HVK Archives: Rolling back the reds
Rolling back the reds - The Observer
Dina Nath Mishra
()
31 October 1996
Title : Rolling back the reds
Author : Dina Nath Mishra
Publication : The Observer
Date : October 31, 1996
This year's results of Jawaharlal Nehru University Stud-
ents' Union (JNUSU) elections provide an excellent pic-
ture of the continuing battle between courage of convic-
tion and anomaly of confusion, between the forces of
status quo and those of change, and between followers of
Hindutva and protagonists of the various sects of pseudo-
secularism. The results have stung all the leftist pen-
pushers. Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP)
candidates, literally busted the real red bastion of a
quarter-century standing. Our rulers had planned JNU in
order to provide leftist intellectual strength to polit-
ics, administration, media, academics and culture. Three
consecutive vice-chancellors framed and followed the.
admission policy in such a way that favoured this catch-
ment area of the left strongholds. It had a,virtually
impregnable defence of rules, so that-the left could hold
sway. Appointing bodies searched for the left-inclined
talents from all over the country and abroad to make this
university a formidable leftist powerhouse.
I had an occasion to write a series of four articles in
1977, wherein I dealt with the admission and recruitment
policy of JNU in details. I gave a list of 38 couples in
the teaching staff, apart from other leftist teachers. By
and by, JNU spread its tentacles over a dozen research
organisations like ICHR and ICSSR. JNU professors and
senior teachers hogged a substantial chunk of the money
for research on various projects of the academies, and
flooded the bookshelves of libraries with books contain-
ing untruths and half truths. Many of them never complet-
ed their research work, but nevertheless lined their
pockets. Literally, droves of leftists from JNU managed
to wangle the vantage positions in the media. They
enjoyed the comfort of capitalism and yet besmirched the
pages of newspapers to contribute towards the so-called
revolution. Slowly but surely,. it matured into an
effective grooming centre of leftist intelligentsia. By
the late 70s, JNU became a status symbol.
It was ironical that JNU inculcated not only.careerism,
but produced a large number of opportunists. It was
ingrained in the ethos of the university. Not much
social change can you expect out of seekers of projects,
in other words money, and rapacious hunters for trips
abroad. Majority of the teaching staff singularly lacked
dedication to learning or teaching. They treaded the
path of favouritism in place of objectivity.
Close links of the communist parties with the staff and
students ruined the academic atmosphere to a great ext-
ent. Despite this, if JNU has an academic atmosphere, it
is not due to leftists: it is in spite of them. Invari-
ably, the Students' Federation of India (SFI) and the All
India Students' Federation (AISF), individually or joint-
ly, controlled the students' union of JNU for decades and
converted the university into a murky world of national
and international politics. Student morchas, seminars
and discussions were specifically oriented towards cush-
ioning their ideological stance. Mirthfully, it was said
that the left is strong in three states: West Bengal,
Kerala and JNU.
If the leftists have a larger-than-life role to play in
Indian politics, I give credit to JNU for providing so
much intellectual clout in the media and academies. That
is why the CPI(M) general secretary H S Surjeet, with
just four members in the UP assembly at his command, is
able to speak from a position of strength to all the UF
partners and Congress.
That is why they are dictating terms even at the Central
level. Politics today is more of a label than there
being any content in it. That is what has brought the
politics of the country at its hypocritical best.
Imagine that the Delhi University. Students' Union, a
traditional stronghold of ABVP, has fallen in the hands
of the SFI or AISF. By now, scores of analyses and
editorials columns would have appeared in the media. A
miasma of an impending revolution would have been creat-
ed. A couple of years back, AISA, the ultra-left stud-
ents' organisation had won the Allahabad University
Students' Union elections. Several rounds of opinionated
writeups would have appeared in the press all over the
country, constructing the theory that the ABVP has been
vanquished, and the emergence of AISA has swamped the
hopes of the BJP in UP.
ABVP's sweep of the polls in JNU is much more signifi-
cant. This victory was given a short-shrift. In dozens
of newspapers, published from the national capital, none
thought it apposite to be an editorial item, an article
or even a news analysis.
The event is significant for the reasons which gave rise
to the ABVP, and the consequent fall of the leftists in
the JNU campus. It was not an easy task for the ABVP to
make inroads into JNU. It could do so because of the
efforts of three generations of dedicated workers during
the last twelve years.
Working in the leftist dungeon has been quiet an arduous
path to follow, and the progress was bound to be tardy.
Three promising ABVP workers were brutally murdered in
the red bastion of Kerala. Not only that the ABVP work-
ers and members were discriminated and humiliated, but
even a sympathiser of the ABVP had to run a risk in JNU.
It was politically tactless to be a sympathiser. It was
a blunder to be an ABVP activist. ABVP workers consist-
ently worked, assiduously marched forward; and convinc-
ingly debated issues. This year, they succeeded in
capturing all the top positions barring the president-
ship. The ABVP presidential candidate, Pushkar Mishra,
lost by just four votes.
True, the division of votes helped the ABVP to win.
True, it has got only 25 per cent of votes. But the more
potent truth is that none else had secured even that.
What is even more important is the sliding down of the
left. It is possible that if they unite again, it may
have a larger support reflected in their victory. But
the forward march of ABVP would take on the united
leftists within a few years. It is not just the story of
JNU. JNU reflects a belated indication of the status of
national and international communism The ideology of
Hindutva acquired greater relevance at the turning point
of Ramjanambhumi movement and Advani's rath yatra.
Communism became irrelevant, both in theory and practice,
after the collapse of the Soviet Union. In the Indian
context, disenchantment of workers and youth started just
after the CPI allied with Indira Gandhi in late 60s. its
hypocrisy was exposed to the maximum. They attacked the
JP movement, and supported emergency. The same thing
happened during V P Singh's rule. Their ambivalent
attitude towards the manner in which the Mandal report
was adopted thoroughly exposed them among the student
community, especially in JNU
The problem with the left is that people now see through
their schemes of skulduggery. In the history of the
CPI(M) and the CPI instances of hypocrisy are numerous.
The writing on the wall is there for the youth and the
intelligentsia to see.
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