September 28, 2014
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Significant Advances for SFI in Student Union Elections in Delhi

Sunand

ELECTIONS to the Delhi University students’ union (DUSU) and Jawaharlal Nehru University students ’ union (JNUSU), which were held on September 12, saw significant advances for the Students’ Federation of India; particularly in the backdrop that the entire state organisation has been in the phase of rebuilding after the disruption in July 2012. Elections to the student unions of both these universities assume importance, given the fact that both these central universities have a national character in terms of the composition of the students. These elections happened in the backdrop of the national political situation where a far-right government has come to power at the centre, with tall promises of growth and development. Students, as well unemployed youth had voted in large numbers for the BJP candidates in the general elections with the hopes of Modi’s ‘achche din’. But, the first 100 days of the Modi government have only seen aggressive pursuit of neo-liberal economic policies, along with cynical divisive ploys like ‘love jihad’ for petty electoral gains. It is aggressive neo-liberalism and brazen Hindutva which represents the Modi government and the students and youth already understand the hollowness of the slogan of ‘achche din’. In such a backdrop, the BJP-RSS had a point to prove in both these elections and hence the entire Sangh machinery was put into action. The overall results hence have to be analysed keeping in mind the balance of political forces at the national level and the churning there in.

 

JNUSU

ELECTIONS 2014

 

JNUSU Elections 2014 were held in a situation where on one hand the AISA-led JNUSU failed miserably to initiate any meaningful struggle on the longstanding basic demands of the student community such as the construction of new hostels, increase in the MCM scholarships from Rs 2000 to Rs 3000, reduction in the viva-voce marks, deprivation points for minority students and restoration of the JNUSU constitution, among others. Interestingly these have been in the agenda of the subsequent JNUSUs since 2012, and utter disregard to the basic student issues, coupled with empty rhetoric and shadow boxing in the name of protests has strengthened the hands of the administration vis-à-vis the students.

 

The JNUSU Elections 2014-15 have been marked by a strong revival of the SFI in the campus. SFI has won six councillor posts in the JNUSU council and more than doubled its votes and vote shares in the central panel posts (president, vice-president, general secretary and joint secretary). It needs to be recalled that the SFI had no councillors in the council in 2013, and only one in 2012. SFI has finished fourth in the posts of president, vice-president and joint secretary, and third in the post of general secretary. The vote difference between the SFI candidates and the candidates in the second position are 119, 84, 33 and 274 in the central panel posts. In 2013, we had finished fifth in the president and vice-president posts and fourth in the general secretary post.

In spite of winning all four central panel posts, the All India Students Association (AISA) has suffered huge erosion in its votes, vote shares and the number of councillors in the students council. Its votes in the president post have declined by nearly 600 votes (from 1979 to 1386) and the vote share has decreased by 31%. SFI's votes in the president post increased from 329 to 890 with the vote share increasing by 165%. Also note that in 2012, we had finished eighth in the president's post, polling 107 votes.

The winds of change are most clearly visible in the school councillor posts. SFI has won six councillor posts this time as opposed to zero in 2013. The AISA, which had won 14 councillor posts last year, has declined to seven councillor posts. SFI has won the councillor posts in the Centre for the Study of Law and Governance (CSLG) and the School of Arts and Aesthetics (SAA), both of which have one councillor each. In the School of International Studies (SIS), out of a total of five councillor posts, SFI has won two, AISA two and LPF one. The results in the School of Social Sciences (SSS) are similar, with SFI winning two councillor posts, AISA two and LPF one. In both SIS and SSS, the winning SFI candidates have the highest number of votes from the schools.

