It is essential to find out how this university, created in
1966 by a special Act of Parliament, became a leftist bastion. The answer lies
in its unique reservation system. In this university, from the very outset,
aspirants from backward districts, women and other weaker sections were given
preference in enrolment. Kashmiri migrants and wards and widows of defence
personnel killed in action also get preference (see box). The nature of the
questions in the admission tests of the university is such that only the
ability to answer multiple-choice questions related to one’s discipline is not
enough to see one through. Only those students who have, apart from command
over their own subject, analytical skills and reasoning power get admission
here. The undergraduate courses of foreign languages are an exception in this
regard. But even here, once they have a bachelor’s degree, they can join an MA
or an MPhil course only if they have the aforementioned skills. Thus, for
years, JNU has been home to the finest and most fertile minds from economically
and socially deprived sections of society. And when they analyze the hows and
whys of their socio-economic background, they get drawn to arxism.
This fully residential university, spread over 1000 acres
and nestled in the lush green Aravalli Range, never attracted the elite class.
The hostels serve plain food and residents drink from jugs – instead of
glasses. Estimates suggest that at least 70 per cent students of the university
come from either poor or lower-middle-class families. Though the Left always
dominated the students’ politics in the university, till 2006, students from
economically weak but socially higher classes ruled the roost here. That was
DSCN6675because they outnumbered all other groups. The number of Dalit and
Tribal students was capped by the 22.5 per cent reservation for them, although
OBC students have been given preference in enrolments since 1995, the credit
for which goes to the agitation launched by the renowned students’ leader
Chandrashekhar (1964-1997) (Samajik Kranti Ke Sutradhar, Ashok Kumar Sinha,
Shabda Prakashan, Patna, 2012).
Even then, the percentage of students from socially deprived
communities, including OBCs, in the university never exceeded 28-29 per cent.
In 2006, the government announced reservations for OBCs in institutions of
higher learning and that drew these classes towards JNU. The fact that all
students of the university get scholarships was an added attraction. As Abhay
Kumar pointed out in his article “Assertion of Dalitbahujan discourse in JNU”,
published in the August 2015 issue of FORWARD Press, “According to the Annual
Report 2013-14, out of the 7,677 JNU students, there were 3,648 Dalitbahujan
students (1,058 SCs + 632 STs + 1948 OBCs). Simply put, the percentage of non-upper-caste
students today is roughly around 50 per cent. If one includes other deprived
social groups, minorities and women, the upper castes and classes are a
minuscule minority. As a result, during the last three years (from 2012-14),
JNUSU presidents have been from the marginalized sections of society – V. Lenin
Kumar (2012, SFI-JNU or DSF), an OBC from Tamil Nadu; Akbar Chawdhary (2013,
AISA), a Muslim from UP; and Ashutosh Kumar (2014, AISA), a Yadav from Bihar.”
In 2012, OBC students were elected to all the four posts of
JNUSU (See “Jai Joti, Jai Bheem, Jai JNU”, FORWARD Press, October 2012). The
winners in the 2015 students’ union elections also reflect the same trend:
President Kanhaiya Kumar, AISF (Bhumihar, Hindu upper caste); Vice-President Shehla
Rashid, AISA (Muslim); General Secretary Rama Naga, AISA (Dalit); and Joint
Secretary Saurabh Kumar, ABVP (OBC). It may be mentioned here that it was after
a gap of 14 years that an ABVP candidate emerged victorious in the JNUSU
elections. But his victory had a lot to do with his OBC roots as well. As the
videos of his speech reveal, the current students’ union president Kanhaiya
Kumar, who has been arrested on charges of sedition, is not only a brilliant
speaker but also his speeches are a beautiful amalgam of Phule-Ambedkarism and
Marxism. JNU students say that his powerful oratory was a major contributor to
his victory in the elections.
