PaRCha - JNU - All Organisations - 2014 ID-56839
.
in t~e issues. that. AIS~ r~is.es; they are simply meant for .
sconng brownte pomts vts-a-vts others. For instance, when RMP .
leader TP Chandrashekharan was killed in Kerala in May 2012 .
AISA l~unched a full scale attack against the SFI in JNU fa; .
defendtn~ the murderers, despite the SFI-JNU unit categorically .
conde~mng the gruesome murder and demanding pun 1shmont of .
the gutlty "trrespective of political affiliations". The JNUSU President .
and another Councillor from the A/SA also visited TP Chandrashekharan's home in Onchiyam. However, ever since the "dissolution" and the coming into being of SFI-JNU, AISA and .
the JNUSU office-bearers have conveniently dropped the TP .
Chandrashekharan murder issue from their agenda: it also does not find any mention in the SIS or SSS.Convenor's reports! Is this beeause the AI SA feels it is ·no longer going to yield electoral dividends in JNU? Isn't it opportumstic to play cheap politics on the murder of a committed Left leader, who was also an ally of the CPI-ML Liberation? .
Immediately after the last JNUSU· e·lections. the newly elected JNUSU President from the·AISA had remarked that the mandate "is in favour of people's movements struggling against SEZ.s, AFSPA and Operation Green Hunl". Has the JNUSU President or anybody else from the AISA taken a single initiative over the past six months to raise the issues of repeal of the AFSPA, or scrapping the SEZ Act or stopping "Operation Green Hunt"? The only SEZ AISA was interested in opposing was the one in Nandigram, as if no more SEZs are being built or opposed in other slates today. Opposing Greenhunt has become unnecessary for the AISA today, because the Left Front government in West Bengal no longer exists. Like Mamata Banerjee, who once opposed the killing of Maoist leader Azad and late·r once in power ordered the killing of another Maoist leader Kishenji herself, AISA's posturing on "G reenhunt" too is highly opportunistic. Similarly, AFSPA was an issue for the AISA till the March 2012 JNUSU elections just because it wanted to attack "CPI (M)'s double-speak" on AFSPA and not .
because it is serious about the state repression unleashed under the AFSPA regime either in Kashmir or the North-Easl In contrast, over 25 members of the SFI-JNU unit along with the AISF travelled to Srinagar by road in May 2012 to participate in a Convention on the Democratic Rights of Kashmiri Youth ·arid' joined in adopting a resolution demanding withdrawal of AFSPA and other democratic rights of the Kasmiri people. .
When such electoralism has been the hallmark of AISA's politics, does it befit the AI SA to indulge in name-calling? .
SFI-JNU: PRINCIPLED POSITIONS, TRANSPARENT AGENDA .
The AISA is vainly frying [o create confusion over the political positions adopted by the SFI-JNU and its future agenda, which have beon transp,.rently communicated to the student community. A General Body Meeting of the SFI-JNU Unit held on 13111 July 2012 had resolved that it would continue to abide by the SFI Programme senio~ faculty members of JNU like Profs. CP Cha .
Jayatt Ghosh, Mohan Rao, Ritoo Jerath and Vivek former .JNUSU Presidents like Albeena Shakil, R Dh~nanJay wrote to the SFI national leadership to recons· d~tslln to dtssolve the SFI-JNU unit and reverse the disc1p. .
action. A former JNUSU Presodent, Cornrudc Albccna Sh~kil recently been expelled from lhe Ocll1i Sl<Jin Con11r11llee of ohe C. .
(M) for advocating a conciliatory approacl1 towards the SFI-JNU and attending the JNUSU Convention on campus democracy. Another Delhi State Committee member .of the CPI (M) (who was a former secretary of SFI JNU unit) has resigned in protest. .
SFI-JNU has stated that it will "attempt to initiate. political dialogue with all CEC members, State Committees and primary units of the SFI...Feedback received from SFI units across the country will be collated ·and presented before the Conference of the SFI-JNU Unit, which will be held before the end of the monsoon semester, i.e. by November 2012 ... After due .
deliberations, the Conference of the SFI-JNU Unit will take a final decision on the question of larger organizational affiliation."SFI·JNU has already received solidarity from SFI units across the counlry, who are opposing the dtssolution of the JNU unit within the SFI organisation and trying to reverse the decision. .
SFI-JNU has received a valuable solidarity message from eminent Left intellectual Dr. Ashok Mitra saying: "If you have searched your conscience ·and it has ~ndorsed your judgement that what you are embarking upon is· in defence of your c/ICrisiJed ideology and you are prepared to go all the way to face the consequences of your d~cision. please do go ahoacl. II has happened so often in history that elders feadmg a movement have made mistakes which the ju.niors through their initiative have got reversed. But they had to go through intense sufforings.. .By all means argue fiercely with /hose who were till yesterday your c/os.est comrades, but please ·take care to avoid rancour in tile exchanges you get involved in and, let the initiative of a formal breach come -if .
