PaRCha - JNU - AISF-SFI - 2000 ID-38142
.
.
.
MANIFESTO .
.
· The East Asian economic crisis has once again exposed the irrationali!, and fragility of Capitalism. Food riots, busted banks, unemploymen~ heightened so-cial tension and negative growth have overwhelmed the 'miracle economies' of the 'Asian tigers.' The IMF and World Bank dictated growth trajectorythafhas for decades ensured the supremacy of the ruling interes:s of the 'first world ' has finally come unstuck at the seams. In an Immediate domino effect, the Russian economy went under, thereby also imperilling the economic stability of Western Europe. The Brazil· ian economy is now desperately being shored up by the Bretton wood twins in order to stall a likely world economic recession that could be unprecedented in scale since 1927-29. While attempts to manage and cushion the political and social effects of the crisis is being worked out by the panic stricken ruling interests of the world, Europe is witnessing a ~ularmandate for left wing polic'es directed chiefly against the brutal anti-people legacies of Thatcherism and Reaganomics. .
In India, however, the BJP and its allies are trying to sail against the tide. The zeal for the much discredited and anti-people liberalization has been intensffied. The new exim policy which has put consumer goods in the open general license {OGL), the opening up of the mining and insurance sector to foreign capital, the inten-srrication of disinvestment in Public Sector Undertakings etc. are clear indicators that the BJP will supinely follow the dictats of the IMF and.World Bank. For asection of the Indian capitalist class, organised under the aegis of FICCI, the BJP government has decided to dole out asubsidy of As. 28,000 crores in the form of government spend-,ng on a six lane national highway.Small and pet1y traders, their main support base, have been given afree run, which has resulted in an unprecedented price rise. Hoard-ing and black-marketing have become the norm and the prices of essential items have spiralled. severely eroding the quality of l~e of the working class and marginaised sections. .
The nuclear explosions and the whiWing up of a virtual hysteria in the region are all essentially being directed against the Indian people at large. Attacks on minorities have been intensified and the ugly fangs of the 'hidden' ASS agenda are now out in the open. A planned attempt has been made especially in the field of education to introduce a communal, divisive and blatantly distorted curriculum. Priva-tisation of education is clearly on the anvil as well. The HAD minister, notorious lor being a ASS hard-liner, is seeking to introduce a bill termed as the Self Financing University BiB in the next session of the pa~iament, which will be a blatant move towards privatising education. These attacks will have a deep impact and resonance on the student movement in JNU in the coming months. .
The Campus : Consolidate and Forge Ahead .
The mandate given to the SFI-AISF in the previous election has enabled our platform to launch a series of struggles against the administration and the ABVP. The move-ment launched at the beginning of the current session by the JNUSU for temporary accommodation for students without hostel facilities was successful in forcing lhe authorities to concede the necessity of making attemative arrangements. The SC & ST quota was entirely filled in tenns of the total intake. The Union's role was substan-tial in ensuring this victo_ry, which included conducting special coaching classes for .
.
. ... ·.· .
the underprivileged. By being a responsive Union in general,the SFI-AISF was able to once again restore the faith of the students in popular action and revitalise the JNUSU as an instrument of struggle.The JNUSU was also able to defeat through popular mobilisation of the students the attempts of the administration to foist an un-democratic 'sexual harassment cell' (chaired ';;y a Professor of dubious leanings) on the student community.Several other issues at the level of the school and those affect-ing the general life of the students were also addressed. In all,these gains have to be consolidated and the students organized to face a new round of battles. .
.
THE CHALLENGES .
Restore the Progressive Admission Policy .
.
The SFI-AISF perceives the struggle for the restoration of the progressive aspects of the OAP (Old admission policy) as constituting the central agenda of the left student movement on campus. Since this year will witness a review of the admis-sion policy, the SFI-AISF will struggle for the reintroduction of deprivation points based on economic, social, regional and gender deprivation with a maximum of 20 depriva-tion points.This will hopefully ensure that JNU's current bias towards urban and high income recruitment is stopped. Instead the current regional imbalance will be offset and a new slant towart:_, the poor and rural areas will be initiated. Secondly, by em-powering the Student Faculty Committee's the admission process will be rendered more transparent and democratic. .