After the enrolments last year, the percentage of students
in JNU from SC, ST and OBC has gone up to 55. A large number of Muslims are
enrolled in Arabic, Persian and other language courses in JNU. Data on them is
not available. But if, along with them, the number of Ashraf Muslims and other
minorities is added, it can be safely presumed that at least 70 per cent of the
students in the university are non-Dwij. Note that the number of OBC students
in JNU has gone from 288 in 2006 to 2434 in 2015, ie a tenfold increase in nine
years. The number of women students has also gone up substantially (see chart).
NEW SLOGANS, NEW GRAFFITI, NEW DISCOURSES
This change in the social texture of the students not only
changed the composition of the students’ union but also the dominant discourse
on the campus. Though leading students’ organizations continued to hold the
flag of Marxism aloft, their slogans started changing. The graffiti started
changing. Instead of Marx, Lenin and Mao, the slogans increasingly started
quoting Birsa, Phule and Ambedkar. Portraits of Bahujan heroes who took on
Manuvad and casteism started adorning the walls – so much so that it became
impossible for any students’ organization to survive on the JNU campus without
sporting these symbols. And the change was not limited to slogans and graffiti;
the topics of research also underwent a sea change. The students from the
deprived sections brought with them life experiences and thinking processes
that were, hitherto, alien to the Indian academic world. They gave a new
momentum, a new energy to research in the humanities. The “Left” had taken a
new turn – a turn that took it away from the discourses that interested the
upper classes. The radical Left has always been present here. Discussions on
Naxalism, Maoism and freedom to Kashmir have been fairly common. The number of
big and small functions and meetings on these and related issues to date must
easily be in the thousands.
The Mahishasur and food-freedom movements were the
manifestations of the new discourses that were replacing the old ones here.
They drew nationwide attention. The traditional Left either looked the other
way or made it clear that it would stand by the freedom of expression and would
not oppose these voices coming from the deprived sections. This was, in a
sense, the coming-together of Left and Bahujan ideologies or, at the very
least, the two camps agreeing on a common minimum programme.
SANGH ON THE BACKFOOT
The RSS calls itself a cultural organization and is
perpetually busy in protecting and preserving the brahmanical culture. The
young Bahujan intellectuals were dealing blow after fatal blow to the
brahmanical culture, and this won them the approval of the Left in JNU. The
amalgamation of the thoughts of Phule, Ambedkar, Periyar and Narayan Guru on
the one hand and Marx, Lenin and Mao on the other threw up compelling arguments
and incontrovertible facts. This, in turn, started influencing the students. A
flummoxed Sangh did not know how to counter this assault. The deprived sections
posed a stiff challenge – the stiffest in independent India – to the
brahmanical culture, which the Sangh was trying to protect in the name of the
Hindu religion, and behind it was the intellectual prowess of the JNU Bahujan
research scholars. They were now capable of presenting their views in keeping
with the highest academic standards.
The Sangh, so far, has been using issues like cow slaughter
to further its ends. It understands quite well the meaning of the proverb “Give
a dog a bad name and hang him”. Like in Europe in the Middle Ages, and in some
Middle East countries today, the weapon of blasphemy has been used to silence
the opposition. Whosoever did or said anything that was unpalatable to the
Sangh was promptly accused of blasphemy and declared anti-religion and an
atheist. This won the Sangh the support of the masses. But this time, things
did not go the Sangh’s way. From within the Hindu religion – which was the
mainstay of Sangh’s politics – rose dissenting voices that proclaimed that they
would not worship the goddess who massacred Tribals, Backwards and Dalits. The
proponents of the Mahishashur movement in JNU were saying, “You may have
presented our heroes as villains in your scriptures but we will dig them out
from non-brahmanical texts and re-anoint them. The Asur tribe of Jharkhand –
which, along with the Santhals, Bhils, Gonds, etc, has been declared a
primitive tribe by the Government of India – has been worshipping Mahishasur as
its ancestor for thousands of years. There are innumerable totems associated
with the Asur tradition in other Dalitbahujan castes. Celebrating Mahishasur’s
murder was improper. This country has been worshipping women for thousands of
years – primarily due to the influence of the Tribal and Bahujan traditions –
but Brahminism had distorted the tradition of worshipping women and portrayed
them as violent and anti-women. The celebrations of Durga Puja in its present
form began just 260 years ago, when after the Battle of Plassey in 1757, Nawab
Krishnadev of Calcutta organized the first Durga Puja in honour of Lord Clive.
