CONTENTS

Introduction
Current Situation
Opportunist Opposition
Voting Pattern

THIS year’s JNUSU elections witnessed a good participation of the student community in the election process, with the polling percentage reaching an 69.5 per cent, dispelling repeated doubts about the depoliticisation of the JNU campus. It was primarily a bipolar contest between the SFI-AISF combine and the ABVP, with organisations like the AISA and the NSUI vying for the
third place.

The Left, secular and democratic alliance of the SFI-AISF went into these elections seeking a mandate in favour of the agenda of fighting privatisation, combating communalism as well as strengthening the liberal and democratic academic ethos of JNU, while the ABVP sought a mandate in favour of cultural nationalism. The AISA and the NSUI sought to stake their
claims on the Left and secular votes of the campus on the basis of their hollow criticisms of the SFI-AISF-led JNUSU.

These elections were contested in an atmosphere of shameless and hitherto unknown lumpenism displayed by the ABVP, with their rank and file openly clashing among themselves over the question of their candidatures; the SFI taking the bold step of expelling the outgoing JNUSU president Naseer Hussain for his electoral deviation and individualism; and the NSUI seeking
to introduce its own brand of money politics into the JNU Students Union election.

The challenges before the entire student community, particularly the SFI-AISF, was to ensure that the elections took place in a peaceful, free and fair manner, with principles and ideology, rather than electoral manipulations holding away.

CURRENT SITUATION

In order to understand the outcome of these elections the overall political ground of the JNU student movement needs to be well understood. Over the past two years, with the BJP-led government at the centre, the JNU administration has repeatedly tried to scuttle the democratic student movement spearheaded by the SFI-AISF in the campus. Over the last two years, the SFI-AISF-led unions have led successful agitations demanding hostels for all outstation students, formation of the Gender Sensitization Committee Against Sexual Harassment (GSCASH), doubling of the merit-cum-means scholarships, formation of the Dalit Advisory Committee (Equal Opportunity Office), fulfillment of the SC/ST quota, etc.

Given the intensity and the ideological thrust of these movements against privatisation and the casteist, patriarchal ideology of the communal and reactionary forces, the JNU administration tried its best to crack down upon the student community by taking the JNU Students Union and student
organisations to court, threatening to ban all political activities among students, calling police on to campus, repeatedly show-causing JNUSU office bearers, lodging false FIRs, trying to impose a sine die suspension in the campus alongwith the arrest of 63 students, culminating in an attempt to
impose an undemocratic Code of Conduct upon the students of JNU. The SFI-AISF led unions successfully combated all these attacks while maintaining and upholding the democratic traditions of JNU. The tacit understanding between the administration and the student outfit of the RSS,
i.e, the ABVP, was more than obvious during all these struggles.

The students of JNU faced another major attack by the RSS this year in the form of the communal conspiracy of imposing the Bahri Commission of Enquiry to investigate into the incident of violence which occurred during the Indo-Pak Mushiara organised in JNU earlier this year. By branding JNU as a den of ISI agents and anti-national activities, the RSS-BJP-ABVP sought to undermine the liberal and secular character of JNU. The SFI-AISF -led JNUSU fearlessly played its part inn enssuring that the BJP-led government does not succeed in tarnishing the image of JNU as an institution which stands firmly in defence of the secular fabric of our country, and also does not succeed in creating insecurity particularly among the students and teachers belonging to the minority community within JNU.

OPPORTUNIST OPPOSITION

Given the overall political backdrop of these elections, the SFI-AISF gave a call to ensure that the mandate of the students is against the communal and reactionary forces, and in favour of a JNUSU which will, struggle for student rights, focussing primarily on the improvement of the library and internet facilities. Given our mobilisation on these issues, AISA and NSUI too parroted the same issues in their manifestos.

However, it was extremely unfortunate that in a totally opportunistic manner, the AISA and the NSUI focussed the brunt of their attack on the SFI-AISF rather than the ABVP, in order to make a dent in the popular support enjoyed by the SFI-AISF among the progressive and secular sections of the student community. They openly allied with the expelled elements of the SFI during their campaign, which focussed on a mandate from the student community only for one post each, i.e., the President from AISA and the Joint Secretary from NSUI respectively, rather than an overall political mandate.

The ABVP which maintain a steady support-base within the students, definitely benefited from this confusing campaign which led to an unfortunate division of the Left and secular votes on these two posts. It was this tacit and unprincipled alliance between the AISA, NSUI and the expelled elements from the SFI, led by Naseer Hussain, which ensured ABVP’s victory for the President and Jt. Secretary’s post, albeit by a slender margin.

The SFI-AISF won the Vice-President (SFI) and the General Secretary (AISF) posts with big margins. The SFI-AISF also won a majority in the three biggest schools in JNU, i.e., the School of Social Sciences, the School of International Studies and the School of Languages, Literature and Culture Studies, with the mandate in the science schools going either to the ABVP or to independents. The Convenorship in SSS, SLL&CS and SIS belongs to the SFI-AISF, alongwith a majority in the JNUSU Council. The SFI candidate for the GSCASH representative M. Samatha won with the highest number of votes defeating the ABVP candidate by a big margin. (See Table)

The narrowest possible margin of just one vote for the President's post set an unprecedented and unfortunate record for JNU, where the ABVP, which has never managed to win the top post in the JNUSU in the entire history of JNU, managing to wrest it. Despite repeated requests the Election Committee did not go in for a recount. However, the responsibility of ensuring that the sanctity of the Election Committee is not brought into question lay entirely on the SFI-AISF and we accepted this mandate in the true democratic spirit. The ABVP is well aware of the fact that the political
mandate of this election has not gone in their favour; rather they have benefited from the confusion prevailing among the Left and secular sections and the resultant division of the votes.

The task before the SFI-AISF in the coming year is to ensure that the institution of the JNUSU remains intact, and JNU’s democratic culture is strengthened. Any attempt by the ABVP to smuggle their communal agenda into the JNUSU will be firmly combated and any attempt to bring in privatization and fee hike in JNU by the administration will be resisted by the entire student community. The SFI-AISF are well aware of the responsibility bestowed upon them by the students of JNU as well as the Left and progressive sections outside JNU. We shall ensure that the student movement of JNU maintains its vigour and plays a responsible and leading role in struggles, both inside and outside the campus in order to strengthen the democratic movement of our country.

VOTING PATTERN

The results for the central panel posts for the JNUSU Elections 2000 were as follows:
 

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