Institute the Gender Sensitisation Committee Against sexual Harassment .
.
The progressive ethos fostered by the left and democratic assertion on the campus has not only enabled the nurturing of healthy gender interaction on Cam-pus but has also ensured the participation of women in various public fora. However, in the recent past a number of attacks in the form of sexual harassment and molesta-tion of girt students have occurred. In fact, the increase in the frequency of assault cases can be directly related to the presence of the ABVP on the Campus. The SFI· AISF have been in the forefront of the agitation demanding the institution of aGender Sensitisation Committee Against Sexual Harassment {GSCASH) on the lines estab-lished by the Supreme Court's directives. The election of the members to this commit-tee must follow a democratic and transparent procedure. The Committee will enable the JNU community to approach issues of assault and harassment with aview to-wards redressal of the crime, rehabilitation of the victim and ensuring preventive meas-.
ures as well. .
The strategy of the BJP government to reintroduce the Private Universities Bill under the garb of Self-Financing Universities Bill in the Winter Session of Parliament, must be defeated.This Bill will seek to severely restrict access to higher education for large sections of the student community. It will once again attemptto absolve the state from any responsibility towards ensuring the fundamental right of education. .
More Hostels, More Books .
.
The SFI-AISF asserts that no attefi1Jt to involve students in wider struggles for social and eoonomic equality will bear Inuit unless the confidence of students is won over by fighting for the long standing and legitimate demands of the student commu-nity, particularly the construction of new hostels. The SFI-AISF through the JNUSU has fought for and ensured temporary accommodatiJn for over 200 students, ,thus forcing the JNU administration to accept their responsibility towards outstatior,stu-dents. This struggle has to be furthered till permanent accommodation for all outsta-tion students are guaranteed. The budget allocation for new books and journals has nose dived to zero (Financial Estimates of JNU, t997-98). This deliberate attack on our right to education will be fought by the SFf-AISF tooth and nail. .
Transport Facilities .
There is a virtual collapse in the system of communication in the Campus.Ever since the OTC privatised the JNU routes the number of buses plying have virtually halved. The Delhi administration is keen to allow the slide to continue. Besides, it has withdrawn the free student bus-passes and discontinued the availability of student concession passes in the Universities. The SFI-AISF are oommitted to carry faward the struggle for better transport facilities and bus passes for all students including the pressing need for U.Specials to cater to asubstantial number of day scholars. .
Correcting Regional Imbalances and the SC/ST Quota. .
India is characterized by a unique brand of tq>sided development which must be seen as part of the peculiarities of its variant of capitalism. Several regions in India are subject to the processes of restricted or under-development. Regions like the ~orth-East and Western Orissa besides vast swaths of the rural hinterland need ~pecial attention and consideration. Students from these regions must, therefore, get the ben-efit of special coaching classes and added incentives in order to make JNU atruly representative institution of learning. Moreover, education has sdirect bearing oo ena-bling these students to acquire the necessary means for challenging the various types of oppression, discrimination and exploitation that are inflicts on the peoples o! these regions. The fulfilment of the SC/ST quota is of utmost importance and is one of the principle demands of the SFI-AISF platfonm. The reservation quota is often not filled from the sheer absence of administrative will. Such administrative lethargy \iolates the very essence of the oonstitutional norms laid down by the late Dr. B.A. Ambedkar. .
.
Other Demands: .
1. .
Revision of the outdated syllabi in various centres. .
.
2. .
Immediate fuffilment of vacancies to reduce the imbalance in teacher-student ratio. .
.
3. .
Raising astrong protest against the discrimination of the Urdu Language and Research by the UGC. .
.
4. .
Empowerment and revitalisation of SFCs. .
.
5. .
Increasing the MCMs and linking it to the inflation rate. .