Thus, this festival is not only very new but it is also anti-Muslim and
pro-imperialism by implication.”
These young intellectuals thus gave an entirely new meaning
to Durga Puja, a festival that was used by the Sangh to brand the original
inhabitants of India as demons and villains. Similarly, beef and pork, which
were used to engineer many a communal riot, were made a food-freedom issue by
the Hindu and Muslim students of JNU. Their arguments regarding pork and beef
festivals started reaching the wider society through the media. They told the
middle-class Hindus and Muslims, who were unaware of the ground reality: “Beef
and pork had always been the staple food of the Hindu Dalits and were the
biggest source of protein for the poorer sections of society. Beef and pork are
widely consumed in most parts of the northeast. Since students from all over
the country studied in JNU, food-related taboos put them under psychological
pressure to hide their food preferences.”
The Sangh, this time around, chose sedition instead of
blasphemy as the ammunition for its assault. It replaced God with the nation
and declared sinful any attempt to question what the nation does or to argue
about it. And punishing the sinner, of course, was the sacred duty of every
citizen. The BJP, which had demanded that temples of Saraswati be established
in all educational institutions, is now ruling the country. On 18 February, the
Government of India, referring to “seditious activities” on the JNU campus,
issued an order for the national flag to be hoisted on a 207-foot high pole in
every university, beginning with JNU. Needless to say, if this goes ahead
unopposed, it would be difficult to oppose the installation of an idol of
Bharat Mata near the flag. In the post-Independence brahmanical myths, the
tiger-riding Durga and the tiger-riding Bharat Mata are all but the same. These
symbols have deep significance as far as cultural domination is concerned. We
should not forget that cultural domination is the foundation of economic,
social and political domination. Hoisting the national flag is a matter of
pride for all Indians but the circumstances in which the government has issued
this order and its motive deserve condemnation.
BAHUJAN MOVEMENTS AT JNU
If we closely study the recent string of incidents in JNU
while keeping their background in mind, we will realize that the Bahujan-Left
unity had set alarm bells ringing in the RSS camp. To grasp this better, we
will have to revisit the first Mahishasur Martyrdom Day, organized by the All
India Backward Students’ Forum (AIBSF) in JNU in October 2011 and the Food
Freedom movement initiated by the New Materialists in September 2012. As
evident from their names, the All India Backward Students’ Forum, which observed
the Mahishasur Martyrdom Day, is officially an organization of OBC students and
the New Materialists, which made food freedom an issue, is also related to the
now-forgotten, philosophical Lokayat tradition of the Bahujans. The New
Materialists was led by OBC and Dalit students who were advocates of scientific
materialism.
Some had begun referring to the Food Freedom movement as the
Beef-Pork Festival. The Delhi High Court banned the holding of the event. The
Rashtriya Gorakshini Sena took the organizers to court and activists of the VHP
and other outfits of the Sangh Parivar called on the then vice-chancellor and
demanded tough action against them. After this meeting, the VC suspended the
leader of the New Materialists, an OBC, and issued show-cause notices to three
others (See “JNU bows before Hindutvavadis”, FORWARD Press, October 2012)
The organizers had planned to serve beef and pork, along
with dishes from different states, to interested students in an open ground on
the campus. A similar event was earlier held in the Osmania University in
Hyderabad and both the groups of student organizers had the ideological backing
of Prof Kancha Iliah, who is greatly respected by Bahujan students.
The reactions of RSS and its auxiliary organizations to
Mahishasur and Food Freedom movements, as published in different newspapers and
magazines in 2011-12, indicate that initially, these organizations could not
comprehend what exactly was happening.
