PaRCha - JNU - AISA material - 2009 ID-23408
.
revolutionaries. May we ask the YFE what was the need they felt to tell the students of JNU that Sukhdev was a Thapar and Chandrashekhar (who proudly used Azad as his last name) was a Tiwari? We warn the "meritorious" lumpens of YFE against sullying the socialist ideals of these martyrs, who lived and died fighting against the precise casteist, elitist, brahminical mindset that the YFE is so intent on preserving. .
The YFE then goes on to inform that student community that SC/ST students receive several scholarships and are the richest students on campus! According to the YFE, SC/ST students are "irresponsible", dont work on their assignments and are thus "looting" the state exchequer. The YFE has by now made a habit of trying our patience and repeatedly insulting our intelligence. Some days back, YFE had brought a casteist ant and grasshopper poster in which they had inverted the metaphors by calling the dalits and other lower castes as grasshoppers and upper caste elites as the hard working ants. It is shameful and condemnable that in a socially sensitive campus like JNU, YFE is attempting to insult the most fundamental and basic comprehension of Indian society that our academics and our experience have together moulded. We would like to remind the YFE who are today yelling themselves hoarse against caste based reservations, .
.
That in this country there is 100% reservation for dalits in the toughest most menial and demeaning jobs such as scavenging. .
.
.
This 100% reservation is justified and even celebrated by the government of our times we have not forgotten how the Congress led Haryana government of Bhupender Singh Hooda proudly announced scheme of dalit empowerment where in new jobs for safai karamcharis would be reserved for dalits. .
.
.
We have not forgotten that it is predominantly this section of society that is today being ruthlessly displaced against its will by the entire might of the state machinery for building dams, industrial and development projects, while land and tax benefits are being reserved for huge corporations in the name of SEZs. .
.
.
To top it all, the YFE claims that the only research that happens in JNU is in the hallowed laboratories of the science schools! We will not waste precious time reminding the YFE that JNU is known nationally and internationally for the quality of research that happens in the social sciences. The YFE's response is by no means unexpected: after all, it is the very social science research that they are so hell-bent on demeaning that places a strong and insurmountable ideological challenge to their politics and their ideology. .
The YFE, unlike the NSUI, has had the guts to OPENLY and PROUDLY proclaim that they are in favour of students funding 20% of a university's expenditure. In fact, their only demand is that the 20% should be increased further! The YFE has always claimed that while they are against caste-based reservations, they are in favour of reservations to the poor and needy students. Their pamphlet yesterday however makes it abundantly clear exactly what kind of "reservation" the YFE has in mind. What the YFE is essentially demanding is a university space where there is 100% reservation for the rich and privileged. .
To understand this casteist attitude of YFE one has also to understand the importance of higher education for any society. Higher education is not only to earn degrees and get a white collar job which is the vision of the present day UPA govt., it is in fact a platform of knowledge production. When someone from the marginal section of society comes for higher education in a campus like JNU, he analyzes his world and feels the chains that he is caught in and works to break these chains. The Brahminical forces like YFE which have hegemonized the knowledge production of Indian society since centuries never want any one coming from that marginal section of society to displace them from knowledge production. Nothing could be more dangerous to their agenda than the people from marginalized sections of society coming into institutions of higher learning and developing an understanding of exactly why have been denied their rights for centuries. This explains YFEs paranoia against reservation in institutions of higher education. .
Of course, we are yet to hear from ABVP. However, their silence speaks very loudly. At any rate, their stand on neo-liberal policies and commercialisation of education is all too well known. Moreover, their agenda is being amply implemented by their natural allies like the NSUI and the YFE. .
AISA appeals to the student community to reject the policy of commercialisation of higher education, and also various student groups who are acting as their agents in rationalising their agenda of turning university education into a commodity for the rich and the privileged. AISA appeals to the student community to rally with JNUSU in all the struggles ahead so that the MHRD's devious moves are defeated every inch of the way. .
sd/-Meera Vishwanathan sd/-Radhika Krishnan Vice-President, AISA, JNU Jt. Secy, AISA, JNU .
.