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
PaRCha - JNU - AISF-SFI - 2000 ID-38142
.
.
.
MANIFESTO .
.
· The East Asian economic crisis has once again exposed the irrationali!, and fragility of Capitalism. Food riots, busted banks, unemploymen~ heightened so-cial tension and negative growth have overwhelmed the 'miracle economies' of the 'Asian tigers.' The IMF and World Bank dictated growth trajectorythafhas for decades ensured the supremacy of the ruling interes:s of the 'first world ' has finally come unstuck at the seams. In an Immediate domino effect, the Russian economy went under, thereby also imperilling the economic stability of Western Europe. The Brazil· ian economy is now desperately being shored up by the Bretton wood twins in order to stall a likely world economic recession that could be unprecedented in scale since 1927-29. While attempts to manage and cushion the political and social effects of the crisis is being worked out by the panic stricken ruling interests of the world, Europe is witnessing a ~ularmandate for left wing polic'es directed chiefly against the brutal anti-people legacies of Thatcherism and Reaganomics. .
In India, however, the BJP and its allies are trying to sail against the tide. The zeal for the much discredited and anti-people liberalization has been intensffied. The new exim policy which has put consumer goods in the open general license {OGL), the opening up of the mining and insurance sector to foreign capital, the inten-srrication of disinvestment in Public Sector Undertakings etc. are clear indicators that the BJP will supinely follow the dictats of the IMF and.World Bank. For asection of the Indian capitalist class, organised under the aegis of FICCI, the BJP government has decided to dole out asubsidy of As. 28,000 crores in the form of government spend-,ng on a six lane national highway.Small and pet1y traders, their main support base, have been given afree run, which has resulted in an unprecedented price rise. Hoard-ing and black-marketing have become the norm and the prices of essential items have spiralled. severely eroding the quality of l~e of the working class and marginaised sections. .
The nuclear explosions and the whiWing up of a virtual hysteria in the region are all essentially being directed against the Indian people at large. Attacks on minorities have been intensified and the ugly fangs of the 'hidden' ASS agenda are now out in the open. A planned attempt has been made especially in the field of education to introduce a communal, divisive and blatantly distorted curriculum. Priva-tisation of education is clearly on the anvil as well. The HAD minister, notorious lor being a ASS hard-liner, is seeking to introduce a bill termed as the Self Financing University BiB in the next session of the pa~iament, which will be a blatant move towards privatising education. These attacks will have a deep impact and resonance on the student movement in JNU in the coming months. .
The Campus : Consolidate and Forge Ahead .
The mandate given to the SFI-AISF in the previous election has enabled our platform to launch a series of struggles against the administration and the ABVP. The move-ment launched at the beginning of the current session by the JNUSU for temporary accommodation for students without hostel facilities was successful in forcing lhe authorities to concede the necessity of making attemative arrangements. The SC & ST quota was entirely filled in tenns of the total intake. The Union's role was substan-tial in ensuring this victo_ry, which included conducting special coaching classes for .
.
. ... ·.· .
the underprivileged. By being a responsive Union in general,the SFI-AISF was able to once again restore the faith of the students in popular action and revitalise the JNUSU as an instrument of struggle.The JNUSU was also able to defeat through popular mobilisation of the students the attempts of the administration to foist an un-democratic 'sexual harassment cell' (chaired ';;y a Professor of dubious leanings) on the student community.Several other issues at the level of the school and those affect-ing the general life of the students were also addressed. In all,these gains have to be consolidated and the students organized to face a new round of battles. .
.
THE CHALLENGES .
Restore the Progressive Admission Policy .
.
The SFI-AISF perceives the struggle for the restoration of the progressive aspects of the OAP (Old admission policy) as constituting the central agenda of the left student movement on campus. Since this year will witness a review of the admis-sion policy, the SFI-AISF will struggle for the reintroduction of deprivation points based on economic, social, regional and gender deprivation with a maximum of 20 depriva-tion points.This will hopefully ensure that JNU's current bias towards urban and high income recruitment is stopped. Instead the current regional imbalance will be offset and a new slant towart:_, the poor and rural areas will be initiated. Secondly, by em-powering the Student Faculty Committee's the admission process will be rendered more transparent and democratic. .