The movement for food freedom lost steam after the Delhi
High Court order but the Mahishasur Day celebrations became an annual affair
after 2011. It also spread to other parts of the country. In 2013, it was
celebrated at around 100 places including cities, towns and university
campuses. By 2015, this number had crossed the 350 mark. In May 2014, the BJP,
the political wing of the RSS, formed its government at the Centre. The Sangh
identified FORWARD Press as being responsible for giving momentum to Mahishasur
Day celebrations and decided to target the magazine. In October 2015, some
people associated with Hindutva organizations lodged a complaint against the
magazine with the police. Reports published in various newspapers quoted police
sources to say that the raid on the magazine’s office was conducted at the
directive of the union home ministry. In this period, while The Hindu, Indian
Express, Deccan Herald, Jansatta, etc presented all the related facts and gave
due prominence to the explanation by FORWARD Press that it had nothing to do
with the holding of the event in JNU, the RSS’ Panchjanya and Organizer and
rightist newspapers such as The Pioneer and Dainik Jagran continued spreading
disinformation about FORWARD Press.
PANCHJANYA 2015
The real assault on Bahujan discourses followed. In its
issue dated 8 November 2015, Panchjanya, the Hindi organ of the Sangh, carried
a sensational and provocative cover story titled “JNU: Darar ka gadh” (JNU: Den
of Divisiveness). That is not all. The weekly took pains to inform media
organizations about the cover story and requested them to take notice. In the
first week of November 2015, this cover story of Panchjanya grabbed the
headlines on TV channels. The Panchjanya story revealed, for the first time,
that the real target of the Sangh was the growing Left-Bahujan proximity in JNU.
Later, in this article, we will examine the contents of the
Panchjanya cover story and compare them with the intelligence report that was
sent to the Home Ministry after the so-called seditious slogans were raised on
the campus. This will make it clear that the Sangh and the police were speaking
in the same language and that the “sedition” charge was a part of the Sangh’s
conspiracy. The Sangh wanted to use it as an excuse to crush Bahujan
discourses.
PANCHJANYA AND GOVERNMENT SPIES
As we had hinted at the beginning of this article, the
recent events in JNU were not triggered by the so-called anti-national slogans
alone. Their real objective was to target Muslims and give a bad name to those
Hindu Bahujans who are resisting the brahmanical culture.
First, let us see what Panchjanya said in its cover story
JNU: Darar Ka Gadh in the issue dated 8 November 2015:
“JNU is the only institution where talking of nationalism is
a sin. It is called a bastion of the leftists. Distorting Indian culture and
presenting it in conjunction with wrong facts is fairly common here. For
instance, when the entire country worships Ma Durga, neo-leftist students and
professors celebrate Mahishasur Day there. They demand that the army should be
withdrawn from the terrorism-infested Kashmir … Those who celebrate Mahishasur
Day say that they are backward and deprived and representatives of forest
dwellers and claim that Mahishasur was the hero-god of the backwards, the
deprived and the forest-dwellers.”
Referring to the changing nature of JNU, Panchjanya says,
“Till some time ago, the leftists used a different set of policies and tools to
break the nation and society. With time, their strategy has changed. They have
changed their faces; they have changed the arena of their ideological battle.
Now, they do not parrot the formulations of Lenin. Now they talk of secularism,
human rights and rights of minorities, women and the deprived sections of
society to implement their agenda. The lush crops grown on this poison can be
seen everywhere in the university. The walls on JNU campus are full of slogans,
pamphlets and posters. Most of these slogans and posters are aimed at
fracturing Indian culture, civilization and society and the country itself.”
Panchjanya blames the discourses initiated by the FORWARD Press for the changes
in the slogans, posters, etc and condemns the magazine under the subhead
“Forward Press ka vishwavidhyalaya connection”. It says, “They are using a new
word, Bahujan, to describe deprived sections and forest dwellers together…a
couple of years back, at a programme in JNU, Kancha Iliah, who was an assistant
professor in Osmania University and Professors A.K. Ramakrishnan and S.N.
