Scenes from India Of Our Times
States stop running schools and concentrate on running jails;
Chief Ministers become CEOs;
Governments become goons of corporates;
Prime Ministers praise colonial rule;
Workers lose their jobs;
Peasants lose their plots;
Suicidal farmers get no subsidies, but the super-rich corporates get free land and crores of subsidies;
CPI(M) turns into ‘Corporate Party of India (Murderers)’; declares ‘Repression is Democracy’;
Lal Salaam Gives Way to ‘Hail Salim’;
Red Flag turns into Red Carpet for Corporates;
Cheating Workers of Minimum Wages is Lawful While Protesting Against it is Unlawful;
‘National development’ = colonial SEZs on Indian soil;
‘National pride’= Slavish and humiliating ‘Nuke Deal’ with the US;
Courts declare that corporates can never be corrupt and ‘minority’ is actually a majority;
Student Union President ‘Dissociates’ from Student Movement and ‘Associates’ with Administration...
The August air is full of the fanfare of official celebrations of ‘60 years of Indian independence’. But somewhere behind the national anthem and the patriotic film songs, if we listen carefully, we can hear the cries of the people of Kalinganagar, Khammam, Dadri, Nandigram, Singur.
They are telling us: look, our lands are being turned into SEZs: ‘foreign enclaves’ on Indian soil. Our lands are being snatched away from us at gunpoint and handed over as a gift to corporate houses and multinationals. In a mockery of our freedom struggle, these corporate players are winning ‘freedom from the laws of the land’; SEZs are territories where Indian laws (especially labour laws) will not apply and companies will have a free hand to exploit workers without legal restrictions. Corporates get sops and subsidies, we get batons and bullets – just as we did when we were fighting British rule…
Peasants are evicted from lands, workers evicted from the factories and slums, minorities evicted from the nation itself. The ghosts of the Gujarat genocide and the genocide at Mumbai, Surat and Meerut cry out “How come only perpetrators of bomb blasts are called ‘terrorists’ while those politicians and policemen who killed thousands of us in cold-blooded riots get promotions and praise?”
As we students look around us, we find that our campuses too are being turned into SEZs of sorts. Most colleges and universities have such high fees that they have become privileged, privatised, corporatised enclaves for the rich. Even in a campus like JNU where the student movement has successfully resisted fee hikes and privatisation, corporate houses like Ford and Tata have ended up funding courses, and unorganised workers are denied secure jobs and minimum wages. Workers who demanded higher wages are invariably thrown off the job – and the Administration tried to throw out students who spoke out for workers’ rights.
At such a juncture, how can we remain aloof? We have to choose where we stand – with the exploiters or the exploited, with the corporate SEZs and their bullets and batons, or with those who wage the brave battle of resistance against them?
On campus, NSUI represents the Congress – which runs the UPA Government, sells out our interests to the
ABVP is the representative of the communal and fascist RSS-BJP family – worst enemies of women’s freedom and freedom of expression, perpetrators of genocide of Muslims and minorities, defenders of state terror and fake encounters. Their activists freely indulge in lumpen violence on the campus.
YFE is the spokesperson of inequality, of elitism and casteism, with the single-point agenda of expressing contempt for labour, for the poor and underprivileged and oppressed castes. Their real face can be seen in AIIMS where dalit doctors are discriminated against shamelessly.
Be it NSUI, ABVP or YFE – none of them has the least concern for students’ interests on campus or for democratic concerns for society at large.
The SFI-AISF which stand for the CPI(M) and CPI claim to provide a ‘Left’ potion. For all those who had high expectations of an alternative politics from the Left, the events of Singur and Nandigram have been en eye-opener. At Singur and Nandigram, CPI(M)’s own Government indulged in a naked display of terror against poor peasantry, grabbing their land to hand it over to corporates. Democratic activists like Medha Patkar were abused by senior CPI(M) leaders in obscene language, Left historians like Sumit and Tanika Sarkar who spoke out in support of the peasant movement at Nandigram were vilified by the SFI and CPI(M).
On campus, SFI shamelessly defended the killers of Nandigram. Recently, following the Khammam firing, CPI(M)’s seniormost leader Jyoti Basu said that firing at Nandigram was justified while at Khammam it was not. At the same time, CPI(M)’s Central Committee member Benoy Konar said, “The CPI-M is not at all ashamed of the Nandigram incident and the question of giving compensation to families of those killed in police firing on 14 March or taking action against police officials doesn’t arise”. (TheStatesman July 31, 07)
On campus too, SFI showed its pro-corporate face by supporting the Nestle outlet, dissociating from the movement against violation of workers’ minimum wages and crackdown on student movement.