Institute the Gender Sensitisation Committee Against sexual Harassment .
.
The progressive ethos fostered by the left and democratic assertion on the campus has not only enabled the nurturing of healthy gender interaction on Cam-pus but has also ensured the participation of women in various public fora. However, in the recent past a number of attacks in the form of sexual harassment and molesta-tion of girt students have occurred. In fact, the increase in the frequency of assault cases can be directly related to the presence of the ABVP on the Campus. The SFI· AISF have been in the forefront of the agitation demanding the institution of aGender Sensitisation Committee Against Sexual Harassment {GSCASH) on the lines estab-lished by the Supreme Court's directives. The election of the members to this commit-tee must follow a democratic and transparent procedure. The Committee will enable the JNU community to approach issues of assault and harassment with aview to-wards redressal of the crime, rehabilitation of the victim and ensuring preventive meas-.
ures as well. .
The strategy of the BJP government to reintroduce the Private Universities Bill under the garb of Self-Financing Universities Bill in the Winter Session of Parliament, must be defeated.This Bill will seek to severely restrict access to higher education for large sections of the student community. It will once again attemptto absolve the state from any responsibility towards ensuring the fundamental right of education. .
More Hostels, More Books .
.
The SFI-AISF asserts that no attefi1Jt to involve students in wider struggles for social and eoonomic equality will bear Inuit unless the confidence of students is won over by fighting for the long standing and legitimate demands of the student commu-nity, particularly the construction of new hostels. The SFI-AISF through the JNUSU has fought for and ensured temporary accommodatiJn for over 200 students, ,thus forcing the JNU administration to accept their responsibility towards outstatior,stu-dents. This struggle has to be furthered till permanent accommodation for all outsta-tion students are guaranteed. The budget allocation for new books and journals has nose dived to zero (Financial Estimates of JNU, t997-98). This deliberate attack on our right to education will be fought by the SFf-AISF tooth and nail. .
Transport Facilities .
There is a virtual collapse in the system of communication in the Campus.Ever since the OTC privatised the JNU routes the number of buses plying have virtually halved. The Delhi administration is keen to allow the slide to continue. Besides, it has withdrawn the free student bus-passes and discontinued the availability of student concession passes in the Universities. The SFI-AISF are oommitted to carry faward the struggle for better transport facilities and bus passes for all students including the pressing need for U.Specials to cater to asubstantial number of day scholars. .
Correcting Regional Imbalances and the SC/ST Quota. .
India is characterized by a unique brand of tq>sided development which must be seen as part of the peculiarities of its variant of capitalism. Several regions in India are subject to the processes of restricted or under-development. Regions like the ~orth-East and Western Orissa besides vast swaths of the rural hinterland need ~pecial attention and consideration. Students from these regions must, therefore, get the ben-efit of special coaching classes and added incentives in order to make JNU atruly representative institution of learning. Moreover, education has sdirect bearing oo ena-bling these students to acquire the necessary means for challenging the various types of oppression, discrimination and exploitation that are inflicts on the peoples o! these regions. The fulfilment of the SC/ST quota is of utmost importance and is one of the principle demands of the SFI-AISF platfonm. The reservation quota is often not filled from the sheer absence of administrative will. Such administrative lethargy \iolates the very essence of the oonstitutional norms laid down by the late Dr. B.A. Ambedkar. .
.
Other Demands: .
1. .
Revision of the outdated syllabi in various centres. .
.
2. .
Immediate fuffilment of vacancies to reduce the imbalance in teacher-student ratio. .
.
3. .
Raising astrong protest against the discrimination of the Urdu Language and Research by the UGC. .
.
4. .
Empowerment and revitalisation of SFCs. .
.
5. .
Increasing the MCMs and linking it to the inflation rate. .
.
.
.
.
.
.
.