Malakar of the University, in their speeches, spewed venom against the
upper-caste Hindus.” Besides Panchjanya and Organizer, the organs of the RSS,
newspapers like The Pioneer and Dainik Jagran and rightist websites like Niti
Central, Central Right India and India Facts are also quite upset with the
concept of “Bahujan”. Among other things, this concept is being opposed because
SC, ST and OBC are Constitutional terms for these classes. They say that the
floating of the concept of Bahujan – which includes all people of these classes
as well as those Dwijs who are opposed to the caste system – is a foreign
conspiracy against the Hindus. The leftist stream of JNU is turning towards
this concept of “Bahujan”.
It was for this reason that Panchjanya, in its cover story,
described JNU as an institution which is “breaking the nation”, where “innocent
Hindu youth are lured after being fed wrong facts about the Varna system, which
is an integral part of Hindu society” and where “venom is spewed against the
Savarnas” and impliedly urged the Savarnas and its government to launch a
campaign against the institution. It is not without reason that a portion of
this story has been carried in the name of Ravindra Kumar Baseda, a former
student of JNU. Baseda was one of the people who had lodged the complaint with
the police against the observance of Mahishasur Day in JNU in 2014. In the
complaint, it was stated that the observance of this day would “exacerbate
tensions between the Brahmins and the OBCs”.
A box accompanying the story, which had an aggressive
layout, titled “JNU Leela”, listed the “nefarious activities” on JNU campus.
JNU LEELA
>> The valiant soldiers who fought in the Kargil
battle were humiliated in a mushaira in the university and India-bashing was
supported.
>> The killing of 72 jawans by the Naxals in Bastar in
2010 was celebrated.
>> In the name of food freedom, a row was kicked up
over serving beef.
>> Slogans demanding freedom for J&K and
northeastern states were openly raised
>> The hanging of Afzal Guru was mourned and a protest
march taken out.
>> With the support of Forward Press, programmes were
organized to insult Hindu gods and to execute the conspiracy of the
missionaries to break society.
As we shall see ahead, the charges levelled by Panchjanya in
November 2015, surprisingly, became part of an intelligence report filed in
February 2016. The Panchjanya article and the report of the intelligence
department have uncanny similarities. Their tone is the same, basic content is
the same, charges are the same and both smack of a conspiracy to associate
students’ organizations of Bahujan ideology with extremist leftist
organizations. The only difference is that of language. While the language of
Panchjanya has a literary touch, that of the intelligence report is dry
government-speak.
DELHI POLICE SITUATION REPORT
On 9 February 2016, after the so-called seditious
sloganeering in JNU, the Delhi Police, on the basis of the report of its
intelligence wing, submitted a report to the Government of India. This report
was leaked to the media by “sources in the Home Ministry” on the basis of
which, Firstpost, The Hindu, The Indian Express, The Times of India, The
Telegraph and other newspapers and TV channels ran stories on the “celebration
of Mahishasur Day in JNU during Navratri” and on the “demand to serve beef in
JNU mess”. Barring BJP-supporter Zee News and few other channels and
newspapers, most of the media outlets took a dig at the government for treating
these events as “seditious”. But even they were unaware of the facts and could
not grasp the issue in its entirety.
Let us see what this four-page report of the intelligence
wing of the Delhi police titled “Situation report regarding the incident at
Jawahar Lal Nehru University on 09.02.16” says. The first two pages of the
report are devoted to the incident of 9 February. The two remaining pages are
about the “earlier incidents” in JNU, including “celebrations of Mahishasur Day
during Navratri in 2014” and the “demand that beef be served in the hostel
mess”. The question that arises is: Why did the police report talk in detail
about the older incidents, which had nothing whatsoever to do with the
so-called seditious sloganeering? And why was this report made available to
media in haste? And how is it that two days before the release of the report to
the media, on 15 February, newspapers carried a statement of BJP MP Yogi
Adityanath in which he branded “observance of Mahishasur Day” and “holding beef
party” as acts of sedition and demanded that JNU be shut down.
See the first two pages of the report, which talks about the
“sedition”. The report, which was sent to the Union Home Ministry, says: “It is
important to mention here that Y&S section of Special Branch always keeps
an eye on the activities of students, student organizations, youths and people
who have a stake at JNU.”
