconian Lyngdoh and JNU students have the historic responsibility of playing the role of the torch-bearer. We appeal to all students to come in large numbers in tonight’s public meeting and collectively deliberate on the mode of resistance which is going to determine the nature of fight against the draconian Lyngdoh Committee as well as the character of students’ movement in the days to come.

A resounding victory for JNU students in the battle against Lyngdoh apologists, but the battle is far from over!

2011-09-28T13:40:00.000+05:30

The developments leading up to the historic UGBM of 20th September and the events thereafter have thrown up a new alignment of forces in the campus. In 2008 when the assault of Lyngdoh had struck for the first time, the entire student community and all organisations on campus (except the casteist and manuvadi YFE) were publicly opposed to Lyngdoh in JNU. Now there is a sharp polarisation between the forces which have come out openly in support of Lyngdoh and the students of JNU who continue to oppose Lyngdoh in any form upholding the JNUSU Constitution. No surprise that the communal-fascist ABVP now proposes to hold JNUSU elections as per Lyngdoh Fascist forces have always welcomed and used draconian regulations to strengthen themselves. Along with ABVP, another fascist force has been preparing grounds for welcoming Lyngdoh to the campus: the social-fascist SFI. Since the UGBM of 20th September, SFI-AISA ABVP-NSUI have formed a grand alliance to subvert every democratic institution of JNU students – be it the UGBM, JNUSU Constitution or the Joint Struggle Committee (JSC) – with the single-point agenda of facilitating JNUSU elections as per Lyngdoh Committee Recommendations. It has become clear as daylight that the UGBM and the planned referendum were means which SFI-AISA-ABVP-NSUI tried to use for smuggling-in the draconian Lyngdoh. This explains why both SFI and AISA kept Lyngdoh as an ‘option’ in the proposals for the referendum, while their alliance-partner ABVP spilled the bins by openly advocating Lyngdoh for a year on an ‘experimental’ basis!

The common students of JNU came forward once again as the resolute defenders of JNUSU Constitution in the UGBM. Students are the real force in our four year-long struggle against draconian Lyngdoh guidelines, which was proved once again in the last UGBM. Gauging the anti-Lyngdoh mood of the students who turned up in their hundreds, SFI-AISA apprehended a humiliating defeat of their resolutions, and therefore they tried to sabotage the UGBM from the very beginning. They first ganged-up to propose a completely bizarre model of voting which was in direct violation of the procedure laid down by the JNUSU Constitution. When SFI-AISA saw their attempts collectively rebuffed, they soon came back with another mischief. On the floor of the UGBM SFI and AISA started claiming that Roshan Kishore, a SFI member received a miraculously coincidental phone call from Gopal Subramanium at around 7pm expressing his willingness to resume ‘negotiations’. On the basis of a single phone call from a government-appointed lawyer – who is our direct adversary in the ongoing Supreme Court case on Lyngdoh – SFI and AISA decided that the UGBM has to be called off! Once again, their attempt to impose a highly authoritarian, undemocratic and opportunistic demand on the chair and the student community was defeated. AISA-SFI-NSUI-ABVP left the students as well as the debate and walked out! Adding insult to SFI-AISA’s injury, the UGBM culminated with the passing of a unanimous resolution rejecting Lyngdoh in JNU in any form. The resolution also mandated that Lyngdoh cannot be an option in any future referendum related to JNUSU elections. This UGBM mandate is a resounding expression of the anti-Lyngdoh sentiment of the student community, and a decisive defeat of the pro-Lyngdoh alliance. The fresh mandate of this UGBM has made the resolution of 6 September 2010 null and void, which had authorised the JSC to ‘negotiate’ with the amicus curiae to get “the maximum possible relaxations from the Lyngdoh recommendation in keeping with the struggle to uphold the JNUSU Constitution”. After the UGBM of 20.9.2011, which has rejected Lyngdoh in any form, the JSC no longer has the mandate to continue with the negotiation process to have “maximum possible relaxation” from Lyngdoh. We warn SFI and AISA that even with the “maximum possible relaxations”, Lyngdoh is not acceptable to the students of JNU. If SFI-AISA-ABVP-NSUI is still hell-bent on continuing the negotiations, the only way open for them is by seeking a fresh mandate from the student community through another UGBM. AISA surpassed all bounds of illogic and opportunism and openly claimed that the UGBM is “unconstitutional”! We challenge these degenerate spent forces, to prove in which way a UGBM, duly requisitioned by students, after fulfilling the quorum, and with the debates continuing with massive participation of students, becomes ‘unconstitutional’ with one phone call from Gopal Subramaniam! The hundreds of students who stayed till the successful culmination of the UGBM gave a fitting rebuff to these escapist coward forces.

After shamelessly fleeing from the UGBM, the pro-Lyngdoh gang of SFI-AISA-ABVP-NSUI has continued their attempts to undermine the UGBM mandate, the JNUSU Constitution and the collective anti-Lyngdoh voice of the student community. With the arrogance characteristic of fascist forces they have refused to accept the mandate of the UGBM. Instead an appointment has been fixed by SFI with Gopal Subramanium on coming Saturday, while AISA called a JSC meeting yesterday to ‘convince’ DSU and other constituent members of JSC to be part of the negotiations. DSU categorically told AISA and SFI in the meeting that we will not be a part of this so-called ‘negotiation’ which is not mandated by the students, and warned them against entering into any unauthorised negotiation with Gopal Subramanium on behalf of the JSC. These organisations have no right to use the platform of JSC to ‘negotiate’ when there is no consensus among the constituent organisations, and more importantly, when there is no mandate from the students for that. The desperation of SFI-AISA-ABVP-NSUI to ‘negotiate’ with the amicus curiae by blatantly violating the UGBM mandate and undermining the established norms of JSC-functioning is a clear sign of their eagerness to dump JNUSU Constitution in favour of elections as per the draconian Lyngdoh.

The pro-Lyngdoh alliance of AISA-SFI-ABVP-NSUI has accused DSU of subverting the ‘negotiation’ process, whereas the truth is that they are the culprits of violating the mandate of the JNU students. DSU had opposed the joint resolution of SFI-AISA-ABVP-NSUI gang in the UGBM of 6.9.2010 which was a clever move to open the doors of JNU to Lyngdoh in the name of ‘negotiations’ and ‘relaxations’. However, after the resolution was passed by the UGBM, DSU agreed to be a part of JSC’s negotiation process for the last one year respecting the mandate of the students. Since the UGBM of 20.9.2011 has given another unambiguous mandate against accepting Lyngdoh in JNU in any form, there is no valid ground for JSC and its constituent members to consider Lyngdoh with ‘relaxations’. Any further ‘negotiation’ by SFI-AISA-ABVP-NSUI with the amicus curiae will be considered to be the acts of these organisations alone, and not on behalf of the JSC or the students of JNU. These organisations, and not the JSC, will be held directly responsible by the student community for any adverse impact of such unauthorised, irresponsible and underhand ‘negotiations’ with Gopal Subramanium on our ongoing Supreme Court case against Lyngdoh. But as trusted lackeys of Lyngdoh, SFI-AISA bandwagon can hardly be bothered about the impact of their irresponsible acts on our legal struggle against Lyngdoh, which is the only remaining challenge to this draconian regulation in the whole country. The student community will not allow them to jeopardise the last and the most formidable legal-political battle against Lyngdoh, as a result of which the constitutional validity of Lyngdoh guidelines itself stands questioned today.

AISA-SFI is responsible for stalling the struggle for restoring elections according to the JNUSU Constitution. From the UGBM of 6.9.2010 to that of 20.9.2011, more than a year has been wasted in the name of ‘negotiations’ without any positive outcome. In a total of four meetings with the JSC, Gopal Subramanium had flatly refused to grant any substantial ‘relaxation’ in Lyngdoh guidelines for JNUSU elections, as a result of which the ‘negotiations’ were dragged on continuously. Negotiation became a dead horse even before Gopal Subramanium resigned as Solicitor General. Moreover, negotiations have diverted our attention in the last one year from the urgent task of intensifying political and legal struggle against Lyngdoh, with the result that we have not been able to get a single hearing in the Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court. Who is responsible for this state of affairs? It is the organisations like AISA and SFI which portrayed a rosy picture of ‘negotiations’ with the Solicitor General one year back that are responsible for diverting the struggle for restoring JNUSU.

