There were hoots, jeers, lots of Lal Salaams and Inqualaab Zindabad , and the relatively newer Vande Mataram , but hardly any debate that could be heard at the Jawaharlal Nehru University’s legendry “presidential debate” at its Jhelam lawns on Wednesday night.
As the evening progressed, the lights went out, the mikes stopped working, mischievous elements started “spreading chilli powder and pepper spray” and, of course, there were regular scuffles that had to be controlled.
“We talk about Palestine, China and Russia, but where is the development on campus? What is happening to the money that comes in? What is the placement cell doing?” began Jogendra Singh Pawar from the Congress-affiliated National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) even as most of his speech was drowned out by yelling and sloganeering from the crowd.
He went on unfazed and ended by calling the All India Students’ Association (AISA), which currently controls the JNU students’ union, a “mixture of evil ideas and practices of the Left”.
When AISA’s Ashutosh Kumar rose to spoke, he encountered a lot of technical trouble.
“Before I begin my speech, I would like to appeal to the audience to contribute to the funds we are collecting for relief work for Kashmir,” he said before the mike stopped working.
“I would again like to start from the beginning,” he began again, before talking about how the Narendra Modi government would prove to be their undoing.
Ashutosh was just warming up on the subject when the mike stopped working again, followed by chants of “Modi, Modi,” courtesy activists from the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, who had cleverly positioned themselves near the stage.
“I would again like to start from the beginning,” Ashutosh was able to say again, before the mikes went out again.
This time, however, the audience had had enough and some students sprang up.
Tempers and scufflesTempers and scuffles had to be controlled before order was restored and the debate began again. Thankfully, this time he was able to finish his speech about what their union had done all year long — from providing their own printing press to making the libraries function for 24 hours. The end of his speech was drowned out by chants of “GSCASH”, a reference to the sexual harassment enquiry that is going on against the former president and joint secretary of the JNUSU, represented by the AISA.
Next up was Independent candidate Prakash Kumar. He said something to say about religion becoming an instrument of suppression, but the crowd started cheering, jeering and shouting at him to wrap up.
“I cannot find any of the NSUI members here.. Where are you with your free biryanis ?” screamed Chandra Shekar Yadav, who introduced himself as a student of computer science.
He appealed to the audience to give all the Left parties lesser votes than they would give to the NSUI, while also informing them about how the ABVP beat up its own activists and informed the press that they had been beaten up by Left activists.
“Chilli powder”“They cut tomatoes and onions at the same place as they cut chicken and mutton in the hostel mess. I will solve all your hostel issues by using a computer software,” Chandra was able to say before the Election Commissioner cut in and asked persons in the audience responsible for “spreading chilli powder” to leave.
P. Ambedkar of the Students’ Federation of India reminded the audience that the debate was the unique tradition of the university as was their progressive culture that was devoid of caste, class and language.
“The AISA has failed to solve students’ issues . The teachers’ union managed to fight and get apartments built for themselves when the money came in... Was the AISA sleeping then?”
Blaming the AISA was a favourite with most.
“Left Unity”“When I visited the health centre here, they told me that we could have had an X-ray machine and several other facilities had there been more pressure from the union,” said Rahila Parween, adding that the Left Progressive Alliance, which was a partnering of the Democratic Students’ Front and the All India Students’ Federation, was forged to fight communal forces with their “Left Unity”.
The last candidate to come onboard was ABVP’s Sourabh Kumar.
“When there is a common meeting, they call everyone from the teachers’ union to the karamcharis , but they do not call us. There is a high level of discrimination against us… They call us communal,” Sourabh said, before the rest of his speech promising to use University money for the students was drowned out by jeers, slogans, hooting and drums even as the debate came to a close.