The report says, “[a]round 5 pm, DSU students led by their
president Umar Khalid, convenor, DSU began to gather near Sabarmati Dhaba.
Around 80/100 DSU and Left students were present at the venue.” It also claims
that “The Left-supported student groups were shouting ‘Bharat ki Barbadi tak
jang rahegi jang rahegi’, ‘Kashmir ki Ajadi tak Jang Rahegi, Jung rahegi’,
‘India Go Back’ ‘Pakistan Zindabad’, ‘Kitne Afzal maroge, ghar ghar se Afzal
niklega’.
“In the meantime 30/40 activists from ABVP reached there
under the leadership of Sh. Sourav Kumar Sharma, Joint Secretary, JNUSU. They
were shouting slogans against DSU and shouting Bharat Mata Ki Jai.” Note that
while the references to leaders of other organizations don’t have the
respectful “Shri”, it has been used with the name of Saurabh Kumar Sharma,
president of the RSS’ student wing ABVP.”
The report adds, “At 7:30pm the activists of DSU & ABVP
started their march from Sabarmati Dhaba to Ganga Dhaba. They raised slogans
against each other. At 8:30 PM the activists of DSU & ABVP dispersed from
there peacefully.” Demonstrations and sloganeering demanding the right to
self-determination for the people of Kashmir are common on JNU campus and after
such events, the students invariably disperse peacefully. Then, why did the
sleuths take this particular event so seriously?
The report says, “At present, ABVP [is] alleging that the
activists of DSU and other left supporting student organizations are indulged in
anti-national activities. They want action against such students who are into
such anti national activities.”
This is broadly the content of the first two pages of the
report.
SANGH’S FINGERPRINTS ON POLICE REPORT
The next two pages have been appended to the report without
any apparent reason. It says, “On 06.10.2015, ACP, Y&S/SB visited JNU and
had a meeting with the then VC of JNU . During this meeting discussions were
held on various subjects including CCTV surveillance in JNU campus to avoid any
untoward incident. It was discussed that often some student groups raise
slogans and participate in protests inside JNU campus. Many a time such
slogans/protests have anti-national colour. It is reflected through
objectionable posters which are prepared mostly through computers and affixed
at hostel/JNU campus. Sometimes such posters are found to be hurting
patriotic/religious feelings of the society. It was also discussed that the
objectionable/anti-national activities of members of Democratic Students’ Union
(DSU) have to be curbed by JNU authorities with the help of police.”
What is significant is that an ACP of the Special Branch met
the JNU vice-chancellor on 6 October 2015. The Mahishasur Martyrdom Day is
observed on Sharad Purnima, which fell on 26 October last year. It is clear
that the proposal to install CCTV cameras on the university premises was made
in view of this event. Note how “patriotic/religious feelings” and
“objectionable/anti-national” have been used as synonyms. Even if we do not
dwell on whether the sentiments of only the protectors of brahmanical culture
are “hurt” or whether anything which they dislike becomes “objectionable”, the
question that remains is whether observance of Mahishasur Day by the deprived
sections is “sedition”. It is noteworthy that later, on 24, 25 and 26 February,
in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha respectively, the government attacked the
Mahishasur movement and linked it to seditious activities on the basis of the
fabricated charges in this report.
The report shrewdly attributes the event to DSU, even when
it is well known that All India Backward Students’ Forum, the Phule-Ambedkarite
organization of Bahujan students, was the organizer of this event. Furthermore,
it says: “There are so many Left-supported student unions active in JNU. Most
of them are non-reactive and mild in nature. They often raise slogans/protest
on different national as well as local issues but their gathering remains very
low. But two hidden students groups i.e. 1) DSU and 2) DSF have been found
volatile and reactive. However, they are less than 10 in number. Sometimes they
prepare nude and objectionable posters of deities on their computer and affix
it on wall to hurt the religious feelings of the society. Their activities in
the past are:
1) They mourned the death of Afzal Guru.
2) They celebrated killing of CRPF Jawans in Dantewara,
Chattisgardh in 2010.