The UGBM provided us with an opportunity to launch the next stage to struggle to restore elections as per the JNUSU Constitution. However, the grand-alliance of opportunists SFI-AISA-ABVP-NSUI who have clearly revealed their pro-Lyngdoh colours wish to flog the dead horse of negotiation even now, with the hope that the amicus curiae will take pity and throw them a few ‘relaxations’ as crumbs! These organisations do not even have the courage to place in front of the student community an honest review of a year wasted in meaningless ‘negotiations’ before suddenly coming up with the absurd logic of ‘reopening’ the failed ‘negotiations’. Students of the campus have had enough of this cat-and-mouse game of ‘negotiations’. They now want to explore ways of intensifying the struggle against Lyngdoh to restore elections as per the JNUSU Constitution instead of chasing the mirage of ‘relaxations’ promised by these discredited pro-Lyngdoh organisations. Right when the pro-Lyngdoh forces sensed the decisive mood of the students against Lyngdoh, they cleverly reverted to ‘negotiation’ drama so that Lyngdoh can be pushed in.

DSU’s anti-Lyngdoh model for the referendum has caught the imagination of the student community. While the option of conducting elections as per the JNUSU Constitution by defying the court’s stay order is still open before the student community, DSU is also enthused and inspired by the overwhelming response of the students to the proposal of conducting elections to the JSC as an interim measure till the JNUSU is restored. DSU firmly believes that the option of election to the JSC, for which the JNUSU Constitution will be the guiding framework, has emerged as a most practicable anti-Lyngdoh model for reintroducing students’ elections in the campus in the interim. Elections to JSC have become an urgent necessity due to the display of utter contempt for democratic opinion of the student community by certain organisations. With no accountability to the student community or the JNUSU Constitution at present, organisations like AISA and SFI have been indulging in acts of subversion and manipulation within the JSC – which was constituted by the students as a platform of struggle against Lyngdoh. It’s high time that the JSC is transformed from a platform representing different organisations, to an elected body which represents the entire the student community. Moreover, the JSC can also intervene in the immediate problems faced by the student community and lead struggles for their resolution in the interim till we win back JNUSU by getting the stay order on the elections revoked. As a symbol of resistance against Lyngdoh and our commitment to the JNUSU Constitution, elections to the JSC will also send a strong message to the powers-that-be who wants to snatch away our collective right to unionise and to struggle for our rights. Beginning a new phase of political and legal struggle against Lyngdoh under the leadership of an elected JSC – this is the concrete roadmap DSU suggests to the student community as a part of the struggle to restore JNUSU as per JNUSU Constitution.

AISA and SFI will of course complain that an elected JSC will not be recognised as an ‘official’ body by the JNU administration. We remind them that the greatest source of strength and legitimacy for JNUSU is the student community, who acknowledges it as the platform of all JNU students for collective representation and struggle. JNU administration did not recognise JNUSU out of their goodwill too. The progressive students’ movement have fought in the past and forced the administration to recognise JNUSU as the collective voice of students. Students have won JNUSU’s right of representation in many administrative bodies like the AC/BoS, CDC, IHA only through bitter struggles. Till the time when JNUSU as per its Constitution is restored by defeating Lyngdoh, nothing will prevent an elected JSC from legitimately representing the students of JNU. Struggles must be waged in the future to wrest JSC’s rights from the administration, because only struggle – and not begging for crumbs – can carry forward JNU’s student movement.

AISA and SFI have replaced YFE to become the new symbols of pro-Lyngdoh politics in JNU. For SFI-AISA who have already accepted Lyngdoh in their thought and action, UGBMs, JNUSU Constitution and even the opinion of students have become irrelevant. While SFI is now flaunting the bogey of ‘reopened’ negotiations that leads straight to Lyngdoh, AISA is playing the unenviable role of SFI’s sidekick in this ‘negotiation’ drama. AISA is notorious for frequently indulging in staged acts of shadow-boxing with SFI in the campus, but both are found to be together when it comes to compromising with students’ struggles. They are under the illusion that by sticking together in an opportunist alliance, and with some help from their fiends ABVP and NSUI, SFI-AISA can finally bring Lyngdoh to the campus. But the student community of JNU, the JNUSU Constitution and DSU have become their biggest hurdles. This explains AISA and SFI’s attack aimed at isolating DSU, which has proven its ‘dishonesty’ to their gang by refusing to tow their line in the UGBM and thereafter. But AISA-SFI’s naked opportunism has led to their own isolation from the student community and the struggle against Lyngdoh. The JNUSU Constitution and the legacy of forty years of progressive students’ movement associated with it is the common heritage of the entire student community, not to be bartered with the draconian Lyngdoh to fulfil the electoral ambitions of the SFI-AISA gang. They have been defeated in the battlefield of the UGBM, but the battle is far from over. Let’s raise the barricades to fight back the next wave of assault by these pro-Lyngdoh elements which will soon place the proposal of accepting Lyngdoh with ‘relaxations’ in another UGBM!

