A large photograph of a young woman - her nose covered by a medical swatch making way for a IV tube, stoic and dogged, her eyes peer down at you – dominates a makeshift bamboo hut in New Checkon in Imphal East. This is a picture of Irom Sharmila, she has not eaten for nearly 9 years now – for this she has been locked up by government and force-fed by tubes. She launched into this almost decade long fast unto death, demanding the removal of the repressive Armed Forces Special Powers Act(AFSPA) after she witnessed the killing of 10 innocent civilians allegedly at the hands the Assam Rifles in November of 2000. Their killings like many others Manipur has witnessed came under the aegis of a law that gives the Indian army extraordinary powers to quash ethnic insurgencies. In the hut Ima K Taruni and the dozen other Meira Paibi, the torch bearers are angry as they sit in a relay hunger strike for Sharmila. “Enough is enough, we will not vote until AFSPA is revoked. What kind of democracy is this were members of our own army kill us with impunity."

see the set - www.flickr.com/photos/lecercle/sets/72157617292280758/

The widely reported fake encounter killing of Chungkham Sanjit and Rabina Devi (5 months pregnant) on July 23rd 2009 and the arrests and arbitrary detention of several noted environmental and human rights activists under various laws like National Security Act, 1980; Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, created a ripple of reactions, within the media, the general public and the Government.

In this context, a team of concerned citizens undertook a fact finding mission to Maniour from 5-8 November 2009 to investigate and report their findings on the state of heightened tensions and civil unrest in Manipur.

The Independent Citizens’ Mission comprised of Dr. K.S. Subramanian, IPS (retd.), formerly of the Manipur-Tripura cadre and currently Visiting Professor, Jamia Millia University, New Delhi, Shri. Sumit Chakravartty, Editor - Mainstream, Kavita Srivastava, National Secretary PUCL, and Vasundhara Jairath representing Delhi Solidarity Group.

The report was released by Prof. Randhir Singh, former Professor of Political Theory, University of Delhi and author of several books on left politics in India. The release was followed by a panel discussion on the situation in Manipur and the report findings. The panelists were:

•Surendra Mohan, former Member of Parliament and Chairman, Khadi Board.

•Tapan Kumar Bose, General Secretary, Pakistan-India Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy and is also associated with the South Asia Forum for Human Rights (SAFHR)

•Shoma Chaudhury, Editor (Features), Tehelka

The widely reported fake encounter killing of Chungkham Sanjit and Rabina Devi (5 months pregnant) on July 23rd 2009 and the arrests and arbitrary detention of several noted environmental and human rights activists under various laws like National Security Act, 1980; Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, created a ripple of reactions, within the media, the general public and the Government.

In this context, a team of concerned citizens undertook a fact finding mission to Maniour from 5-8 November 2009 to investigate and report their findings on the state of heightened tensions and civil unrest in Manipur.

The Independent Citizens’ Mission comprised of Dr. K.S. Subramanian, IPS (retd.), formerly of the Manipur-Tripura cadre and currently Visiting Professor, Jamia Millia University, New Delhi, Shri. Sumit Chakravartty, Editor - Mainstream, Kavita Srivastava, National Secretary PUCL, and Vasundhara Jairath representing Delhi Solidarity Group.

The report was released by Prof. Randhir Singh, former Professor of Political Theory, University of Delhi and author of several books on left politics in India. The release was followed by a panel discussion on the situation in Manipur and the report findings. The panelists were:

•Surendra Mohan, former Member of Parliament and Chairman, Khadi Board.

•Tapan Kumar Bose, General Secretary, Pakistan-India Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy and is also associated with the South Asia Forum for Human Rights (SAFHR)

•Shoma Chaudhury, Editor (Features), Tehelka

The widely reported fake encounter killing of Chungkham Sanjit and Rabina Devi (5 months pregnant) on July 23rd 2009 and the arrests and arbitrary detention of several noted environmental and human rights activists under various laws like National Security Act, 1980; Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, created a ripple of reactions, within the media, the general public and the Government.

