New Delhi, Aug. 30: The CPI-backed All India Students Federation (AISF) has for the third year in a row decided against forging an alliance for the upcoming Jawaharlal Nehru University student union polls.
The AISF has fielded CPI parliamentarian D. Raja's daughter Aparajitha for president and is also contesting the posts of joint secretary and several councillors.
Last year, the AISF did not participate in the polls over a disagreement with the main Left groups over Aparajitha contesting for president and fears that the SFI and the CPIML-Liberation-backed All India Students Association (AISA) would sabotage the "revisionist" CPI union.
Aparajitha told this paper today: "The fundamental idea of a students' union is to build resistance against anti-people attacks like communal violence, banning protests and cutting seats - which we have seen over the last year. The incumbent AISA-SFI union effectively failed to lead any struggle against these.
"When the AISF's Kanhaiya Kumar was president (2015-16), we led an 88-year protest at the University Grants Commission against fellowships being stooped. This generated public opinion and politicised students. When the sedition case (over alleged chanting of 'anti-national' slogans at the university) was filed, unlike the AISA office-bearers, we did not go underground."
The main poll issues this time are the disappearance of student Najeeb Ahmed after a clash involving the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), slashing of more than 85 per cent of research seats because of the adoption of UGC norms and a ban on protests near the JNU administrative block.
Over such issues, JNU officials were gheraoed twice. Aparajitha and her comrades had collaborated with the Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students Association and the United Other Backward Classes Forum for the protests. BAPSA, however, is contesting the union elections on its own, miffed at the AISF for trying to negotiate with the Left first.
The ABVP has got a boost with the reduction of the number of voters from 8,658 last year to 8,045 this year because of the seat cut. The voters would have mostly been JNU post-graduates taking admission to MPhil courses. Such students have traditionally voted the Left unlike new students who mostly come from apolitical campuses. Students from the Hindi heartland also support the ABVP.
Aparajitha denied that she had walked out of alliance talks merely over her demand to contest for president. "If we are subject to slander because we critique the outgoing union, then so be it. The JNUSU cannot be a fiefdom. The AISA can't dictate who our candidates will be."
AISA national president Sucheta De said: "The AISF was not flexible in the negotiations and they wanted to field their own panel, and they have done so."
The SFI's Delhi unit secretary, Prashant Mukherjee, said: "The SFI was the only organisation to send letters calling for Left Unity to the three main organisations in JNU that we consider Left and democratic - the AISF, the (SFI-breakaway) Democratic Students Federation and the AISA. The latter two responded by forming the Left Unity. The AISF could not because they insisted on the president's post. Posts are given based on the strength of the organisation and their functioning as they have to lead the struggle for the year to come."
An AISA source said there was "no question" of supporting Aparajitha "when her entire politics has been to attack the Left on campus".
"The SFI was under pressure from the CPM because her father is an MP of the CPI. By insisting on the president's post, she gave the SFI an excuse for not accommodating her," the source said.
A CPM source said: "Delhi-level leaders of the CPI have told us that the AISF has at least spared the general secretary's seat, which the SFI is contesting. But the truth is that they have been openly abusing the SFI since last year, because then too we did not think they deserved to get the president's post."
A senior AISF leader said: "We were divided on whether to contest on our own or not, but Aparajitha prevailed. She enjoys the support of students from marginalised communities. Kanhaiya and others were in favour of unity, and under their pressure the general secretary's seat was vacated for the SFI. But Aparajitha prevailed on the ground that joining the Left Unity would come with the liability of their failures in protecting student rights. She is a prominent comrade whose word has more weight than the AISF's leadership."
The CPM stayed away from the recent Opposition rally in Patna, which was attended by Raja and CPI general secretary S. Sudhakar Reddy. The CPI has called for broader unity to include the Congress, which is against the political-tactical line of the CPM pushed by its Kerala unit at the expense of its Bengal unit that sees the Congress as an ally against the ruling Trinamul Congress.
A CPI source told this paper: "Going alone may not be all that bad. We may lose, but at least the contest may get polarised between the Left Unity and the AISF, reducing the ABVP to a third force. There is a limit to which you can keep convincing students to vote the Left merely to keep the ABVP out."