~ has to come -not from your direction. None should be aflr?wed the chance of claiming that they did not sever the fraterna l finks Ql.!f you_ .opted. out-of your-own ... The baltle To ··protect fh e-purity of the .
·ideology can never be a lost cause, t11e fma.t victory is bound to be ours." .
It is this advic·e from an -eminent intellectual, whom even the .
AISA hails as an authentic voice of dissent within the left that currently guides the SFI-JNU. If the AISA considers all this as "shadow boxing", it only exposes its political . bankruptcy afld narrow-minded sectarianism. · · .
TOWARDS A NON-SECTARIAN, PROGRESSIVE AND DEMOCRATIC STUDENT MO~EMENT: In order to understand the issues in the debate surrounding the SFI-JNU. AI SA rieeds·to look beyond the trivia and focus on the more serious and substantive views from the Left, which are also ·available in the .cyberspace. .
.
and Constitution and express unstinted so~idarity with all pro.-,p~ople. ...Aditya.Nigam wrote·ltle·following in.the kaftla.org: "Tile leadership .
.. .iniHatives,.. struggles and·movements lauriched' ·~Y"ttie... left and .
democratic forces against the anti-people neolibcral regime. The SFI-JNU resolved to fight against ultra-left sectarianism of the AI SA, firmly oppose the DSU which espouses Maoist violence and also criticize and counter the right-opportunist and anti-people trends within any section of the Indian left and their manifestations in JNU. SFI-JNU also resolved to adopt.. a non-sectarian approach towards student struggles, relentlessly fight for issues concerning JNU students, work for broad based unity among progressive and democratic student organizations and initiate meaningful debates on .
socialism in the 21 s1 century. It was on the basis of ·this agenda that 96 comrades who were former members and sympathisers of the SFI in JNU' including .
of SFI-JNU deserves to be congratulated for the forthright manner in which it has taken a position on some of the most critical issues that concern the future of the Left in India. It is futile at.this ·juncture to ask the kind of questions that are usually asked of people who decide at some point to speak up: why did you not speak up earlier? Why did you support the decision to do X? Why did you not quit when Nandfgram actually took place? There is no correct and proper time to speak up. To speak up publicly, that is. There is always a time-lag between this public expression of dissent and its initial articulations in the 'proper party forums'. It always takes a long, long time before people actually decide to set as ide considerations of .
'dis~ipline' -and !hat is.a ~oment of reckoning for people who are .
senous aboutthetr politiCs. .
.
.
PaRCha - JNU - All Organisations - 2014 ID-56839
.
in t~e issues. that. AIS~ r~is.es; they are simply meant for .
sconng brownte pomts vts-a-vts others. For instance, when RMP .
leader TP Chandrashekharan was killed in Kerala in May 2012 .
AISA l~unched a full scale attack against the SFI in JNU fa; .
defendtn~ the murderers, despite the SFI-JNU unit categorically .
conde~mng the gruesome murder and demanding pun 1shmont of .
the gutlty "trrespective of political affiliations". The JNUSU President .
and another Councillor from the A/SA also visited TP Chandrashekharan's home in Onchiyam. However, ever since the "dissolution" and the coming into being of SFI-JNU, AISA and .
the JNUSU office-bearers have conveniently dropped the TP .
Chandrashekharan murder issue from their agenda: it also does not find any mention in the SIS or SSS.Convenor's reports! Is this beeause the AI SA feels it is ·no longer going to yield electoral dividends in JNU? Isn't it opportumstic to play cheap politics on the murder of a committed Left leader, who was also an ally of the CPI-ML Liberation? .
Immediately after the last JNUSU· e·lections. the newly elected JNUSU President from the·AISA had remarked that the mandate "is in favour of people's movements struggling against SEZ.s, AFSPA and Operation Green Hunl". Has the JNUSU President or anybody else from the AISA taken a single initiative over the past six months to raise the issues of repeal of the AFSPA, or scrapping the SEZ Act or stopping "Operation Green Hunt"? The only SEZ AISA was interested in opposing was the one in Nandigram, as if no more SEZs are being built or opposed in other slates today. Opposing Greenhunt has become unnecessary for the AISA today, because the Left Front government in West Bengal no longer exists. Like Mamata Banerjee, who once opposed the killing of Maoist leader Azad and late·r once in power ordered the killing of another Maoist leader Kishenji herself, AISA's posturing on "G reenhunt" too is highly opportunistic. Similarly, AFSPA was an issue for the AISA till the March 2012 JNUSU elections just because it wanted to attack "CPI (M)'s double-speak" on AFSPA and not .
because it is serious about the state repression unleashed under the AFSPA regime either in Kashmir or the North-Easl In contrast, over 25 members of the SFI-JNU unit along with the AISF travelled to Srinagar by road in May 2012 to participate in a Convention on the Democratic Rights of Kashmiri Youth ·arid' joined in adopting a resolution demanding withdrawal of AFSPA and other democratic rights of the Kasmiri people. .