In this context, a team of concerned citizens undertook a fact finding mission to Maniour from 5-8 November 2009 to investigate and report their findings on the state of heightened tensions and civil unrest in Manipur.

The Independent Citizens’ Mission comprised of Dr. K.S. Subramanian, IPS (retd.), formerly of the Manipur-Tripura cadre and currently Visiting Professor, Jamia Millia University, New Delhi, Shri. Sumit Chakravartty, Editor - Mainstream, Kavita Srivastava, National Secretary PUCL, and Vasundhara Jairath representing Delhi Solidarity Group.

The report was released by Prof. Randhir Singh, former Professor of Political Theory, University of Delhi and author of several books on left politics in India. The release was followed by a panel discussion on the situation in Manipur and the report findings. The panelists were:

•Surendra Mohan, former Member of Parliament and Chairman, Khadi Board.

•Tapan Kumar Bose, General Secretary, Pakistan-India Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy and is also associated with the South Asia Forum for Human Rights (SAFHR)

•Shoma Chaudhury, Editor (Features), Tehelka

The widely reported fake encounter killing of Chungkham Sanjit and Rabina Devi (5 months pregnant) on July 23rd 2009 and the arrests and arbitrary detention of several noted environmental and human rights activists under various laws like National Security Act, 1980; Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, created a ripple of reactions, within the media, the general public and the Government.

In this context, a team of concerned citizens undertook a fact finding mission to Maniour from 5-8 November 2009 to investigate and report their findings on the state of heightened tensions and civil unrest in Manipur.

The Independent Citizens’ Mission comprised of Dr. K.S. Subramanian, IPS (retd.), formerly of the Manipur-Tripura cadre and currently Visiting Professor, Jamia Millia University, New Delhi, Shri. Sumit Chakravartty, Editor - Mainstream, Kavita Srivastava, National Secretary PUCL, and Vasundhara Jairath representing Delhi Solidarity Group.

The report was released by Prof. Randhir Singh, former Professor of Political Theory, University of Delhi and author of several books on left politics in India. The release was followed by a panel discussion on the situation in Manipur and the report findings. The panelists were:

•Surendra Mohan, former Member of Parliament and Chairman, Khadi Board.

•Tapan Kumar Bose, General Secretary, Pakistan-India Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy and is also associated with the South Asia Forum for Human Rights (SAFHR)

•Shoma Chaudhury, Editor (Features), Tehelka

Irom Sharmila's decision comes as shock to many, 'movement will continue with or without her' #Irom, #Afspa, #Sharmila, #Singhajit, #Fasting, #Coutinho, #Paibis, #Manipur, #Repealed, #Meira #Contfeed

Check out here >> cofd.co/2gbl5

The widely reported fake encounter killing of Chungkham Sanjit and Rabina Devi (5 months pregnant) on July 23rd 2009 and the arrests and arbitrary detention of several noted environmental and human rights activists under various laws like National Security Act, 1980; Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, created a ripple of reactions, within the media, the general public and the Government.

In this context, a team of concerned citizens undertook a fact finding mission to Maniour from 5-8 November 2009 to investigate and report their findings on the state of heightened tensions and civil unrest in Manipur.

The Independent Citizens’ Mission comprised of Dr. K.S. Subramanian, IPS (retd.), formerly of the Manipur-Tripura cadre and currently Visiting Professor, Jamia Millia University, New Delhi, Shri. Sumit Chakravartty, Editor - Mainstream, Kavita Srivastava, National Secretary PUCL, and Vasundhara Jairath representing Delhi Solidarity Group.

The report was released by Prof. Randhir Singh, former Professor of Political Theory, University of Delhi and author of several books on left politics in India. The release was followed by a panel discussion on the situation in Manipur and the report findings. The panelists were:

•Surendra Mohan, former Member of Parliament and Chairman, Khadi Board.

