The
previous election, conducted in April 2024–25 session, had been
contested jointly by AISA and DSF, that captured the three key central
panel posts of President, Vice President and General Secretary, while
the ABVP managed to scrape through with the Joint Secretary post by a
narrow margin. In the latest election, however, the entry of SFI into
the alliance strengthened Left Unity and ensured a complete rout of the
ABVP from all central panel positions as well as councillor seats across
schools. The ABVP lost even those councillor positions in the School of
Engineering, School of Physical Sciences and other science schools that
had long been considered its strongholds. The student community, with
remarkable clarity, rejected the ABVP’s politics of hooliganism, its
pro-administration posture and its visible absence from everyday
struggles of ordinary students.
This year saw
large scale violence by the fascist student organization ABVP, who tried
to sabotage the democratic election process by beating up students and
disrupting school GBMs. The ABVP began its campaign with an intensity of
violence that exceeded previous years. In almost every public event,
its cadre targeted the AISA JNU Secretary and the then JNUSU President
Comrade Nitish, other office-bearers and Left councillors, creating an
atmosphere of intimidation. The former JNUSU President, Vice-President
and General Secretary were subjected to public violence, verbal abuse
including casteist, misogynistic, transphobic and islamophobic remarks
being meted out against them. The Delhi Police, executing the orders of
their masters RSS-BJP, beat up students who were seeking justice against
the ABVP violence. The ABVP utilized their money and muscle politics in
JNU, to ensure their victory. While common students turned to the Left
for its consistent involvement in pro-student struggles, the ABVP seemed
fixated exclusively on attacks against Left activists. Even in
selecting its candidates, the ABVP fielded two of its most notorious
lumpen elements for the posts of President and General Secretary,
rewarding them for their lumpenism. Despite such surmounting fascist
onslaught on the premiere public university in the country, the students
rose to the occasion to identify, isolate and defeat ABVP.
This
election was a challenge to the powers that be. From eviction from
hostels, dismantling of means-cum-merit scholarships, surveillance
system in the library, in the five-month tenure of the previous JNUSU,
and increasing privatization, HEFA loans and fund cuts in academic
sphere, seat cuts, political appointments, and rise of Hindutva fascism
on campus, students took up the task to preserve the ‘debate and resist’
culture of JNU.
A striking feature of the
results was the overwhelming success of women candidates. Of the ten
candidates fielded by AISA, seven were women. Eight of the ten
candidates emerged victorious. While both the President and Joint
Secretary candidates being women won their posts, Comrades Kashish,
Comrade Kaif and Comrade Gulam Waris secured victories from the School
of Language, Literature and Culture Studies; Comrade Syeda Hafsa Bukhari
achieved a significant win in the School of International Studies,
marking AISA’s return to this school after six years. Comrades Ajit and
Nandani won councillor posts in the School of Social Sciences. A large
number of anti-ABVP independent candidates were also elected from
science schools, signalling a wider rejection of the ABVP’s presence.
The Left Unity registered substantial votes from science schools in the
central panel vote share, breaking into a domain once dominated by the
ABVP.
The outcome of this election underscores
the fact that AISA has consolidated its organisational strength across
different schools despite substantial hostility. It also demonstrates
that a coherent, principled and organic unity among Left forces is
capable of defeating right-wing reactionary groups in university
campuses. The experience suggests that similar alliances should be
forged in campuses such as HCU, DU and other universities where
comparable experiments may succeed and where students’ democratic spaces
are under threat.
Elections for Students’
Representatives to the Internal Committee (IC) were conducted
simultaneously with the JNUSU polls. Former AISA councillor from
SLL&CS – Comrade Garvita Gandhi – received the highest number of
votes in the IC election.
It must also be acknowledged, however, that the overall increase in voter turnout fell short of expectations. Even with SFI joining the alliance, the rise in total votes was modest, a trend that warrants careful and dispassionate introspection within the Left. Despite these challenges, JNU has yet again shown that the hateful and violent face of Hindutva and Sangh Parivar can be rejected and defeated, and will continue to be the beacon of hope and resistance.
===
Comrade Aditi (President)
Aditi
Mishra hails from Benaras, Uttar Pradesh where she finished her
schooling. In September 2017, when protests erupted at BHU to defeat the
undemocratic and patriarchal women’s hostel curfew timings, Com. Aditi,
who was then a UG student, was an integral part of this movement. In
2018, the year Aditi enrolled in Pondicherry University, the campus
witnessed a wave of saffronisation in the form of systematic
installation of banners quoting Hindutva ideologues. Com Aditi
participated in a gherao of the Vice Chancellor's Office. In 2019, the
administration exorbitantly hiked the tuition fee across courses in the
university, resulting in a student-led lockdown of the administrative
block. Com Aditi actively participated in protests against the arbitrary
fee hike as well as in solidarity with the ongoing anti-CAA protests.
The anti-fee-hike protests intensified in 2020, and Com Aditi’s voice
rang loud against this disenfranchisement of marginalised students.
She
is currently pursuing her PhD research at the School of Internal
Studies at JNU, on Gendered Violence and how the women of Uttar Pradesh
have been mounting a resistance to it since 2012. As a second year PhD
student, she was elected as the IC representative and worked to make it
accountable and approachable to the student body of JNU. Com. Aditi has
been part of AISA since her time in JNU and has long stood for gender
justice. The fight to preserve and strengthen the culture of JNU as a
place that stands for progressive values and justice for all is
fortified in her leadership.
Comrade Danish (Joint Secretary)
Danish
Ali, is a 1st year PhD student at the Centre for Historical Studies in
School of Social Sciences and hails from the small village of
Bandarbarru, in Narsinghpur district of Madhya Pradesh. She finished her
schooling from Gadarwara, a nearby town. She has been a state-level
throwball and cricket player during her school education. Her father is a
retired government school teacher and mother is the principal of
another government school.
Com Danish,
finished her UG in History from SGTB Khalsa College, Delhi University.
In December 2019, when Delhi Police unleashed violence against the
students of Jamia Millia Islamia who were protesting against the
Citizenship Amendment Act, students of DU shut down their university in
solidarity and protest, Com. Danish led the students in the shutdown of
the administrative premises. She enrolled in the MA course at CHS in
the 2022-2024 batch. The RSS backed ABVP goons had turned official class
groups into platforms for opposing the progressive and anti-caste
politics of JNU by hailing Ranveer Sena, the feudal caste army in Bihar
which was responsible for the massacre of poor Dalits and Muslims in
over a dozen villages. Com Danish along with the progressive students of
CHS firmly protested against the agenda and carried out signature
campaigns and protest demonstrations to set the record straight that CHS
does not stand on the wrong side of history and rejects any association
with feudal murderers.
Com. Danish is steadfast fighter with her fierce opposition to feudal and casteist violence. She represents all those young students who look at JNU as an alternative to the hate and bigotry that has the nation in its grip and wishes to engulf JNU.