संघर्षों की जली मशाल, भागे दुश्मन और दलाल

2011-09-28T13:38:00.000+05:30

कल जब ललिंगदोह के लखलाफ JNU के सिंगलित छात्रों का सिंघषष तेज हुआ तो मुखौटों के पीछे के चेहरे सामने आ गए. परदा हटने पर केवी ग्राउिंड में जमा छात्रों ने देखा लक AISA-SFI-AISF-ABVP-NSUI एक ही पत्तल साझा कर रहे हैं. सूरज डूबते न डूबते छात्रों ने ललिंगदोह पर डिंडे बरसाने शुरू लकए तो ललिंगदोह की कमररया में लछपे सारे पाखिंडी लबललबला कर बाहर लनकले और अपने ही बुलाए UGBM और अपने ही एजेंडे को छोड़ कर भाग लनकले. वे ऐसे भागे जैसे पूिंछ में आग लगने पर कुत्ता भागता है. पूिंछ की यह आग बुझाने के ललए वे पूरे कैंपस में हक्का-बक्का दौड़ते रहे, लेलकन उन्हें चुल्लू भर पानी नसीब नहीं हुआ. जली हुई पूिंछ के टुकड़े एक-दो लदनों तक बदबू देंगे. परेशान न हों और उस पर ध्यान न दें.
वे भगोड़े हैं. मैदान छोड़ कर भागे हुए बेशमष दलालों का लगरोह. भागने का उनका इलतहास रहा है. AISF-SFI उसी जमात से आते हैं जो तेलिंगाना में सिंघषषरत लकसानों को मिंझधार में छोड़ कर फरार हो गई थी. वही जमात तेभागा में जमींदारों से लड़ रहे लकसानों को बीच में छोड़ कर भाग लनकली थी. ये 1946 में बिंबई के नौसेना लवद्रोह में लवद्रोही नौसैलनकों का साथ छोड़ कर भागने वाले लोग हैं. तब से लेकर अब तक भागने का एक अिंतहीन लसललसला है. उड़ीसा में पोस्को के लखलाफ आलदवालसयों के आिंदोलन को भी छोड़ कर वे भाग चले. ये रणछोड़ दास कल हमें लसखा रहे थे लक JNU में प्राइमरी किंट्रालडक्शन चुनाव नहीं होना है. ये भूल गए लक चुनावों पर रोक इसीललए लगी है लक हमने तीन सालों से लगातार ललिंगदोह को नकारा है. प्राइमरी किंट्रालडक्शन ललिंगदोह और छात्रों के लहतों के बीच का है, चुनाव का नहीं. तरस आती है लक लकसने उनकी टैग लाइन Study and Struggle रख दी. साफ जालहर है लक न इन्हें Study करनी आती है और न ये Struggle करते हैं. ये राजनीलत से इतने भागे हुए लोग हैं लक UGBM में इन्होंने Sleeping break की मािंग रखी. जब घर में आग लगी हुई हो तो कोई सो कैसे सकता है? असल में वे तो यही चाहते हैं लक ललिंगदोह लग जाए तो छात्र रोएिं (और सिंघषष करें) और ये चैन की नींद सोएिं. इन्हें परेशान होने की जरूरत नहीं है. जनता ने इन्हें बहुत पहले ही सोने की फुरसत दे रखी है. इनको बिंगाल से जनता ने खदेड़ा तो अपना बोररया-लबस्तर समेटे ये भागे-भागे JNU में आए लक अपनी खाट यहीं लबछा लें. लेलकन कल उनकी खाट छात्रों ने उलट दी.
भागने वालों में AISA आगे-आगे था. AISA और इसकी पैरेंट पाटी भाकपा माले ‘ललबरेशन’ तो भगोड़ों की ही जमात है. ये नक्सलबाड़ी की लाल आग में धधकते खेत-खललहानों में अगली कतारों में लड़ रहे लकसानों और मजदूरों को छोड़ कर भागे और सिंसदीय मािंद में घुस गए. आरक्षण के सिंघषष के दौरान ये ‘नो मिंडल-नो कमिंडल’ के नारे के साथ ब्राह्मणवालदयों के साथ जा लमले. जब कश्मीर और उत्तर-पूवष की जनता आजादी की मािंग करती है तो ये भागते हुए फिंडेड एनजीओ के पास पहुिंचते हैं और ‘अफ्सस्पा हटाओ’ का नारा बुलिंद करते हैं. इनकी असललयत यह है लक ये अफ्सस्पा, ऑपरेशन ग्रीन हिंट, सलवा जुडूम के बारे में बातें तो बहुत करते हैं लेलकन देश भर के कैंपसों में लागू लकए जा रहे ललिंगदोह रूपी अफ्ससपा, ग्रीन हिंट और सलवा जुडूम के फायदे लगनाते पाए जाते हैं. इनकी इन्हीं काली करतूतों के कारण लबहार की सिंघषषरत जनता ने इन्हें मार डिंडों के जो ‘सोझ’ लकया है लक आजकल इनके नेता इलाहाबाद-लदल्ली में भागे-भागे लफर रहे हैं. इनकी ‘लवनोद-बुलि’ देलखए लक ये लबहार से भगाए गए तो सीधे RSS-लवश्व बैंक के अन्ना आिंदोलन में पहुिंचे और उसे साम्राज्यवाद लवरोध का तमगा पहना लदया. इन्हें हर बार अपने भगोड़े सहोदर CPI(M) और SFI की शरण में ‘अपार सिंभावनाएिं’ लदखती हैं. इनकी इसी ‘लवनोद लमलित बुलि’ का कमाल है लक ये दूसरों को ललिंगदोह का ऑप्शन रखने के ललए गररयाते हैं और खुद ललिंगदोह के फायदे लगनाते हैं. इनका कहना है लक चूिंलक कुछ छात्र ललिंगदोह चाहते हैं इसललए आइसा के ललए ललिंगदोह भी एक लवकल्प है. वे जनतिंत्र की दुहाई देते हैं. देलखए लक उनका जनवाद लकसके पक्ष में खड़ा है और लकसको फायदा पहुिंचा रहा है. सवाल यह है लक क्या इस कैंपस और देश में मनुस्मृलत, लनजीकरण, वैश्वीकरण को लागू करने, मुसलमानों को देश से बाहर करने, ग्रीन हिंट और सलवा जुडूम को जारी रखने के लहमायलतयों की भी कोई कमी है? तो क्या AISA उनकी इन मािंगों को भी एक लवकल्प के रूप में देखता है. हमें तो यकीन है लक वे ऐसा ही देखते हैं और हमें यकीन है लक वे एक लदन मनुस्मृलत, ग्रीन हिंट, सलवा जुडूम, वैश्वीकरण, कारपोरेट लूट वगैरह के
फायदों की ताललका भी जारी करेंगे. मेहनतकश जनता का साथ छोड़ चुके ये भगोड़े बेकरार हैं लक उनकी लुलटया लकसी तरह बची रहे. तो क्या हम उनकी लुलटया को डूबने से बचाने के ललए अपने सिंघषों से हालसल अलधकारों और जनतािंलत्रक अलधकारों को दफन कर दें और लनजीकरण, कारपोरेटीकरण की छूट दे दें? आलखर लकस हैलसयत से कल रात को AISA नेता सिंदीप लसिंह JNUSU सिंलवधान को रद्द करने और UGBM को बिंद करने की खुलेआम मािंग कर रहे थे? आलखर उनकी औकात क्या है जो वे हमसे ऐसी कीमत चुकाने की उम्मीद रखते हैं? अपने इस घचपलचया स्टैंड के कारण ही वे छात्रों को फेस करने से इतना भागते हैं लक AISA के बुजुगषवार महारथी भी ‘एक नवागिंतुक छात्र’ की ओट में गरजते हैं (‘अनहद गरजै’).
हालािंलक भगोडों में कुछ और सिंगिन भी थे, लेलकन वे कैंपस में इन दोनों सिंगिनों के पुछल्ले भर हैं. ऊपरवाले दोनों भगोड़े बाकी भगोड़ों के कान में मिंतर पढ़ते हैं और वे रटे हुए तोते की तरह वही रेकाडष बजाते रहते हैं. उनमें से कुछेक बिंदर हैं. लदक्कत यह है लक जेएनयू में पेड़ बहुत हैं, लेलकन ‘शाखा’ नहीं है. चूिंलक ये बिंदर ‘शाखाओिं’ में आया-जाया करते हैं इसीललए वे यहािं शाखा रोपने की भरसक कोलशशें करते रहते हैं. ललिंगदोह उनके काम को आसान कर देता इसललए वे भी रिंगे लसयारों के साथ उछल कूद मचाते रहे. सालथयों, ये वे ताकतें हैं लजन्होंने झूि बोला, छात्रों को बरगलाया, चुनाव का एक उन्माद खड़ा लकया और इस उन्माद की लहरों पर सवार होकर ललिंगदोह को लाने की तैयारी की. उन्माद खड़ा करने का यह तरीका बाबरी मसलजद तोड़नेवालों का तरीका है, यह गुजरात के दिंगाइयों का तरीका है, यह रणवीर सेना, हरमाद वालहनी और सलवा जुडूम का तरीका है. यह अन्ना हजारे के लवश्वबैंक पोलषत फासीवादी आिंदोलन का तरीका है. यह कािंधमाल, झज्झर, गोहाना और खैरलािंजी का तरीका है. लपछले कुछ लदनों में साफ हो गया लक हमारे कैंपस में लकन-लकन सिंगिनों का चेहरा इन अपरालधयों से लमलता-जुलता है. उनके झिंडे के रिंग अलग-अलग हो सकते हैं लेलकन वे भीतर से एक हैं. इन्होंने जनवाद के नाम पर ललिंगदोह को कैंपस पर थोपने की कोलशश की, लेलकन उसी जनवाद ने इनकी कोलशशों को नकार लदया तो वे उसे लात मार कर चले गए. हम पूछना चाहेंगे लक यह कहािं का जनवाद है लक आप यूथ फॉर इक्वललटी, प्रशासन और सरकार की इच्छाओिं को तो एक लवकल्प के रूप में पेश करते हैं लेलकन जब आपके ही द्वारा बुलाए गए छात्र UGBM में अपनी बात कहना चाहते हैं तो आप उनकी बात सुनने को तैयार नहीं हुए और भाग चले? क्या यह आपके जनवाद की असललयत नहीं लदखाता, लजसमें प्रशासन, ब्राह्मणवालदयों और कारपोरेट किंपलनयों और सुप्रीम कोटष में ललिंगदोह का बचाव करने के ललए लनयुक्त सोलललसटर जनरल गोपाल सुब्रमण्यम की राय अहलमयत रखती है, लेलकन अपने ही कैंपस के छात्रों का सिंघषष, उम्मीदें और आकािंक्षाएिं अहलमयत नहीं रखतीं. जब UGBM में आए छात्रों ने इन दलाल-भगोड़ों SFI-AISA की मनमानी को मानने से इनकार कर लदया, जब ललिंगदोह को लाने के ललए लफर से बातचीत शुरू करने के ललए तानाशाही तरीके से प्रस्ताव रखने के उनके प्रयास को JNUSU के सिंलवधान के तहत छात्रों का पयाषप्त समथषन नहीं लमल पाया तो वे भाग खड़े हुए. उन्हें ललिंगदोह को नकारना था और वे JNUSU सिंलवधान को नकार कर चले गए. वे UGBM में छात्रों से चुनाव का मैंडेट लेने आए थे लजसे नकारे जाने पर UGBM से भागते हुए भी वे नारा लगा रहे थे लक वे चुनाव करा कर रहेंगे (भाड़ में जाए दुनिया, अपिा बाजे हरमुनिया). उन्होंने अपनी मिंशा साफ कर दी लक उन्हें छात्रों से लमले मैंडेट और लेलजलटमेसी वाला छात्र सिंघ नहीं चालहए. उन्हें कारपोरेट परस्त, ब्राह्मणवादी प्रशासन और सरकार से लमले मैंडेट और लेलजलटमेसी वाला छात्र सिंघ चालहए. ललिंगदोह ही उन्हें यह दे सकता है. इसीललए छात्र जब कल ललिंगदोह को भगाने का नारा लगा रहे थे तो वो उसकी लहमायत में भाग खड़े हुए. दो हजार छात्रों की मािंग को नकार कर गोपाल सुब्रमण्यम के एक फोन कॉल पर UGBM छोड़ कर जानेवालों ने यह साफ कर लदया लक वे आलखर लकसके पक्ष में खड़े हैं.
ललिंगदोह को लाकर कैंपस और लशक्षा के लनजीकरण, कारपोरेटीकरण, अ-राजनीलतकरण, मनुवादीकरण के लखलाफ इस ऐलतहालसक मौके पर DSU ने एक मजबूत प्रलतरोध खड़ा लकया और सिंघषष में छात्रों का नेतृत्व करते हुए उनको सही लदशा दी. UGBM में ललिंगदोह के लखलाफ प्रस्ताव का सवषसम्मलत से पास होना यह सालबत करता है लक अगर छात्रों को एक क्ािंलतकारी नेतृत्व लमले तो छात्र धमलकयों और प्रलोभनों के आगे झुकते नहीं, सिंघषष से भागते नहीं. वे मोचे पर अड़े रहते हैं. इसके ललए हम सारे सिंघषषशील छात्रों का शुलक्या अदा करना चाहते हैं. - उमर, हेम, शाश्वती, रूबीना, रेयाज, गोगोल, अंजली, मनभंजन