•Tapan Kumar Bose, General Secretary, Pakistan-India Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy and is also associated with the South Asia Forum for Human Rights (SAFHR)

•Shoma Chaudhury, Editor (Features), Tehelka

The widely reported fake encounter killing of Chungkham Sanjit and Rabina Devi (5 months pregnant) on July 23rd 2009 and the arrests and arbitrary detention of several noted environmental and human rights activists under various laws like National Security Act, 1980; Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, created a ripple of reactions, within the media, the general public and the Government.

In this context, a team of concerned citizens undertook a fact finding mission to Maniour from 5-8 November 2009 to investigate and report their findings on the state of heightened tensions and civil unrest in Manipur.

The Independent Citizens’ Mission comprised of Dr. K.S. Subramanian, IPS (retd.), formerly of the Manipur-Tripura cadre and currently Visiting Professor, Jamia Millia University, New Delhi, Shri. Sumit Chakravartty, Editor - Mainstream, Kavita Srivastava, National Secretary PUCL, and Vasundhara Jairath representing Delhi Solidarity Group.

The report was released by Prof. Randhir Singh, former Professor of Political Theory, University of Delhi and author of several books on left politics in India. The release was followed by a panel discussion on the situation in Manipur and the report findings. The panelists were:

•Surendra Mohan, former Member of Parliament and Chairman, Khadi Board.

•Tapan Kumar Bose, General Secretary, Pakistan-India Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy and is also associated with the South Asia Forum for Human Rights (SAFHR)

•Shoma Chaudhury, Editor (Features), Tehelka

.

.

opposite. Indeed On(" c.;nn :-cc that our gloriops civilization had nothing like the infamous GULAG concentration .

ca~ps but in nltnQ$l ('Very communist country there has been a camp like the GULAG in the former USSR. .

Dear brothers ttrhl sa~tcrs of this campus, we are one of the most important and premier university in the .

Republic ofln-.lin, 11 i~ our duty to ensure that this campus be free and democratic and therefore it is our duty to expose the lefl whirh for so long years has been hiding behind dirty masks oflies and falsity. This is the time to -.

tell the left thnt WE DO NOT WANT YOU!!! .

Those who desecrate and insult our-national flag and abuse our democracy that has aUowed them to live here and practice and propagate their beliefs are nothing but loud mouthed TRAITORS. We sometimes imagine how would the left ever survive in a country like Pakistan???? those who brainwash people into believing that they are someone else and not Indians and drill hate into their minds and heart have no place in this university. In fact .

the left is so pathetic that whenever they see a north eastern student they rush to te11 him or her about AFSPA .

, but then sometimes they pick up the wrong person who shares the same regional features and talk to him or her about AFSPA only to get the angry response that u MY STATE lS NOT UNDE;R AFSPA, STOP BRAINWASHING ME AND I AM A PROUD INDIAN". This is the way the left works, always brainwashing .

the youth and instead of Jetting them think on their own they wi~l feed them a mixture made of Marx, Engels, / .

Mao and God knows what not. .

The very Left which is so divided in our campus actually unites itself when it comes to being an ANTI-INDIAN, ANTI NATIONAL, AND BRAINWASHING THE STUDENTS. Now the time has come to reject left wing \iolence and hooliganism in the campus, to telJ them that \VE DON'T NEED ANY RED .

REVOLUTION,WE KNOW WHAT IT MEAN WE HAVE SEEN lT TN MANY COUNTRIES. Go ot2t and vote because people in communist countries only see "VOTE" in dictionaries and can never exercise it. Vote for ABVP, vote for India vote for yourself!!!.Tell the left .. AB JHOOTHI KRANTJ NAHI AAYEGI, AB GO.LI NAHI CHALEGI1 AB HUM TUM SASSE LARENGE, TIJMHARE BANDUK MEY KHOON LAGI HUI HAY, PAR HUM TO BHARAT MATA KJ KASAM LEY KAR AAYE HAl!! !!.!!!!!!!!! .