 

Many newspapers and media channels have talked about the increase in the electoral strength of the ABVP, in the backdrop of the BJP-government at the centre. The RSS-floated ABVP has seen an increase in its votes and vote shares, especially in the central panel posts. The continuous inaction and incompetence of the AISA-led/AISA-majority unions of the recent years have created tremendous discontent among the students, which has created fertile grounds for the growth of the ABVP. The failures of the recent unions have strengthened the ABVP campaign which paints the entire Left in the same light as that of AISA. Using the student discontent as fodder, the ABVP has tried to consolidate its own votes and the entire right-wing vote instead of "selling"/transferring its votes as has been its practice in the recent years. Further, the anti-reservation, casteist support base of the ABVP that got eroded in the wake of OBC reservations and the coming of YFE, has clearly consolidated behind the ABVP yet again.  ABVP’s Delhi state committee came out with a release after the JNUSU polls claiming that it has now become the ‘largest organisation in the JNU’ with 12 councilors; also that it is a pointer of the support for the BJP’s ‘achche din’ and the politics of development. Interestingly, among the list of candidates announced by the ABVP before the elections, only one councillor candidate has won. Thus, while the increase in the strength of the ABVP has to be acknowledged and fought, such hysteric accounts of the saffron assertion are devoid of any connections with the reality.

 

The election results clearly show that in spite of the huge increase in the anti-AISA votes, AISA candidates emerged victorious on all four posts of the central panel, as the anti-AISA votes split clearly into three parts. At this juncture, the main task in front of the SFI is to work towards reviving the militant traditions of the JNU student movement by using the presence in the JNUSU council. It is only through struggles on concrete issues that the balance of forces can be tilted away from the administration and in favour of the student community. The proposed outlays in the 12th Five Year plan have not seen any increase in the absolute terms and in this context the struggle for more hostels and better infrastructure can make any meaningful advance only if they directly attack the policy framework.

 

DUSU

ELECTIONS 2014

Unlike the JNU, the student union elections in Delhi University and its colleges see direct intervention of the ruling class parties such as the Congress and the BJP. Given the political uncertainty over the assembly elections in Delhi, both the BJP and the Congress used DUSU elections to intervene in the changing contours of the state politics. Though the AAP has no student wing, its volunteers also intervened in the university elections. Elections were fought in the backdrop of the successful two years long joint movement to roll back the FYUP. SFI had formed the Left Students’ Front along with AISF and AIDSO to take forward the experience of the movement against the FYUP to the next level. As the joint declaration of the Left Students Front states clearly :  “This alliance draws its energy from the joint movement and is a logical culmination of the joint movement; and far from being just an electoral alliance, it will go further to shape the future movement. This alliance takes upon itself the task of isolating the political culture of money and muscle powers presented by the ruling class’ student organisations like the NSUI and the  ABVP; and assert the students’ agenda during elections, as well beyond that. Even after the elections we will seek to build the maximum possible unity of the Left and democratic sections of the university community.” LSF was successful in minimising the fragmentation of the Left and democratic votes - as unlike previous years, there were only two panels of the Left-led student organisations. SFI candidates got around 6% of votes on the two seats that we contested. Among the colleges that we contested, SFI won in Dyal Singh College, which is otherwise infamous for the infiltration of the goonda elements during the student union elections. The task in Delhi University would be now to carry forward struggles and movements in the name of LSF, and gradually work towards a situation where the binary between the ruling class student organisations like the NSUI and the ABVP on one hand and the LSF on the other, is created. It is only then that a credible alternative to the hegemony of the forces like NSUI-ABVP can be created.

 

FUTURE

TRAJECTORY

Delhi has become one of the biggest educational centres with four central universities, five state universities and numerous institutes of repute; and attracts not only students from the neighbouring states of North India, but also from other parts of the country. Students and youth of the city played an important role in the major political movements of the recent past like the anti-corruption movement and the protests against the December 16 gang rape, which stresses the need of organising them. In the current political situation the SFI is well aware of the importance of a powerful student movement in the national capital which can mobilise the huge student population in the state against the neo-liberal assaults and the impending threats of saffronisation. The basic linkages between education and employment have to be put forth to mobilise students and youth who will be joining a very volatile labour market. With this long term perspective in mind, these small but definite advances in the student union polls have to be channelised.