Students of JNU dealt a Crushing blow to the Conspiracy Hatched by the Pro-Lyngdoh Alliance of SFI-AISA-AISF-ABVP-NSUI to Sabotage and Stop the UGBM! The UGBM Reaffirms JNU Student Community’s Rejection of Lyngdoh Recommendations in JNU in Any Form and Upholds the JNUSU Constitution!

2011-09-28T13:32:00.002+05:30

DSU salutes the student community of JNU for unanimously passing the resolution in the UGBM held on 20 September 2011:

This UGBM rejects the draconian Lyngdoh Committee recommendations in JNU in any form, and upholds the JNUSU constitution. This house mandates that in any future referendum on JNUSU elections, Lyngdoh Committee recommendations will not be an option.

By ensuring the successful completion of the UGBM proceedings that culminated in the passing of this resolution, the students of the campus have resolutely defeated the pre-planned conspiracy hatched by the pro-Lyngdoh alliance of SFI-AISA-AISF-ABVP-NSUI to sabotage, scuttle and forcibly stall the UGBM midway, violating the rules of JNUSU Constitution. This is a resounding victory for the progressive students’ movement of the campus and a crushing defeat for those reactionary forces which tried to undermine the highest decision-making body of JNU students: the UGBM. It was the hundreds of students present at the UGBM who resisted the reactionary agents of Lyngdoh led by SFI-AISA to violate the sanctity of the UGBM and to scuttle it. Noticing the collective resistance of the student community who refused to follow their diktat of unconstitutionally stopping the UGBM, the pro-Lyngdoh bandwagon of SFI, AISA and their allies ABVP-NSUI ran away from the UGBM venue.

SFI and AISA wanted to stall the UGBM after Roshan Kishore, a SFI member, claimed that he received a phone call from former Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium’s office at around 7 pm, inviting the Joint Struggle Committee for negotiations on JNU student’s ongoing case against Lyngdoh in the Supreme Court. SFI and AISA concluded amongst themselves that after receiving the invitation from the former Solicitor General, there was no need to continue with the UGBM to decide on the upcoming referendum. A meeting of Joint Struggle Committee was hurriedly called by SFI and AISA at around 8.30 pm while the UGBM was still going on. SFI-AISA attempted to impose this highly undemocratic and arbitrary proposal on DSU and other constituent organisations of JSC. While NSUI and ABVP readily agreed to this unilateral proposal of SFI-AISA alliance, many other organisations opposed it, and there was no consensus in the JSC meeting, which ended inconclusively and in utter chaos. Thereafter SFI and AISA approached DSU and misled our members in the JSC by saying that there was already a consensus among all the organisations to place a common JSC resolution infront of the students. Misled by this assurance, DSU signed the proposed resolution. SFI-AISA leadership then immediately went to the dais and pressurised the Chairperson to accept the proposed resolution. DSU opposed this resolution because there was no consensus in the JSC regarding this. However, as the chair read it out, DSU immediately and publicly withdrew its signature.

We regret that DSU initially signed this proposed resolution under the impression that all other constituent organisations in JSC had agreed upon it. Nevertheless, DSU tenders its apologies to the student community of JNU for our momentary error of judgment. We immediately realised that as per the JNUSU Constitution, neither the JSC nor other organisations have the right to ask for an adjournment of UGBM proceedings and therefore we withdrew our signature.

We demanded that the calling off of the UGBM will be violation of JNUSU constitution and the UGBM debate should be continued. The pro-Lyngdoh alliance of SFI-AISA continued to put undue pressure on the Chairperson to table their ‘resolution’ for stopping the debate there and then, by flouting the JNUSU Constitution. The Chairperson read out from the JNUSU Constitution which said that any new resolution can be added to the agenda of a UGBM only when it is signed by one-tenth of the students present at the beginning of the UGBM, and will be tabled only after the debate is over. The UGBM debate was then continued, and seeing their conspiracy getting exposed and defeated by the collective assertion of students, the alliance of SFI-AISA-ABVP-NSUI ran away from the UGBM. The UGBM continued with hundreds of students, who were witness to this shameless escape of SFI and AISA from the UGBM floor and the ended in passing the anti-Lyngdoh resolution unanimously. The SFI and AISA hypocrites are going around in the campus spreading the rumour that the UGBM is null and void and that DSU is a part of their effort to scuttle the UGBM! We warn these liars once again not to take the student community for granted. The hundreds of students present in the UGBM ground were witness to their whole drama and their attempts to sabotage the UGBM before they finally and shamelessly fled from the venue. With their opportunist and reactionary acts on the floor of the UGBM, SFI and AISA have demonstrated that they are the most committed lackeys of not only Lyngdoh, but also of Gopal Subramanium, the former Solicitor General representing the Indian state. A single call from his office can prompt these ‘left’ organisations to undermine the UGBM in complete disregard and contempt for the JNUSU Constitution and the students of JNU who came to participate in the UGBM. SFI which was barking to defy the Supreme Court stay order led the exit of the reactionary pro-Lyngdoh block with AISA promptly following suit. The ‘anti-Lyngdoh’ rhetoric of AISA and SFI today stands completely exposed in front of the student community.

Both SFI and AISA were scared of the collective assertion of students against Lyngdoh. They were desperate to scuttle the UGBM and stop the debate because that was increasingly exposing their pro-Lyngdoh stands. Right at the beginning they came up with a proposal of a weird and unprecedented voting system that all the resolutions should be simultaneously voted upon and the people standing in favour of any resolution will be the only determinant of considering that resolution to be passed, thereby completely ruling out the votes in opposition to any resolution. They aggressively pressurised the chair to call off the UGBM arbitrarily without continuing with the debate. After thoroughly failing to sabotage the debates and the UGBM these degenerate forces ran away with their friends in NSUI and ABVP. SFI which was barking with all its radical posturing that they will ‘defy’ Supreme Court order till evening immediately ran away from the venue with AISA-NSUI-ABVP to negotiate with the Solicitor general. The shadow-boxing in the campus cannot hide the fact that both SFI and AISA are equally eager to sell the JNUSU Constitution in the name of ‘negotiations’ with the Solicitor General. Through this negotiation, SFI-AISA wants to conclude an out-of-court settlement with Gopal Subramnium – the lawyer representing the government of India – and conduct JNUSU elections as per Lyngdoh with one or two ‘relaxations’. This drama of ‘negotiation’ is going on for the last one year, without any outcome. He had kept delaying the appointment and in the three brief talks that he had with the JSC he showed no interest in any positive outcome. We warn SFI-AISA that the previous UGBM has mandated the JSC only to ‘negotiate’, not to compromise with the JNUSU Constitution and bring in Lyngdoh with ‘relaxations’. Last year when the proposal of ‘negotiation’ came DSU had opposed it. This principled rejection of Lyngdoh in any form has been once again reaffirmed by yesterday’s historic UGBM. DSU has drawn its lesson from our error of judgment yesterday that the class enemy and anti-people forces take various forms – from the imperialist and feudal forces with their array of direct assault on peoples’ struggles – to the revisionist and renegade ‘left’ forces who are the most opportunist of the reactionary alliance. Whereas we immediately rectified its error, there is no justification for it. On the contrary, our understanding of the range of tools at the hands of renegades like AISA and SFI stands sharpened, and with this our resolve for fighting this opportunist and anti-student alliance to the end! Yesterday’s UGBM has reaffirmed the students’ resoluteness in the struggle for JNUSU elections according to the JNUSU constitution as opposed to the draconian Lyngdoh Committee Recommendations!

