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Indian Express
24-04-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
JNUSU election: From Pahalgam to Palestine, spirit of student politics marks presidential debate
As dusk gave way to darkness Wednesday, the air over Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) grew thick, not just with dust kicked up by dancing feet and ceaseless drum beats, but with tension, slogans, and the spirit of the Students' Union elections. This year, amid tensions on the campus over the delay in releasing the final list of nominations, the election process for the JNU Students' Union (JNUSU) polls was suspended indefinitely last week. The suspension followed back-to-back incidents of violence and vandalism for two straight days. In a notice issued last Friday, the Election Committee (EC) cited a 'major lapse of security' and an 'environment of hostility, fear, and insecurity' as the reason for halting the process. Under yellow lights strung across the campus lawns and amid rising chants that echoed from hostels to the Ganga Dhaba, the JNUSU election slated for Friday, April 25, unfolded with its most awaited ritual — the presidential debate. It began, however, not with confrontation but silence. The Election Committee, ahead of the debate, requested a two-minute silence to mourn the killing of tourists in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, that took place Tuesday, which took the lives of at least 26 civilians. And so, in a rare moment of unity, student leaders, candidates, and hundreds in the crowd bowed their heads even as Palestinian keffiyehs and Israeli flags fluttered from opposite ends of the audience. This year, the rupture between the Student Federation of India (SFI) and All Indian Students Association (AISA) meant that for the first time in several election cycles, the 'red' wasn't a unified bloc. Instead, its fragments sat scattered across the grounds, leaving enough gaps for the saffron to march through. And the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), sensing this split, seized the moment. For the first time in nearly a decade, the once-unified Left has splintered, with the SFI and the AISA fielding separate candidates after a breakdown in alliance talks. The fallout, primarily over disagreements on the presidential nominee and the inclusion of the Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students' Association (BAPSA) in a coalition, has not only fractured the traditional Left Unity but also opened the door for the ABVP to potentially increase its vote share. A forced pause But JNU has never been a quiet place during elections. The chaos, in a way, is the celebration. As speeches began, slogans collided. AISA and SFI activists chanted over the ABVP's candidate. ABVP volunteers banged dholaks and metal plates when Left-backed speakers took the stage. The most dramatic interruption came during Choudhary Tayyaba Ahmed's speech, standing as the face of the SFI-BAPSA-All Indian Students' Federation (AISF)-Progressive Students Association (PSA) alliance, she was forced to pause for at least 10 minutes as ABVP supporters clanged metal lids. 'JNU is broken, and this debate shows who broke it, I am not afraid of you. I will keep standing right here until you let me finish,' Choudhary said when she finally resumed. 'This is the ABVP that held the EC hostage, and yet here we are. Still standing.' During her speech, Choudhary called out what she called 'Sanghi forces' for targeting marginalised groups and invoked the dismantling of the Gender Sensitisation Committee Against Sexual Harassment (GSCASH) during earlier BJP regimes. 'They don't want us to speak. They don't want us to study. But we are still here, for gender and social justice.' Others followed in similar tones, though each with their own focus. Pradeep Dhaka, the Congress-backed National Students' Union of India (NSUI) candidate, theatrically held up a copy of the Constitution, and declared: 'This country will be run by Ambedkar's words, not by Nagpur or the politburo.' He cast a wide ideological net: condemning US President Donald Trump, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, industrialist Gautam Adani; standing in solidarity with Palestine, Yemen, and Rohingya Muslims. 'They say 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao', but let's not forget Hathras, Manipur, Bilkis Bano. Rapists are called 'sanskari' in this government's India,' he said, prompting cheers and drumrolls from the back rows. Arvind Kumar, representing the Samajwadi Chattra Sabha, the study party of the Samajwadi Party focused on minority rights, arguing that 'the worst state of affairs is that of minority students on this campus. Reservations for them must be implemented immediately.' He too critiqued both ABVP and the Left, calling them 'equal culprits in bringing JNU to this state.' On the other side of the ideological divide, Shikha Swaraj, ABVP's candidate for president, roared into the mic: 'Did the terrorists in Kashmir not ask the victims' religion before killing them?' She called the Left 'an alliance of opportunity' and added, 'ABVP gave this campus many things, and we always stood by this campus when it needed us. If anyone will raise the tricolour here, it's us.' 'We've seen the Left bend its knees to the administration — because they're afraid of fines, being imposed if they protest,' she said, invoking the university's recent crackdown on protest culture. 'If you want a union that fights, look at ABVP.' 'I am very glad to see a broken Left. This is the time that the ABVP will rise,' Swaraj said. Nitish Kumar of AISA went local and technical, detailing the deteriorating state of JNU's labs — 'no chemicals, no instruments' — and how dissenters were being punished across campuses from the University of Hyderabad to Jamia Millia Islamia. 'We won and brought back the OBC reservations on this campus, and we will fight for the reinstatement of the Maulana Azad Fellowship fund for students. We will not stop because of UAPA threats which have been imposed on this campus' students in the previous years of this regime.' As many as 13 candidates are now in the fray for the JNUSU president's post, and with the red now split, and the saffron emboldened, the ballot on April 25 may tell a very different story from years past.