AISA is the only consistent force on the campus that has redefined the grammar of the JNU student movement – by mobilizing students against the casteist anti-reservation frenzy, by supporting the people’s movements at Narmada, Kalinganagar, Singur, Nandigram and Khammam, by raising the issue of workers’ minimum wages on campus, by standing up for women’s rights and gender justice…
On campus issues too AISA made critical policy interventions towards making the campus socially sensitive.
If you want to fight to create a world free of exploitation, AISA is your voice, your choice…
AISA’s Landmark Struggles for a Socially Sensitive JNU
Restoration of Deprivation Points in JNU Admissions
The very first AISA-led JNUSU during 1993-94 waged the struggle and clinched the demand of awarding extra points in JNU admissions to students from backward castes and regions, as well as to women. Over the years the existing policy of deprivation points have facilitated students from socially and regionally deprived background to make their way into JNU.
Movement Against Privatisation and Fee Hikes
In 1995, the JNUSU led by Comrade Chandrashekhar form AISA led a historic movement which pushed back the proposal of privatization and hike fees in JNU. The unprecedentedly massive participation in that movement ensured that the JNU Administration never again dared to float any proposal of fee- hike since then.
Movement for GSCASH
In 1996, following a rash of sexual harassment cases which were dealt with most insensitively by the Proctor’s office, AISA mooted the idea of an autonomous gender-sensitive body to deal with complaints of sexual harassment, even before the Supreme Court came up with its landmark Vishakha judgement. A massive student movement on gender issues and against sexual harassment built up in JNU, joined by teachers and karmacharis. So when in 1997 the Supreme Court in its Vishakha judgement made such a Complaints Cell Against Sexual Harassment mandatory in all workplaces, the ongoing movement in the campus got a further boost. And JNU became one of the early campuses to set up its GSCASH in 1999.
Struggle Against Corporatisation and the Nestle Outlet
In 2002-03, when SFI-AISF controlled all four posts in the JNUSU, they overturned JNU’s socially sensitive policy of allotting shops and public spaces to deprived people, and allowed MNCs and big corporates to set up outlets in the campus. As a result, a Nestle Outlet came up on the campus instead of the usual dhaba. When AISA won the JNUSU President’s post in 2004, our campaign succeeded in mobilizing students against this corporatisation. At a historic University General Body Meeting (UGBM) in Jan ‘05, hundreds of students voted against the Nestle outlet (544 votes), defeated the SFI’s pro-Nestle position (115 votes) and asserted that shops and spaces be allotted to common and needy individuals, and not to corporations.
AISA’s Efforts and Initiatives Within the Present JNUSU
Workers’ Rights and Minimum Wages
A struggle of construction workers on campus revealed the shocking fact that all over JNU, daily wage workers were being paid half the minimum wage. In the November 2006 itself JNUSU Office Bearers from AISA initiated a campaign against this. Soon, the entire democratic section of the student community as well as teachers and individual citizens were mobilised in the campaign that went on throughout the winter vacation as well as in the winter semester. A community kitchen supported by JNU as a community was organised for workers who were rendered jobless due to the contractor stopping work. Contract Labour laws, Minimum Wage laws, as well as JNU’s own rules regarding employment of daily wage workers were read, relevant sections made public and a pressure built up that these laws be upheld in practice rather than remain on paper. RTI was filed and the matter taken up with the Labour Commissioner. On several occasions, students physically monitored the payment of wages and ensured payment of minimum wages.
In the course of this agitation, 9 students were suspended; later 8 were rusticated and fines imposed on three JNUSU office bearers. The pretext for the punishments was a gherao of the Registrar by the JNUSU on February 19 – despite the fact that the gherao had been collectively regretted by the JNUSU Council as well as by the UGBM. However, the punished students received remarkable solidarity – from teachers in JNU as well as from democratic activists and intellectuals across the country. Eventually it took a 20 days ofstruggle including 12-days indefinite hunger strike to force the Administration to roll back the rustications, and constitute a Committee with representatives from all sections of the JNU community including students to ensure workers’ rights on campus.