We congratulate the erstwhile EC members, Ramya, Suli, Savita and Saurav who not only successfully chaired the UGBM but were also steadfast and extremely principled in upholding the JNUSU constitution till the end of the UGBM. They refused to bow down before any amount of pressure and set an inspiring example before the student community in our struggle to uphold the JNUSU constitution. We condemn in strongest words the lumpen and hostile behaviour of Sandeep Singh the erstwhile JNUSU president who is infamous for his authoritarianism and repeated scuttling of the JNUSU constitution himself while conducting UGBMs in the past. The way he misbehaved and tried to threaten and intimidate the chair was extremely offensive. He was duly supported by SFI goon Roshan Kishore. Such undemocratic and hostile behaviour is never a part of JNU politics and students will always reject such political bankruptcy and lumpenism.

Join united PROTEST MARCH against LYNGDOH

2011-09-28T13:30:00.000+05:30

In tomorrow’s crucial UGBM, the student community will have to decide not only the modalities of the referendum we will adopt, but also its politics. The politics behind the model of referendum suggested by SFI and AISA is very clear: for the first time in our four-year long struggle against Lyngdoh, a ground is being prepared for surrender by these two organisations. Accepting elections according to the draconian Lyngdoh Committee recommendations will lead into forming a puppet union. Lyngdoh is for depoliticisation and administrative control of students’ politics. Over the last four years, students of this campus have consistently rejected the option of conducting JNUSU elections by implementing Lyngdoh regulations. The historic struggle of JNU students against Lyngdoh still continues. We must push for the final victory over Lyngdoh rather than meekly abandoning the struggle midway. Therefore DSU has strongly maintained that we must collectively oppose all resolutions which say that the upcoming referendum should include elections as per Lyngdoh as an ‘option’. To continue our struggle against imposition of Lyngdoh and to keep alive the legacy of forty years of JNU’s progressive students’ movement, we must defeat SFI and AISA’s pro-Lyngdoh resolutions on the floor of the UGBM. As an alternative, DSU will place a resolution in the UGBM that the referendum should be conducted with the two options:

1. Conduct JNUSU elections as per the JNUSU Constitution ignoring the court’s stay order.

2. Conduct elections for the Joint Struggle Committee as an interim measure till the JNUSU elections according to the JNUSU Constitution is reinstated.

DSU’s proposal firmly upholds our collective commitment to uncompromising fight against Lyngdoh, and opens up the possibility of conducting elections without undermining the JNUSU Constitution. The first option of holding elections as per the JNUSU Constitution by ignoring the court’s stay has always been open for the student community, and we believe that it is still an option in front of the student community. The second option of conducting elections for the Joint Struggle Committee as an interim measure will address the need for an elected students’ body. The elected JSC will not only continue to fight against Lyngdoh, but can also lead the struggles on various other pressing student-related issues. The model of elections and structure of union prescribed by the JNUSU Constitution can be the guiding framework for holding the JSC elections. So far JSC has been a platform of various anti-Lyngdoh students’ organisations in the campus. Through elections, we can now make JSC the legitimate representative body of the entire student community, till the JNUSU as per its constitution is restored. The JSC afterall is the only legitimate body which all organizations (except the casteist brigade of Y4E) recognize so there fore instead of forming any new body this body can be turned into an elected body.

After renegade SFI’s treacherous pro-Lyngdoh plan got thoroughly exposed in the last few days, it has yesterday emerged with a new strategy to smuggle-in Lyngdoh. SFI first thought it will simply fool the students’ community by creating a desperate situation in which elections by Lyngdoh will emerge as the ‘only option’. It criminally and deliberately refrained from talking about the dangers of Lyngdoh, especially to new students. After it’s game plan failed miserably as students are neither fools nor they have forgotten the fight against Lyngdoh, SFI came up with a ‘new strategy’ which also leads to Lyngdoh, but with two steps instead of one. In the garb of a “clear and categorical” position in favour of holding elections by ignoring the court’s stay, SFI has laid bare its roadmap to Lyngdoh. SFI supports this option not as a political act of defiance to Lyngdoh, but because this “will not involve any further delay” (18.9.2011)! SFI hopes that when the election process for the JNUSU elections as per the JNUSU Constitution starts, the Supreme Court will stop the process. They calculate that students will then become so hopeless and desperate that they will accept elections even with Lyngdoh. In this way SFI expects a smooth transition of JNU student community’s stance from opposing Lyngdoh to accepting Lyngdoh within a matter of one or two days, so that a Lyngdoh-regulated election is held by end-October. SFI will never come out of its hysteric promotion of Lyngdoh to fulfil the wish of “JNUSU elections in this semester by hook or by crook”. But the students of this campus have always exposed, defeated and rejected this renegade force in the past too. When they blatantly supported the monopoly Nestle outlet, when they refused to show blackflag to Manmohan Singh, when they tried to backstab the movement for minimum wages for workers and asked for witch hunting of students by the administration; in all these occasion students have given them a fitting rebuff. It is time once again we reject these renegades.

SFI’s B-team AISA is opting for Lyngdoh too, but with its characteristic convoluted means. AISA is known in this campus for confusing students before they take a reactionary position. Right from the beginning of the semester AISA has not spoken a word against Lyngdoh. All it wants is an ‘informed debate’. This imaginary ‘debate’ they keep referring to is probably happening in moon because in campus, without any debate they have shamelessly included Lyngdoh as an ‘option’ in their proposed referendum. Much like SFI they are also putting the onus back on students saying, since some students want Lyngdoh, they are forced to consider this as an ‘option’. In the past four years through every UGBM haven’t the students of JNU made their steadfast defiance to Lyngdoh amply clear? Moreover, even in this campus there are students who support the implementation of the deathly AFSPA or who believe that the casteist communal manusmriti should be upheld. So should we presume that these are also ‘options’ for AISA’s degenerate politics? Instead of rejecting the draconian Lyngdoh Committee why then AISA is flaunting it as an ‘option’? They have publicly decried the option of defiance but are yet to bring out their critique and condemnation (forget about rejection) of Lyngdoh as an ‘option’. Their pro-Lyngdoh position becomes apparent not only from their criminal silence on Lyngdoh but also from their proposed resolution for the referendum which is a clear attempt to divide the anti-Lyngdoh votes so that they can smoothly pave way for Lyngdoh!

In tomorrow’s UGBM we need to defeat both SFI and AISA’s resolutions which are keeping Lyngdoh as an ‘option’ and thereby trying to sabotage the entire democratic tradition of the campus which was painstakingly built over the last forty years. These two organizations currently are involving in a meaningless shadow boxing to create a false debate. Both of them are competing to bring Lyngdoh in campus and thereby surrender our history of struggle, and our assertive political students’ movement which had always denied administrative control. We appeal to students to come out in large numbers in tonight’s protest march against Lyngdoh and to participate in tomorrow’s UGBM to ensure that the draconian Lyngdoh gets no place in this campus. Let us show the agents of Lyngdoh, that whenever it mattered historically the students of this campus have never ever failed.

Reject any resolution in the UGBM which keeps the draconian Lyngdoh as an ‘option’! Our JNUSU constitution long live!

