JNUSU polls: Close contest between Left panel, BAPSA-FRATERNITY alliance

The polling on Friday for electing office bearers of JNU Students’ Union, preceded by a somewhat disappointing pre-poll debate on Wednesday evening, indicate a keen tussle between the Left panel and the panel put up by BAPSA, the organisation of the Ambedkarites, and FRATERNITY, a new students’ union dominated by Muslims.

The BAPSA-FRATERNITY panel, by common consensus, is engaged in a close contest with the Left panel. Many students felt that the Left Panel had been weakened following AISA giving way to SFI’s (Students’ Federation of India) Aishe Ghosh for the presidential post.

RSS-affiliated Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) risks splitting votes between its official candidate and an independent candidate with RSS links. The curious spectacle of two RSS-linked candidates slugging it out for the President’s post attracted attention and much speculation whether there was any strategy involved.

The pre-poll debate, though lacking in the electrifying atmosphere of previous years, was well attended. Speeches, though not as well articulated as in some of the previous years, touched on issues within the university as well as national and international issues.

Independent candidate Raghavendra Mishra, a student of the School of Sanskrit and Indic Studies (SSIS) asserted that it was time for JNUSU to elect a ‘Hindu’ President. He shouted slogans such as ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and ‘Har Har Mahadev’.

But the brazenly communal call was objected to by the others and the ‘Election Commission’ panel supervising the debate also condemned the communal call even as Mishra continued to speak during his allotted 12 minutes. He also objected to students offering namaaz in the library.

He claimed he had been debarred from contesting because of a physical disability and was finally enabled to contest following the intervention of the Delhi High Court. Md Farooq Alam, who had contested an earlier election despite his own physical disability, objected and claimed that reasons might have been different.

The official ABVP presidential candidate Manish Jangid claimed that it was because of ABVP’s efforts that the central library of JNU was named after BR Ambedkar. Students owing allegiance to Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students Association (BAPSA) loudly refuted the claim.

Kashmir and abrogation of Article 370 generated considerable heat and dust. BAPSA presidential candidate Jitendra Suna refuted claims by the BJP and ABVP and said that Dr Ambedkar was on record favouring a plebiscite. He also cited the increasing crime against Dalits in mainland and dared the ABVP candidate to speak on the issue.

Priyanka Bharti, presidential candidate from the Chhatra Rashtriya Janata Dal (CRJD) spoke on a range of issues from the Amazon fire to the floods in Bihar, Assam and Kerala. She also sharply attacked privatisation of education and other government policies. She also touched on Kashmir, lynchings and cow vigilantism.

She sarcastically added that reservations for backward classes required a long struggle but reservations for the weaker sections among the upper castes were implemented overnight.

Congress affiliated candidate Prashant Kumar came under attack for the UPA government’s ‘Greenhunt’ campaign against Maoists and the Batla House encounter.

The candidates were repeatedly interrupted by the audience while delivering their speeches and even SFI’s Aishe Ghosh, while coming down heavily on fascists, was greeted with shouts of ‘Nandigram, Singur, Yechury’.