3) They worshipped ‘Mahisasur’ [sic] in place of Goddess
Durga during September 14 ‘Navrata’ festival last year.
4) They invited Kashmiri separatist leader Gilani for
meeting. But JNU authority imposed ban on their such moves.
5) They asked for beef in hostel mess.”
Isn’t this list of charges in the police report a rough
translation of the ‘JNU Leela” published in Panchjanya. The report also says
that these groups put up pictures of gods and goddesses in the nude on walls.
No such thing has ever happened in JNU. The posters put up by the All India
Backward Students’ Forum in 2011 were a reproduction of an article written by
Prem Kumar Mani titled “Who are Bahujans really worshipping?”, published in
FORWARD Press. It only mentioned that Mahishasur came from the Bahujan
community. It did not make any objectionable comment about any god or goddess.
The police report, as part of a well-planned conspiracy, says, “They worshipped
‘Mahisasur’ in place of Goddess Durga during September 14 ‘Navrata’ festival
last year.” The fact is that Mahishasur Day is celebrated in JNU and all over
the country on Sharad Purnima, five days after Dussehra, whereas Navratri is
celebrated before Dussehra. In 2014, Mahishasur Day was celebrated on 9 October
and Navratri from 25 September to 3 October. The Mahishasur Day celebrations in
JNU in 2014 were much talked about due to the registration of a case against
FORWARD Press. Almost all newspapers and channels had carried news about it.
The police record also mentions the date of celebrations, 9 October. Then,
would it be wrong to presume that the lie of “Mahishasur Day celebrations
during Navratri” was peddled only to incite people?
Similarly, the claim that a students’ organization had
demanded that beef should be served in hostel mess is a white lie. The New
Materialists had planned to hold Beef-Pork Festival for a couple of hours on an
open ground and not in the mess. Here too, very shrewdly, ‘pork’ has been
dropped from “beef-pork” so that the event can be given a religious colour.
Instead of upholding the Constitutional secularism, the police report seeks to
fan Hindu communalism by linking these two events with DSU and DSF. DSU is
associated with the CPI (Maoist), which has been banned by the Government of
India. The police and government are trying to link Bahujan youths with
organizations that are on the radar of security agencies even when they are
ideologically disparate, so that they lose popular support and can be subjected
to police atrocities.
Anyway, these are not the final truths vis-à-vis a nexus of
government, police and a section of the media trying to prove that JNU is a
centre of “sedition”. But one thing is certain. The reverberations of the
tumult in the dominant classes due to the entry of Bahujan youths in the
portals of institutions of higher learning will continue to be felt in the
years to come. Truth, equality and justice will ultimately win — no matter how
long it takes.
SPECIAL RESERVATION SYSTEM
>> Points are awarded to students writing the entrance
exam in JNU if they hail from scheduled backward districts. For this purpose, a
list of districts identified by the JNU on the basis of Census 2011 has been
given in the prospectus. The districts are divided into two categories. The
students who are residents of the districts in category 1and 2 are given 5 and
3 points respectively. Candidates who have passed their qualifying examination
through a distance education programme are also awarded 5 or 3 points, as the
case may be.
>> Kashmiri migrants are awarded 5 points if they
present any documentary evidence or a certificate issued by the competent
authority to prove their status.
>> Candidates from the following defence categories
are eligible for 5 special points:
1. Widows/wards of defence personnel killed in action;
2. Wards of serving personnel and ex-servicemen disabled in
action;
3. Widows/wards of defence personnel who died in peacetime
with death attributable to military service; and
4. Wards of defence personnel disabled in peacetime with
disability attributable to military service.
5. All female candidates are awarded 5 special points. (No
candidate is given more than 10 special points.)
Note: These points are given in addition to the reservations
granted to SC, ST, OBC and physically challenged students by the government.
For example, if an OBC student comes from a scheduled district, besides
benefiting from the 27 per cent reservation, he will also get five additional
points, which will not be given to an OBC student hailing from a city.
Pramod Ranjan is consulting editor, Forward Press
Article Source : Countercurrent. Org
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