Within JNUSU, it was AISA’s leadership alone that championed the issue of workers’ minimum wages and stood robustly by the rusticated students. SFI’s JNUSU leadership initially boycotted the protests against violations of workers’ minimum wages, repeatedly withdrew from the struggle and sided with the Administration. As the struggle gained momentum, they maintained a grudging token presence within the movement. SFI’s top leaders as well as its JNUSU leadership all participated in the gherao of February 19 and made no effort to stop it – yet, as soon the crackdown occurred, they “dissociated” from the movement and even demanded a Proctorial Enquiry to punish the students who participated in it. AISA leaders in JNUSU ensured the UGBM which massively defeated this game-plan. The UGBM of March 8 massively voted in favour of AISA’s resolution that declared the incident of February 19 as a “collective JNUSU-led protest” and opposed Proctorial enquiry and witch-hunt. While 492 students supported this AISA resolution, SFI who supported Proctorial enquiry could garner merely 190 votes against it. The UGBM forced SFI to support the demand for scrapping of all punishments, and the JNUSU leadership (from both SFI and AISA) signed the July 12 Agreement with the Administration, according to which punishments would be reconsidered based on letters of appeal. However, the JNUSU President and Joint Secy from SFI refused to submit letters of appeal, claiming that only common students and not JNUSU office bearers must submit such appeals thus peddling an hierarchy of JNUSU leaders over common students. When rustications were replaced with fines as a pre-condition for granting registration, SFI’s JNUSU leaders abandoned the struggle for scrapping of fines and abdicated the responsibility of ensuring registration for all students. Once the other students paid their fines – collected through solidarity fund from the campus - SFI held a mock-show of ‘indefinite hunger strike’ that lasted less than 12 hours, and in a got-up game with the Administration, got the punishments against its JNUSU office bearers revoked in violation of the Agreement, without submission of letters of appeal.
Throughout this challenging phase, it was only AISA’s leaders within JNUSU who robustly resisted the punishments, stood by the rusticated students and refused to support any hierarchical or favoured treatment of JNUSU leaders over common students.
Struggle to Increase Financial Assistance for Needy Students
Ever since AISA bounced back to the leadership of JNUSU, financial assistance for needy students became a central concern in the campus. Thus, during 2004-05, the Merit-cum-means scholarships (MCM) amount for BA students was increased from Rs. 280 to Rs. 600 and MCM was also extended to M.Phil. students. In 2006 Sept. JNUSU headed by AISA led militant protests of strikes, relay hunger strikes, demonstrations, and finally an 8-day indefinite hunger fast which forced the Administration to increase the MCM scholarship amount from Rs. 600 to Rs. 1000 for BA/MA students and Rs. 1500 for MPhil as well as PhD students. Further, the Administration had to concede in principle that the amount for all needy students must be raised to Rs. 1500 at least, and that the income cap for MCM be raised to Rs. 1 lakh. And now, after the prolonged agitation during June-July ’07, administration in its 12 July Agreement has agreed to increase the MCM of BA/MA students to Rs. 1500 and the income cap for MCM to Rs. 1 lakh
Rs. 3000 and Rs. 5000 Scholarships for M Phil/ Ph.D.
It is AISA office bearers in JNUSU who had been insisting that given the relative freedom that academic institutions have to decide on the cut-off date for the beginning of this fellowship as well as the total number of recipients, JNU should fix an early cut-off date so as to allow maximum number of scholars to avail the fellowship. AISA argued this on the basis of an important UGC communiqué dated 31 January to the JNU VC. AISA leaders in JNUSU included this demand on the JNUSU Charter of Demands, and in the July 12 Agreement, the University agreed to pursue the matter with the UGC with regard to advancing the date of the Rs. 3000- Rs. 5000 fellowship for research scholars to July 2005.
Highlighted the lacunae in implementation of Rajiv Gandhi Fellowship
AISA’s JNUSU office bearers consistently raised the issue of speedy disbursal of Rajiv Gandhi fellowship in the face of inordinate delay. When the list was out, it was again the JNUSU office bearers from AISA who emphasised that ALL SC/ST research scholars must receive this fellowship, and meticulously collected names of all those applicants whose names did not figure in this list, forced the Administration to send a fresh petition with these names to the UGC and ensured that several of these students were included in the selection list.
