‘Jai Bhim’ the war cry this JNUSU polls

NEW DELHI: If the number of “Jai Bhims” spoken in Wednesday night’s presidential debate at Jawaharlal Nehru University is taken into account, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar seems big this time in the students’ union polls. It seems each candidate wants to stake a claim to the movement following Rohith Vemula’s suicide and anti-Dalit violence across the country.
The Left Unity’s presidential candidate, All India Students’ Association’s Mohit Kumar Pandey, is being considered by his students’ body a shoo-in for president, although he’s more popular in Delhi University.Their confidence is inspired by the fact that all Left-leaning students would vote for him as there are no other candidates from the Red bastion in the fray.
Pandey spoke about the “Stand with JNU” movement that took place after the February 9 Afzal Guru event, BJP MLA Gyandev Ahuja’s condom-counting and a RSS mouthpiece arguing that JNU “divides” people. Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi was not spared. “He’s moved from being Pradhan Sevak to Pradhan model,” he said, referring to the advertisement campaign of a telecom firm.
He also reminded students about the “Occupy UGC” protests against the scrapping of non-NET fellowships and the struggle against DU’s four-year undergraduate programme.
However, the Left Unity — an alliance of AISA and Students’ Federation of India (SFI) — came in for criticism, as did Pandey for training his guns on Birsa-Ambedkar-Phule Students’ Association (BAPSA) before Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). National Students Union of India’s (NSUI) Sunny Dhiman and ABVP’s Janhawi Ojha were also seen chanting Jai Bhim along with the rest. The other candidates included Sonpimple Rahul Punaram of BAPSA and Deelip Kumar from Students Front for Swaraj, who is in the race for the first time.
BAPSA looked significantly more confident this year with more supporters, drums and cheering. They are propelled by the anger generated by Vemula’s suicide, violence against Dalits and crackdown on Ambedkarite groups. Calling himself Kabali, Sonpimple declared, “This wave is of an Ambedkarite movement.”
He accused AISA for “defending a rapist” and taunted SFI with the Supreme Court verdict on Singur and killing of Tapasi Malik. He promised to work on reducing dropout rates at JNU and introduce minority deprivation points. He shone better while answering questions, encouraging ABVP’s Ojha “to read Ambedkar” and stated that he won’t “go begging to the VC” for anything but “topple him” instead.
Ojha, the only woman in the line-up, said that she represents a party that “has won student elections from Kashmir to Kanyakumari.” “We are the voice of people troubled by Naxalites and Leftists in Jharkhand and West Bengal. ABVP has fought for Indian languages in UPSC exams, for higher education and against floods in Bihar,” she said.
Calling herself Babbar Sherni, Ojha told the Left, “You are not JNU.” She bashed AISA over the rape case saying, “When rapes happen outside the campus, it’s Nirbhaya. When it’s on campus, it’s kuchh nahin hua.”
NSUI’s Dhiman said that the Left groups “hid in their rooms” after the last JNUSU president was picked up by the police following the February 9 incident. “The radical people are responsible for the rise of ABVP on campus,” he said. He also spoke at length about meeting Vemula’s mother and asked if “Bharat Mata gave birth to people who beat Dalits and Muslims.”
Members of All India Student’s Federation (AISF) and Democratic Student’s Federation (DSF), though present in the crowd, came without their trademark daflis and were some of the quietest participants. AISF isn’t contesting the polls and DSF has a candidate only for the post of joint secretary.