2011-09-28T13:20:00.000+05:30

Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. AISA has managed to find ‘advantages’ of accepting the draconian Lyngdoh regulations for holding JNUSU elections – something unthinkable for anyone in JNU with even a pretence of progressive politics. Even Lyngdoh’s proven bootlicker SFI has so far avoided citing any ‘positive points’ of Lyngdoh publicly, being scared the overwhelming opposition of the students. SFI has been busy for quite some time in clandestinely laying red carpets to Lyngdoh, first in the name of “negotiation with the Solicitor General” and now through their proposal for a referendum. SFI can now take inspiration from AISA and muster courage to publicly talk of Lyngdoh’s ‘advantages’! AISA, however, is not simply being foolish by giving a positive “assessment” of Lyngdoh. They have taken SFI’s long-standing pro-Lyngdoh position to its logical conclusion – opening the doors to invite Lyngdoh with open arms.

AISA has discovered two “advantages” of holding JNUSU elections as per Lyngdoh “as an interim measure”. But as the students of this campus know, both are bogus claims of ‘advantage’. First, AISA says that if we conduct elections as per Lyngdoh, “we will have an official, elected JNUSU”. What does AISA mean by an “official JNUSU”? That it will be recognised by the administration? AISA should have been ashamed to talk in the language of the administration, which always discriminates between an ‘official’ and ‘unofficial’ union. The greatest source of strength and legitimacy for JNUSU has been the student community, which acknowledges it as the only platform of all JNU students for collective representation and struggle. JNU administration did not recognise JNUSU out of their goodwill. Students have fought in the past and forced the administration to recognise JNUSU. AISA, which has led the JNUSU for many terms in the past, should remember these struggles of the JNU students, before talking about a ‘official’ JNUSU. When a countrywide Emergency was declared during 1975-77 and all students’ union activity was banned, JNUSU did not bow down to the diktat, but continued to function with the support of the students, even though it was not recognised as ‘official’ union by the administration. Even in 2008 when Lyngdoh was imposed and the JNUSU elected according to the JNUSU Constitution was declared ‘illegal’, the student community extended the term of AISA-led JNUSU of 2007-08 for nearly eight months as an act of defiance. A union has to be recognised by the student, and not necessarily by the powers-that-be. Does AISA remember the ongoing struggle of the Maruti workers in Gurgaon, who are fighting for an independent union of their own in place of the ‘official’ union already existing in the factory? With Lyngdoh, we may have an ‘official’ union recognised by the administration, as AISA is wishing for. But it will not have the legitimacy and recognition of the students.

The second ‘advantage’ of inviting Lyngdoh, AISA tells us, is that “our case against Lyngdoh in the Supreme Court will not be adversely affected”. This is a blatant lie. Senior supreme court advocate Sanjay Parekh, who is fighting the legal battle on behalf of JNU students, has categorically stated that accepting Lyngdoh even as an interim measure will seriously jeopardise our case. After electing a JNUSU as per Lyngdoh, we will not have enough grounds to pressurise the court for an early settlement of our case in the Constitution bench. Once we surrender before Lyngdoh, the court will take Lyngdoh as fait accompli in JNU and our fight in the court case will only remain symbolic, bound to be defeated at the end. Advocate Parekh has been advising the JSC against holding elections as per Lyngdoh keeping the adverse affect on our case in mind. Therefore renegade SFI has tried of late to get him removed as our lawyer and appoint another one who will be favourable to Lyngdoh! AISA should not think that it can fool the student community with its bogus “assessment” of “no adverse affect on the case”. Accepting Lyngdoh is going to have disastrous consequences for out four-year old Supreme Court case, and we will lose the historic possibility of scrapping the authoritarian Lyngdoh regulations through our legal and political struggle once and for all.

AISA can choose to become the mouthpiece of Lyngdoh by citing hundreds of ‘advantages’, but the student community will not bow down Lyngdoh. We oppose AISA’s treacherous suggestion for a referendum with three ‘options’, which includes the ‘option’ to “Accept Lyngdoh recommendations as an interim measure and hold JNUSU elections, while continuing to fight our case in the Supreme Court”. It is as good as proposing that we will surrender to Lyngdoh as an interim measure while continuing to fight Lyngdoh in the court. What kind of anti-Lyngdoh battle will a Lyngdoh-regulated JNUSU fight? By proposing Lyngdoh as an ‘option’, AISA too has joined the ranks of traitors YFE and SFI. By shamelessly counting the “advantages” of Lyngdoh, they have even surpassed SFI in their act of betrayal and opportunism.

Lyngdoh (SFI) or Lyngdoh (AISA), the difference is only in the label: While AISA has repeatedly sermonised the student community in their pamphlet about the need for “informed choice”, “informed debates and discussions”, “informed decision” etc., AISA itself has cleverly avoided publicly declaring their own choice among the three ‘options’. Clearly, accepting elections as per Lyngdoh is the ‘option’ for AISA. That is why they have included this as one of the ‘options’ for the proposed referendum, much like SFI. We ask AISA the same question we have asked to SFI: can AISA suggest JNUSU elections as per Lyngdoh while still remaining in the Joint Struggle Committee (JSC), which has been mandated by the student community to struggle for restoring JNUSU Constitution against the incursion of Lyngdoh? Both AISA and SFI have shown their true colours by endorsing Lyngdoh as one of the “available options”. SFI and AISA’s proposals are essentially the same in their pro-Lyngdoh character. Only, AISA’s proposal is much more sinister.

AISA has deliberately brought the proposal of three ‘options’, despite knowing that it is technically flawed for a referendum where the electorate is asked to choose from only two available options. Moreover, at a time when the campus is sharply polarised between anti-Lyngdoh and pro-Lyngdoh positions, AISA has brought its theory of three ‘options’ in order to spread malicious confusion within the anti-Lyngdoh section of the students. If the referendum is allowed to be conducted with AISA’s three options, the anti-Lyngdoh students will be split between the two options: Holding JNUSU elections as per JNUSU Constitution by defying the court’s stay order (option 1) and, Holding elections to a ‘new student body’ (option 3). If AISA’s proposal is accepted, a split among the anti-Lyngdoh students is inevitable, in which case Lyngdoh’s entry to JNU will become much easier. AISA is either too foolish or too clever to ignore this eventuality. We must therefore reject this devious proposal.

AISA, much like SFI, has embraced Lyngdoh in Delhi University (DU) and in many other campuses elsewhere. This is in spite of the claim made in its ‘Basic Programme’ that AISA is “Against the implementation of the Lyngdoh Committee Recommendation in campuses” (www.aisa.in). Have they been participating in Lyngdoh-regulated elections in DU “as an interim measure”? We all know that after the imposition of Lyngdoh regulations in DU students’ union elections, no student beyond 25 years is allowed to contest elections, eligibility of candidates is determined by the administration on the basis of their ‘merit’, every candidate is compelled to submit an affidavit declaring that he or she does not have any previous ‘criminal record’, all candidates are asked to deposit ‘security money’, no campaign is allowed after 10pm, all the candidates are asked to submit ‘audited accounts’ of their election expenditure, the presumed violation of ‘offences related to elections’ leads to registering cases under the IPC, etc. AISA and SFI have been following these draconian rules in DUSU elections diligently for the last few years, without a trace of any ‘struggle’. After abandoning the struggle against Lyngdoh outside JNU, AISA and SFI are preparing to welcome Lyngdoh to JNU as well. AISA’s defection to the pro-Lyngdoh camp is therefore not accidental, but it is their “informed decision”.

AISA is indulging in double-speak. It demands an “informed debate” among the students on all the available options, while AISA keeps a calculated silence their own choice. There are only two ‘options’: either to reject Lyngdoh or to accept Lyngdoh. Where does AISA stand? They must come clean! AISA also appeals to the student community for unity. But can there be a unity between the supporters and opponents of Lyngdoh? It is a contradiction which cannot be resolved by AISA by opportunistically presenting pro-Lyngdoh and anti-Lyngdoh ‘options’ together, much like the renegade SFI.

DSU has consistently argued that accepting Lyngdoh for JNUSU elections is not an option even worth considering, because it goes against the democratic legacy of JNU’s four decades long autonomous and independent students’ movement. This ‘option’ also undermines and weakens our collective struggle against Lyngdoh for the last four years. Moreover, it will jeopardise our case in the supreme court beyond recovery. DSU proposes that the referendum be conducted with the two available options:

1. Conduct JNUSU Elections as per the JNUSU Constitution by ignoring the court’s stay order.

2. Conduct elections for the Joint Struggle Committee in the interim till the JNUSU elections can be conducted as per JNUSU Constitution.