Time of India
23-04-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Margins to mandate: First-gen voices in JNUSU poll battle
New Delhi: A tribal Muslim woman from Jammu's Gujjar community, a first-generation Dalit scholar from Haryana, a OBC student from rural Bihar and a tribal candidate from Rajasthan are among those contesting for top posts in the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union elections this year. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now The polls will see two Left formations competing — AISA-DSF alliance and the Left-Ambedkarite Unity Panel comprising SFI, AISF, BAPSA and PSA. A split in the broader Left camp over the presidential candidate has resulted in these two separate alliances, a move that observers say could benefit the RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad. Choudhary Tayyaba Ahmed, a PhD law and governance student, is the first Muslim tribal woman from Jammu to contest for JNUSU President. A member of the Gujjar community from Poonch, her political journey began in 2020, when she struggled to attend online classes during the internet blackout in J&K. This experience led her to campaign against the digital divide through the CPIM-affiliated SFI. Tayyaba says, "If politics decides my future, I must decide my politics." The candidate of Left-Ambedkarite Unity Panel for general secretary is Ram Niwas of BAPSA. He is a research scholar at the Centre for the Study of Law and Governance. The alliance's vice-presidential candidate is Santosh Kumar of AISF, a PhD scholar at the School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies. Nigam, the joint secretary candidate, is an MA student from the Progressive Students' Association (PSA) and the outgoing councillor from the same school. Nitish Kumar, an OBC student from rural Bihar and a first-generation learner, is the joint presidential candidate of AISA and DSF. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Having faced deep-seated caste inequities growing up, his campaign focuses on social justice, affordable education, and the defence of democratic spaces in universities. Manisha, the vice-presidential candidate of the AISA-DSF alliance, is a first-generation Dalit scholar from Haryana who battled systemic caste bias to reach JNU. A vocal campaigner for gender justice and reservation rights, she represents the aspirations of many from rural and marginalised backgrounds. Munteha Fatima, contesting for general secretary, is a student of international relations and is reputed for advocacy of minority rights and campus inclusivity. Naresh Kumar, the alliance's joint secretary nominee, comes from a working-class family in Bihar and has been part of several campaigns demanding student scholarships and better hostel facilities. NSUI has Pradeep Dhaka contesting for president. He is a postgraduate student from Delhi with a background in law and has campaigned on transparency in administration and career counselling for students. Arun Pratap, candidate for general secretary, was born in a Dalit family in Rampur, UP, and is pursuing his PhD on the north Indian Dalit movement. A former hostel president, Pratap joined NSUI in 2024. "I am here to raise a voice for the oppressed and to ensure dignity and rights for every student," he said. Saloni Khandelwal, NSUI's joint secretary nominee and a political science student from Jaipur, had her political awakening after experiencing water scarcity in JNU. "They talk about Gaza, but what about Ganga Dhaba's dirty water?" she asked, criticising what she termed as the Left-ABVP-Admin nexus that discounted basic campus issues. Her campaign focuses on women's safety, hostel reforms, and inclusion. ABVP has fielded a full panel. Shikha Swaraj, its presidential candidate, is a PhD scholar in American studies in the School of International Studies. She hails from Nawada in Bihar. Its candidate for vice-president is Nittu Gautam, a PhD scholar in computer science. A native of Kamareddy district in Telangana, Gautam completed his BTech from Lingaya's Vidyapeeth, Faridabad, and MTech from JNU. Kunal Rai, contesting for general secretary, is a research scholar at the School of International Studies. He hails from Chhapra, Bihar, and belongs to a farming family. The joint secretary candidate is Vaibhav Meena, a JRF holder and research scholar in Hindi literature at the Centre of Indian Languages. He is from Karauli, Rajasthan, and has studied at Rajasthan University and Banaras Hindu University. Meena currently serves as president of Kaveri Hostel. ABVP's central election convener Arjun Anand said the organisation was focused on improving infrastructure, campus safety, and quality education. "We've worked among students throughout the year, and our candidates represent practical solutions — not just ideological rhetoric," he said. Other candidates include Yari Nayam from Arunachal Pradesh contesting independently for the general secretary's post with a focus on Northeast students' visibility and representation. "If you've ever felt unseen and unheard in this university, Yari Nayam is your candidate," she said.