When such electoralism has been the hallmark of AISA's politics, does it befit the AI SA to indulge in name-calling? .
SFI-JNU: PRINCIPLED POSITIONS, TRANSPARENT AGENDA .
The AISA is vainly frying [o create confusion over the political positions adopted by the SFI-JNU and its future agenda, which have beon transp,.rently communicated to the student community. A General Body Meeting of the SFI-JNU Unit held on 13111 July 2012 had resolved that it would continue to abide by the SFI Programme senio~ faculty members of JNU like Profs. CP Cha .
Jayatt Ghosh, Mohan Rao, Ritoo Jerath and Vivek former .JNUSU Presidents like Albeena Shakil, R Dh~nanJay wrote to the SFI national leadership to recons· d~tslln to dtssolve the SFI-JNU unit and reverse the disc1p. .
action. A former JNUSU Presodent, Cornrudc Albccna Sh~kil recently been expelled from lhe Ocll1i Sl<Jin Con11r11llee of ohe C. .
(M) for advocating a conciliatory approacl1 towards the SFI-JNU and attending the JNUSU Convention on campus democracy. Another Delhi State Committee member .of the CPI (M) (who was a former secretary of SFI JNU unit) has resigned in protest. .
SFI-JNU has stated that it will "attempt to initiate. political dialogue with all CEC members, State Committees and primary units of the SFI...Feedback received from SFI units across the country will be collated ·and presented before the Conference of the SFI-JNU Unit, which will be held before the end of the monsoon semester, i.e. by November 2012 ... After due .
deliberations, the Conference of the SFI-JNU Unit will take a final decision on the question of larger organizational affiliation."SFI·JNU has already received solidarity from SFI units across the counlry, who are opposing the dtssolution of the JNU unit within the SFI organisation and trying to reverse the decision. .
SFI-JNU has received a valuable solidarity message from eminent Left intellectual Dr. Ashok Mitra saying: "If you have searched your conscience ·and it has ~ndorsed your judgement that what you are embarking upon is· in defence of your c/ICrisiJed ideology and you are prepared to go all the way to face the consequences of your d~cision. please do go ahoacl. II has happened so often in history that elders feadmg a movement have made mistakes which the ju.niors through their initiative have got reversed. But they had to go through intense sufforings.. .By all means argue fiercely with /hose who were till yesterday your c/os.est comrades, but please ·take care to avoid rancour in tile exchanges you get involved in and, let the initiative of a formal breach come -if .
~ has to come -not from your direction. None should be aflr?wed the chance of claiming that they did not sever the fraterna l finks Ql.!f you_ .opted. out-of your-own ... The baltle To ··protect fh e-purity of the .
·ideology can never be a lost cause, t11e fma.t victory is bound to be ours." .
It is this advic·e from an -eminent intellectual, whom even the .
AISA hails as an authentic voice of dissent within the left that currently guides the SFI-JNU. If the AISA considers all this as "shadow boxing", it only exposes its political . bankruptcy afld narrow-minded sectarianism. · · .
TOWARDS A NON-SECTARIAN, PROGRESSIVE AND DEMOCRATIC STUDENT MO~EMENT: In order to understand the issues in the debate surrounding the SFI-JNU. AI SA rieeds·to look beyond the trivia and focus on the more serious and substantive views from the Left, which are also ·available in the .cyberspace. .
.
and Constitution and express unstinted so~idarity with all pro.-,p~ople. ...Aditya.Nigam wrote·ltle·following in.the kaftla.org: "Tile leadership .
.. .iniHatives,.. struggles and·movements lauriched' ·~Y"ttie... left and .
democratic forces against the anti-people neolibcral regime. The SFI-JNU resolved to fight against ultra-left sectarianism of the AI SA, firmly oppose the DSU which espouses Maoist violence and also criticize and counter the right-opportunist and anti-people trends within any section of the Indian left and their manifestations in JNU. SFI-JNU also resolved to adopt.. a non-sectarian approach towards student struggles, relentlessly fight for issues concerning JNU students, work for broad based unity among progressive and democratic student organizations and initiate meaningful debates on .
socialism in the 21 s1 century. It was on the basis of ·this agenda that 96 comrades who were former members and sympathisers of the SFI in JNU' including .
of SFI-JNU deserves to be congratulated for the forthright manner in which it has taken a position on some of the most critical issues that concern the future of the Left in India. It is futile at.this ·juncture to ask the kind of questions that are usually asked of people who decide at some point to speak up: why did you not speak up earlier? Why did you support the decision to do X? Why did you not quit when Nandfgram actually took place? There is no correct and proper time to speak up. To speak up publicly, that is. There is always a time-lag between this public expression of dissent and its initial articulations in the 'proper party forums'. It always takes a long, long time before people actually decide to set as ide considerations of .
'dis~ipline' -and !hat is.a ~oment of reckoning for people who are .
senous aboutthetr politiCs. .
.
.