http://www.countercurrents. org/ranjan290216.htm
Bahujan Discourse Puts JNU In The Crosshairs
By Pramod Ranjan
29 February, 2016
Forwardpress.in
Forwardpress.in
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 Marxism.
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:
>> 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; and4. 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