AISA claims that DSU’s proposal for elections to the Joint Struggle Committee as an option “in this form is technically flawed”. This is a deliberate lie aimed at confusing the student community. First of all, the question here is not technical as AISA is making it, but it is fundamentally political. JSC was formed by the students as a weapon of struggle against Lyngdoh, representing all anti-Lyngdoh students’ organisations on campus. It is a representative body of the students’ organisations, now is the time to make it a representative body of the entire student community. The JSC – elected through a democratic process – will have legitimacy and acceptance among the students which will be at par with JNUSU as an interim measure until elections can be conducted according to the JNUSU Constitution. Of course, the administration will not recognise it as an ‘official’ union or the legitimate body of the students. But as a duly elected students’ body, the JSC will be able to fight and win its right to represent the students in all forums until the JNUSU is restored as per its Constitution. As opposed to DSU’s concrete option of elections to JSC, AISA has floated the idea of elections to an ambiguous “new student body”. AISA must explain what it means by a ‘new student body’ before irresponsibly throwing it up as yet another ‘option’.

In the upcoming UGBM of 20 September (Monday), we are going to decide what model of referendum we will adopt. Do we want a referendum where accepting Lyngdoh is an ‘option’? Or do we want a referendum where we choose between two anti-Lyngdoh options for conducting elections? The choice is clear. Both SFI and AISA have argued for including Lyngdoh as an option in their respective versions of the referendum. This is in clear violation of the pledge the students of JNU have taken through a unanimous UGBM resolution on 25th October 2008:

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 Elections 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.

DSU remains committed to this resolution, and opposes both AISA and SFI which are acting as lackeys of Lyngdoh. The desperation of these two politically bankrupt organisations is obvious. They are tired of the four-year long struggle, and want to reach to a convenient compromise. AISA and SFI are hoping that by putting the onus of inviting Lyngdoh on the students, they will be able to smuggle into JNU their ‘official’ and ‘technically correct’ Lyngdoh-union, which will enjoy immediate recognition from the administration. But students of JNU will not allow SFI-AISA, or anyone who advocates Lyngdoh, to sell-out the spirit of struggle of the students of this campus. SFI-AISA will not be allowed to barter JNU’s tradition of defiance to authority and authoritarianism in the form of Lyngdoh, UAPA, AFSPA, Death Penalty, Green Hunt, state repression... Students know that it is easy to raise slogans against manifestations of authoritarianism, but when it comes to fighting an uncompromising battle against it, many opportunists back out. Let us be very clear. It is not only the choice we make in the referendum that will decide our campus’ future. The future of the campus depends also on the choice of referendum we make in the UGBM preceding the referendum. We appeal to you to stand resolutely and decisively against Lyngdoh by rejecting any model of referendum that offers Lyngdoh as an ‘option’. We are convinced that the banner of students’ movement in JNU will be carried forward by those who struggle, and not by those who surrender. Long live JNUSU! Long Live JNUSU Constitution!

Brutal police firing kills seven dalit protesters in Tamil Nadu! Down with the feudal casteist Jayalalitha government and her ruthless mercenary forces!

2011-09-28T12:25:00.000+05:30

Yesterday in two separate incidents the Tamil Nadu police open fired on a mass of dalit protesters in Paramakudi and Madurai resulting into the death of seven people and injuring many others. The people there had gathered for the annual protest program they do to mourn the death of Immanuel Sekaran, a dalit leader who was killed by goons belonging to the dominant Kallar castes, on 11 September, 1957.

The commemoration of Immanuel Sekaran’s death has historically been a day for collective protest and assertion by the dalits. Thousands of people gather that day in Paramakudi to protest against the feudal caste oppressions that are still a glaring and ruthless reality which the dalits are forced to live with. Every year the dominant castes like kallars (mukullathor) try to jeopardize this assertive gathering of the dalits. Needless to say the police which always acts as a mercenary force of the dominant castes and the ruling class also play an active role every year to break up this protest. Almost every year, prior to the protest a dalit person is killed and making that as a pretext, the state declares 144 to dismantle the protest. This year too, on 10^th September, a young dalit person was killed and that was used as an excuse to stop the gathering this year. Despite the threats issued by the police and the state, John Pandian, a dalit leader declared his participation in the rally. The police arrested him a day before making bogus charges that his speech could provoke communal tension! Next day, the people who had gathered for the rally were also infuriated for the arrests and the murder. The angry yet unarmed people confronted the police as they tried to prevent the rally at various places. The police then started unabashed firing, killing five people in two incidents, two more succumbed to the injuries later. The media as usual is trying to black out the incident and trying to portray it as a ‘clash’ between mob and the police. The casteist and communal fascist Jayalaitha government is also trying its very best to cover up the real incident. The feudal forces entrenched in Indian society has always used all means to break assertive protests by the dalits. The growing resistance of the dalits and other oppressed masses will have to overhaul this brahminical social system in order to end this ceaseless oppression of the dominant castes.

Join

EFFIGY BURNING
OF JAYALALITHA GOVERNMENT
13^th Sep, 5.30 pm. Sabarmati Dhaba!

Reject renegade SFI’s nefarious attempts to REPLACE the STRUGGLE against Lyngdoh with a SURRENDER to Lyngdoh!

2011-09-15T16:47:00.003+05:30

SFI has recently conducted an “Opinion Poll” unilaterally and by undermining the JSC, which has jeopardised our collective struggle against imposition of Lyngdoh and for restoring JNUSU election as per JNUSU Constitution. SFI has been engaging in acts of highly condemnable one-upmanship and sectarian behaviour. This is a display of utter contempt for collective functioning and complete disregard for the implications of its irresponsible acts on the ongoing legal battle at the Supreme Court. SFI is propagating that the lack of an elected JNUSU for four years has done irreparable damage to the student movement. But have they ever bothered to even think what kind of damage it will do if we throw away the JNUSU Constitution and welcome Lyngdoh to the campus? It will put an end to our four years long political and legal struggle against Lyngdoh and our defiance of draconian regulations imposed by the State.

Welcoming Lyngdoh will not merely damage, but will destroy JNU’s student movement beyond repair, once and for all. This will be a tremendous setback to the four decades of JNU’s progressive and democratic movement built up by generations of students. It is this movement which has produced the JNUSU Constitution – the foundation and the guiding document for JNU’s long tradition of progressive students’ politics. If we replace this Constitution with the draconian Lyngdoh, we will of course get an elected union, but not our JNUSU. A students’ union with Lyngdoh will be reduced to a lapdog of the administration – a toothless body at the mercy of the Pink Palace. It will no longer remain a platform of struggle. Do we, the present students of JNU, have the right to sacrifice this long-standing democratic tradition for the sake of a sham election and a puppet union to fulfil the electoral ambitions of renegade SFI? Should we abandon our responsibility to carry forward the legacy of the struggle to restore JNUSU and its Constitution even if this means a prolonged struggle? We want to remind SFI that there is no short-cut to struggle, and surrender is not a replacement for the fight for democratic principles and politics.

Apart from the high possibility that SFI has clandestinely manipulated the numbers of the unilateral “opinion poll” to show the numbers in their favour (we should not forget that CPIM and SFI have a long record of rigging all elections in Kerala and Bengal when in power), SFI has also openly misinterpreted the verdict of the unilateral “opinion poll” in their leaflet (13.9.2011):

(a) SFI has claimed that 79% students are in favour of conducting elections this semester. This is a blatant lie and twisting of facts. In none of the “options” given to the students in the “Opinion Poll” was it mentioned that election has to be conducted within this semester, or within any specific deadline. The students were not asked for any deadline nor did they choose any deadline. It is only SFI which is desperately looking for elections with Lyngdoh within this semester, thereby betraying the four-year long hard-fought struggle against the draconian Lyngdoh recommendations. This is very much in keeping with SFI and CPI(M)’s opportunist and degenerate politics.