Fighting Casteism, Defending OBC Reservations
When Youth for Equality took up an ugly and casteist campaign against OBC quotas last year, AISA took them on every inch of the way. With a 34-day pro-reservation hunger strike in May-June last year, with a consistent campaign of public meetings, debates, film screenings, AISA mobilised students against the YFE. AISA’s JNUSU office bearers called for Protest March on campus and at Parliament Street against the Supreme Court stay on OBC quota. In the AC Meeting of April 10, it was AISA’s JNUSU office bearers who clinched the demand against staggering of OBC quotas. AISA and its JNUSU leadership have held several protests outside the campus in solidarity with the AIIMS doctors against the victimization of dalits and violation of Constitutional SC/ST quotas in AIIMS.
Recognition of Alimiat Fazeelat Madarsa certificates in JNU admissions to BA Ist year
AISA’s JNUSU Office bearers conducted a 1600-strong signature campaign on the issue, held a series of public meetings with noted academicians submitted a memorandum to Academic Council members, Deans and Chairpersons. Following this campaign, the matter had been taken up by the Equivalence Committee of JNU which had sought inputs from other Universities which recognise madarsa degrees. Responses from these universities have arrived. In the July 12 Agreement following the 12-day hunger strike, the Administration agreed to vigorously pursue the matter towards recognition of the madarsa degrees.
Empowerment and democratisation of GSCASH and Equal Opportunity Office
In the AC meeting of 23 November immediately after the newly-elected JNUSU took charge, AISA’s JNUSU office bearers submitted a detailed note to the AC which included the demands of democratization of Equal Opportunity Office to deliver justice in cases of caste abuse/ discrimination, and to include domestic violence in the purview of GSCASH. Ever since, a sustained pressure finally forced the Administration to constitute a Committee to look into the process of democratisation of EOO. Following the Agreement of July 12 the JNU Admin. has agreed to circulate a proposal for including gender violence within the purview of GSCASH to the various schools/centres etc.
Ensure Rights of the Physically Challenged
AISA has firmly placed the issue of rights and facilities of the physically challenged firmly onto the campus agenda. Fulfilment of the 3% quota for PH category in both student admissions and faculty appointments; their representation in the decision making bodies, increasing the amount of funds for readers/writers for the visually challenged; setting up sound indicators, ramps, and other support systems; and expanding the Hellen Keller unit with more functional computers, scanners and Braille printers are some of the issues which have been taken unpin right earnest. Some progress has been made in this respect.
Other Issues : Expansion and enrichment of academic programmes like women’s studies, north-east studies, diversication of modern Indian languages, regularisation of centralised placement cell, expansion of hostel and health centre facilities, democratic formulation of XIth plan are some of the key issues of JNUSU’s Charter Of Demands that must addressed on an urgent basis.
In Firm Solidarity With People’s Movements Against Corporate Land Grab, SEZs, displacement and State-Terror
AISA in JNUSU, while clinching several campus-level issues, had been in the forefront of people’s struggles, participated in the movements against AFSPA both in Delhi and in Manipur, sent solidarity teams of students to Gurgaon against police terror on Honda workers and assault on Dalit homes in Gohana, to Kalinganagar against the massacre of displaced tribals, participated in the indefinite hunger strike of Narmada Bachao Andolan in Delhi to protest against the decision to raise the height of the Sardar Sarovar Dam, to Singur and Nandigram against state-terror and displacement.
Carry forward the legacy of Com. Chandrashekhar
2007 is the tenth year of Com. Chandrashekhar's martyrdom. As JNUSU Vice-President in 1993 and as JNUSU President in 1994 and 1995 from AISA, Com Chandrashekhar led the successful struggle for restoration of Deprivation Points for students from deprived sections in JNU admissions, the historic movement against fee hike and privatization proposals and initiated the move for creation of an autonomous body in JNU to look into cases sexual harassment. He resolutely resisted communal fascism and linked JNU with the peoples’ movements all over
After his JNUSU tenure, Chandu decided to return to his hometown Siwan for a life of activism of organising rural poor. On
Rally With aisa To Strengthen Pro-Student , Pro-Worker, Pro-People Movements Both In The Campus And Beyond !
Make JNUSU A Powerful Voice Against Communalism and Anti-Minority Witch-hunt ,
Against Slavish Indo-US Nuke Deal, SEZ, Corporate Land Grab and State Terror !
Strengthen Social Justice, GSCASH and Struggles for Students’ and Workers’ Rights on Campus !