PaRCha - JNU - AISA material - 2009 ID-23408
.
revolutionaries. May we ask the YFE what was the need they felt to tell the students of JNU that Sukhdev was a Thapar and Chandrashekhar (who proudly used Azad as his last name) was a Tiwari? We warn the "meritorious" lumpens of YFE against sullying the socialist ideals of these martyrs, who lived and died fighting against the precise casteist, elitist, brahminical mindset that the YFE is so intent on preserving. .
The YFE then goes on to inform that student community that SC/ST students receive several scholarships and are the richest students on campus! According to the YFE, SC/ST students are "irresponsible", dont work on their assignments and are thus "looting" the state exchequer. The YFE has by now made a habit of trying our patience and repeatedly insulting our intelligence. Some days back, YFE had brought a casteist ant and grasshopper poster in which they had inverted the metaphors by calling the dalits and other lower castes as grasshoppers and upper caste elites as the hard working ants. It is shameful and condemnable that in a socially sensitive campus like JNU, YFE is attempting to insult the most fundamental and basic comprehension of Indian society that our academics and our experience have together moulded. We would like to remind the YFE who are today yelling themselves hoarse against caste based reservations, .
.
That in this country there is 100% reservation for dalits in the toughest most menial and demeaning jobs such as scavenging. .
.
.
This 100% reservation is justified and even celebrated by the government of our times we have not forgotten how the Congress led Haryana government of Bhupender Singh Hooda proudly announced scheme of dalit empowerment where in new jobs for safai karamcharis would be reserved for dalits. .
.
.
We have not forgotten that it is predominantly this section of society that is today being ruthlessly displaced against its will by the entire might of the state machinery for building dams, industrial and development projects, while land and tax benefits are being reserved for huge corporations in the name of SEZs. .
.
.
To top it all, the YFE claims that the only research that happens in JNU is in the hallowed laboratories of the science schools! We will not waste precious time reminding the YFE that JNU is known nationally and internationally for the quality of research that happens in the social sciences. The YFE's response is by no means unexpected: after all, it is the very social science research that they are so hell-bent on demeaning that places a strong and insurmountable ideological challenge to their politics and their ideology. .
The YFE, unlike the NSUI, has had the guts to OPENLY and PROUDLY proclaim that they are in favour of students funding 20% of a university's expenditure. In fact, their only demand is that the 20% should be increased further! The YFE has always claimed that while they are against caste-based reservations, they are in favour of reservations to the poor and needy students. Their pamphlet yesterday however makes it abundantly clear exactly what kind of "reservation" the YFE has in mind. What the YFE is essentially demanding is a university space where there is 100% reservation for the rich and privileged. .
To understand this casteist attitude of YFE one has also to understand the importance of higher education for any society. Higher education is not only to earn degrees and get a white collar job which is the vision of the present day UPA govt., it is in fact a platform of knowledge production. When someone from the marginal section of society comes for higher education in a campus like JNU, he analyzes his world and feels the chains that he is caught in and works to break these chains. The Brahminical forces like YFE which have hegemonized the knowledge production of Indian society since centuries never want any one coming from that marginal section of society to displace them from knowledge production. Nothing could be more dangerous to their agenda than the people from marginalized sections of society coming into institutions of higher learning and developing an understanding of exactly why have been denied their rights for centuries. This explains YFEs paranoia against reservation in institutions of higher education. .
Of course, we are yet to hear from ABVP. However, their silence speaks very loudly. At any rate, their stand on neo-liberal policies and commercialisation of education is all too well known. Moreover, their agenda is being amply implemented by their natural allies like the NSUI and the YFE. .
AISA appeals to the student community to reject the policy of commercialisation of higher education, and also various student groups who are acting as their agents in rationalising their agenda of turning university education into a commodity for the rich and the privileged. AISA appeals to the student community to rally with JNUSU in all the struggles ahead so that the MHRD's devious moves are defeated every inch of the way. .
sd/-Meera Vishwanathan sd/-Radhika Krishnan Vice-President, AISA, JNU Jt. Secy, AISA, JNU .
.