The debate conducted in the run-up to the student body elections at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) saw presidential candidates battle it out for the top post in the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU), with each of their speeches touching upon themes like personal identity, national issues, and campus problems.
The debate, which concluded in the early hours of Thursday, is a customary part of the highly-anticipated elections, which are being conducted after a long hiatus of four years. The polls had been postponed due to the pandemic-induced lockdown, and later, the process of PhD admissions. This time around, polling will take place on Friday, while results will be declared on Sunday.
With almost every student outfit fielding members from marginalised communities, the debate saw fiery speeches revolving around each candidate’s identity. Only seven of the eight candidates participated in the public event, with each hopeful being allotted 12 minutes to speak.
The candidate fielded by the right-aligned Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad, Umesh Chandra Ajmeera, spoke of his identity as an adivasi, and his father’s alleged murder at the hands of Naxalites in his hometown in Telangana. “I am speaking from the heart, not the mind,” he said while lauding the inauguration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya, eliciting both cheers and boos from the crowd.
Meanwhile, the United Left Panel fielded Dhananjay, a Dalit candidate whose arguments were based on the university administration’s alleged failures to safeguard the rights of women, specially-abled, and sanitation workers. In his speech, he promised better infrastructure, timely salaries for workers, and a safer campus. He added that he hopes to fight for his comrades currently lodged in jail (Umar Khalid, booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, and Sharjeel Imam, booked for alleged inflammatory speeches against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act).
Biswajit Minji, the Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students’ Association (BAPSA) candidate, quoted Ambedkar. “Ambedkar said that on the 26th of January 1950, we are going to enter into a life of contradictions. In politics we will have equality and in social and economic life we will have inequality,” he said, adding that BAPSA aims at “fighting this contradiction”.
Samajwadi Chatra Sabha candidate Aradhana Yadav spoke on the farmers’ protest, while Disha candidate highlighted that her student oufit was “independent of any political affiliation”. The last speaker of the night, Junaid Raza from the National Students’ Union of India, referred to the Centre’s “attack on Muslims that was not symbolic, but had reached into everyone’s homes”.
JNU has typically been dominated by left-aligned parties, with the United Left Panel sweeping the previous elections in 2019 for the fourth time in a row.
