Despite Sanghis' best efforts, JNU came out stronger

After the Union government-backed assault on Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on February 9 this year, with many students accused of a variety of illegal actions, three – JNU Students' Union president Kanhaiya Kumar and prominent activists Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya - were arrested under sedition charges.

The Section 124A Indian Penal Code on sedition, which is an 1870 law brought in after the 1857 Revolt by the British, was ironically dubbed by Mahatma Gandhi as "the prince of all laws", since he himself was arrested under it.

But the Sangh Parivar had another arrow in its quiver. The university's new vice-chancellor, Prof M Jagadesh Kumar, from IIT Delhi turned out to be pro-current Union Government and did not restrain the Delhi Police from sweeping the campus for potential suspects.

More students were called for questioning. Professor Kumar, when questioned about his leanings, claimed he was not politically affiliated. But in Google groups he posted an article on "The National Relevance of the RSS in our National Life", written by HV Seshadri, general secretary of the RSS, in 1994.

Another article was on "Devanagari: The Perfect Script", that argued that the Aryan languages were indigenous, and so were the Aryans themselves (same site in Google groups). This was hosted by The Organiser, New Delhi, the weekly magazine of the RSS.

There is nothing wrong in belonging to a political party, or being a sympathiser of one, but from Prof Kumar's own statements, he did not reveal his political predilection to those in the selection process for choosing the JNU vice-chancellor (V-C).

Under the circumstances, the V-C set up a high-level inquiry committee (HLEC) with students and teachers, both partisan and selective. The HLEC was stayed by the Delhi High Court.

The V-C levelled fines on students for their activism, and later banned those who had not paid up - 17 students were barred from voting in the students' union election on September 9.

On the other hand, a colleague who brought out a sexist and politically-biased dossier and sent it to the Union human resources development ministry and home ministry without going through the proper channels has not been punished.

So this is the atmosphere in which the JNUSU fought the elections. Some commentators predicted an ABVP sweep. The opposite happened.

The results, calculated by the students' election commission, showed that the "Left Unity" group of CPI(ML)-linked AISA aligned with the CPI(M)-linked SFI had a sweeping victory.

The LU alliance won all four major posts, president, vice-president, general secretary and joint secretary. For the president's post, AISA's Mohit Pandey got 1,815 of 4,865 votes polled, whereas the second-placed BAPSA's (OBC-led group) Rahul got 1,488 votes.

For the post of vice-president, SFI's Amal got the maximum of all candidates for all seats, 2,300 votes; Rajiv Ranjan of ABVP trailed with 1,116 votes.

For the general secretary's post, SFI's Satarupa got 2,253 votes, whereas ABVP's Vijay got 1,287. For the post of joint secretary, AISA's Tabrez won with 1,533 votes, with Pratim of DSF (a break-away from SFI) second, and ABVP's Om Prakash third with 940 votes.

The majority of student councillors of 17 out of 31 are with the LU groups who, including the four office-bearers, have a comfortable majority. Further, the Left DSF, which was not part of the Left Unity alliance, will oppose the ABVP alliance. The ABVP won only one councillor, but is trying to wean away some Independents. The NSUI did not win a single post.

So, despite severe pressure from the Union government, the Delhi Police and the JNU administration, the basic principles of the JNU in general, and the JNUSU triumphed again.

Despite all Sangh machinations, the JNU has come out stronger than before. It is truly a historic victory against all odds.

Also read: Why ABVP has stronger chances to win JNUSU elections