(b) SFI also claims that 37% students are in favour conducting elections by rejecting Lyngdoh and as per JNUSU Constitution, while 42% are in favour of elections as per Lyngdoh and by rejecting JNUSU Constitution. This is another open lie and manipulation, because with the 37% who are against conducting elections according to Lyngdoh, we must also add the significant number of 12% students in SFI’s “opinion poll” who believes that Lyngdoh should not be accepted and the court case should be pursued to its logical end. Therefore, the number of students who have rejected Lyngdoh in the “poll” is as much as 49% (37%+12%), while going by SFI’s version, only 42% (which of course include SFI and Youth for Equality members) are in favour of surrendering to Lyngdoh. SFI should take it as a clear warning from the student community that majority of them are not going to tolerate the ‘option’ of total surrender to Lyngdoh and betrayal of the JNUSU Constitution.

SFI is desperate to conduct elections by hook or crook within this semester, hoping that elections can revive its fast-receding acceptance among the students of the campus, even if at the cost of putting the noose of Lyngdoh on the neck of JNU students. Yet they are scared of openly advocating Lyngdoh, apprehending a backlash coming from student’s overwhelming opposition. Though SFI has been very eager to know the ‘opinion’ of the students and have put forward their theory of available ‘options’, they themselves have not publicly declared their own position on whether they want elections as per Lyngdoh or according to JNUSU constitution. A fine example of SFI’s hypocrisy and double standard!

Let us be in no illusion. SFI wants JNUSU elections as per Lyngdoh and not JNUSU Constitution. In fact, SFI has always supported and welcomed Lyngdoh recommendations at an all-India level. In one of the first joint public meetings after the imposition of Lyngdoh in JNU in 2008, a speaker from SFI’s central leadership quoted from a resolution. In this resolution by SFI’s central secretariat, they welcomed the Lyngdoh committee recommendations. SFI argued that Lyngdoh could be ‘used’ by progressive forces to strengthen campus democracy and to conduct union elections in campuses where such elections are not held!

But there has been a total opposition to Lyngdoh from the student community of JNU (except the arch-reactionary YFE which gave slogans like Lyngdoh Zindabad!). The very first UGBM on Lyngdoh passed the resolution of opposing Lyngdoh in JNU in toto, and established the Joint Struggle Committee with the mandate to fight for restoring the elections as per JNUSU Constitution. Seeing the overwhelming mood of the students, SFI in JNU quietly shelved its position of ‘welcoming Lyngdoh’ at that time. SFI is fully aware that the opinion of the students even today is decidedly against welcoming Lyngdoh and throwing the JNUSU Constitution into the dustbin. So SFI does not want to take the risk of inviting Lyngdoh. Therefore it is cleverly trying to put the onus of welcoming Lyngdoh and undermining JNUSU Constitution on the students through spurious “Opinion Polls”, and is aiming to do so once again with their proposed ‘Referendum’. SFI is working with a dangerous game-plan.

Rather than playing shadow-boxing with their tricks of “options” and “opinions”, we dare the SFI renegades to come out openly with their position of supporting JNUSU elections as per Lyngdoh. Or else, we will be forced to seek a referendum for expelling SFI from the Joint Struggle Committee, because the JSC is mandated to struggle against Lyngdoh, not to find ways to surrender in front of Lyngdoh. SFI has no right to advocate Lyngdoh while still remaining within JSC. They must remember that students threw out YFE from JSC in 2008 in a UGBM for advocating Lyngdoh. Accepting Lyngdoh in any form and undermining JNUSU Constitution is not an ‘option’. DSU will continue to resist tooth and nail any attempt to bring Lyngdoh to JNU. We appeal to the student community to stand steadfastly in defense of JNUSU Constitution as they have done in the last four years, and defeat SFI’s nefarious attempts to backstab JNU student movement’s four-decades long democratic tradition.

JNUSU elections according to JNUSU constitution! Reject Lyngdoh Committee Recommendations! Defeat the opportunist and degenerate politics of SFI!!

2011-09-09T02:11:00.000+05:30

For the last three years the JNU students have refused to succumb before the reactionary Lyngdoh Committee Recommendations and are fighting both legal and political battle against it. While most of the universities were forced to accept Lyngdoh, it is JNU which is still fighting against these reactionary set of restrictions on students politics. Among many other petitions that had been filed in the Supreme Court challenging Lyngdoh, the Supreme Court gave a hearing to only the petition filed by JNU. Owing to our political and legal struggle the petition filed by the Joint Struggle Committee has been recommended to the constitutional bench after the two judge bench in the Supreme Court commented that ‘prima facie the Lyngdoh Recommendations infringes on the constitutional rights of the students to hold elections. This judgment has put a question on the credibility on Lyngdoh. This indeed is a decisive step ahead in our struggle against Lyngdoh.

SFI was never serious in the struggle against Lyngdoh. SFI outside JNU had always welcomed the reactionary Lyngdoh Committee recommendations. Within JNU because of the force of progressive students’ movements they were forced to posture against Lyngdoh. But now they have openly stated that having elections according to Lyngdoh is ‘an option’ for them. Precisely what YFE had stated three years back. They last year had come up with the ‘ingenious’ idea that we should ‘negotiate’ with the solicitor general to get some ‘relaxations’ from Lyngdoh. AISA too after initial hesitation and confusion finally joined the bandwagon with SFI, NSUI and ABVP to mislead the students that such negotiation is possible! Gopal Subramaniam, the erstwhile Solicitor General never took the negotiations seriously and at the end resigned without ensuring any solution to the case. One full year in the struggle was thus lost. If instead of getting into such unsure and loose means of ‘negotiation’ with the same forces which had imposed Lyngdoh on us, the JSC had rather intensified the legal and political battle against Lyngdoh, there was a thick chance of us having JNUSU elections according to JNUSU constitution this year. SFI’s attempt to create a frenzy only for JNUSU elections without opposing Lyngdoh is thus hollow, opportunist and dangerous since it ultimately paves way for Lyngdoh. SFI is trying to derail the battle against Lyngdoh by creating confusions among lawyers and taking up sheer one-upmanship. We must remind them that the student community of JNU (except the casteist agents of the administration YFE) understands and have always in all the UGBMs and protest actions clearly rejected the reactionary Lyngdoh Recommendations in JNU. We have always fought for our own constitution because elections in JNU are not just a bureaucratic exercise but have always been an intense political exercise. JNUSU whose legacy we always claim will never be the same once the Lyngdoh restrictions are implemented and that will be an irreparable blow to the progressive, socially just and dynamic nature of JNU students’ movement.

Lyngdoh Committee recommendations are clearly directed at producing puppet unions which are depoliticized and severely restricted. The Lyngdoh Recommendations deliberately restrict participation of students in election process and severely curtails the scope for political debates and discussion. It puts meaningless conditions to determine eligibility of students to fight elections. It clearly wants student unions to remain aloof from larger politics and the struggles of people. Moreover, it gives sweeping powers in the hands of the administration to regularly intervene in the election process and also cancel any one’s candidature even after (s)he is elected. In Kumayun University for example, the administration had repeatedly used Lyngdoh much after the elections to nullify elected students’ union whenever they have fought against the administration on genuine students’ demands. In JNU the legacy of students’ movement lies in fighting continuous progressive battles against the administration to ensure the rights of the students. The state and the administration want to curb that space and therefore, although there had been no use of money and muscle power in JNU students’ union election, the Supreme Court intervened and stopped the elections. The only answer to that should be an assertive fight reclaiming our political struggles and not an abject surrender infront of the powers that be to accept Lyngdoh.

Lyngdoh is a stated agent of neo-liberalism: The Lyngdoh Committee Recommendations came after the Birla-Ambani report, the Knowledge commission Report on education and many other World Bank funded reports on education, which identified organized students’ movement to be a direct impediment for privatization of education. The Indian state is currently at a violent spree to ruthlessly privatize education. The tentacles of privatization are already covertly reaching JNU and if we do not resist it, more privatization will soon destroy the socially just character of JNU and the subsidized education that we enjoy will soon be robbed. Education here too, will be turned into a commodity purchased by the elite and the affluent. A puppet union restricted by Lyngdoh can never fight militant students’ struggle against privatization. Thus SFI whose parent CPM is a loyal lapdog of neo-liberalism, has no problems whatsoever in accepting Lyngdoh in JNU, as they have done elsewhere. AISA keeping up its opportunist track record is yet to spell its position clearly against Lyngdoh in the present context of the struggle. We must fortify our legal and political battle against Lyngdoh and ensure JNUSU elections according to JNUSU constitution.