Vote! Support! Elect! Nationalist ABVP in upcoming.JNUSU election! .

President: Alok Kumar Singh, .

Vice-President: Baldev Ram Khandoliyan, Gen. Secretary: Sumit Kumar Maurya .

SES scss.

Councillors: Sll&CS SIS SPS--.

-.

Gopal Lal Meena Viplav Anand Shagun Sinha.

Pankaj Kumar Srivastav Harikesh Bijoria .

Rahul Kumar Vivek Kumar Sourabh .

Shivek Kumar Sicky .

Summer Ranjan .

Election Campaign Coordinator: Sandip Kumar Singh, Vinay Kant .

· VANDE MATRAM !! BHARAT MATA Kl JAI!! !.

__.....

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"... -.

-·· ... ~ ... .

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· --··· ·-..........._ . ,~··......···--'\_ .. ..._.... ...-..... -... ' "" .

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The widely reported fake encounter killing of Chungkham Sanjit and Rabina Devi (5 months pregnant) on July 23rd 2009 and the arrests and arbitrary detention of several noted environmental and human rights activists under various laws like National Security Act, 1980; Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, created a ripple of reactions, within the media, the general public and the Government.

In this context, a team of concerned citizens undertook a fact finding mission to Maniour from 5-8 November 2009 to investigate and report their findings on the state of heightened tensions and civil unrest in Manipur.

The Independent Citizens’ Mission comprised of Dr. K.S. Subramanian, IPS (retd.), formerly of the Manipur-Tripura cadre and currently Visiting Professor, Jamia Millia University, New Delhi, Shri. Sumit Chakravartty, Editor - Mainstream, Kavita Srivastava, National Secretary PUCL, and Vasundhara Jairath representing Delhi Solidarity Group.

The report was released by Prof. Randhir Singh, former Professor of Political Theory, University of Delhi and author of several books on left politics in India. The release was followed by a panel discussion on the situation in Manipur and the report findings. The panelists were:

•Surendra Mohan, former Member of Parliament and Chairman, Khadi Board.

•Tapan Kumar Bose, General Secretary, Pakistan-India Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy and is also associated with the South Asia Forum for Human Rights (SAFHR)

•Shoma Chaudhury, Editor (Features), Tehelka

The widely reported fake encounter killing of Chungkham Sanjit and Rabina Devi (5 months pregnant) on July 23rd 2009 and the arrests and arbitrary detention of several noted environmental and human rights activists under various laws like National Security Act, 1980; Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, created a ripple of reactions, within the media, the general public and the Government.

In this context, a team of concerned citizens undertook a fact finding mission to Maniour from 5-8 November 2009 to investigate and report their findings on the state of heightened tensions and civil unrest in Manipur.

The Independent Citizens’ Mission comprised of Dr. K.S. Subramanian, IPS (retd.), formerly of the Manipur-Tripura cadre and currently Visiting Professor, Jamia Millia University, New Delhi, Shri. Sumit Chakravartty, Editor - Mainstream, Kavita Srivastava, National Secretary PUCL, and Vasundhara Jairath representing Delhi Solidarity Group.

The report was released by Prof. Randhir Singh, former Professor of Political Theory, University of Delhi and author of several books on left politics in India. The release was followed by a panel discussion on the situation in Manipur and the report findings. The panelists were:

•Surendra Mohan, former Member of Parliament and Chairman, Khadi Board.

•Tapan Kumar Bose, General Secretary, Pakistan-India Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy and is also associated with the South Asia Forum for Human Rights (SAFHR)

•Shoma Chaudhury, Editor (Features), Tehelka

.

All India Students' Association(AISA) .

27/10/041st Eledion Public MeetingSpeakers: Mona Das, Satya Venkata Slddhardha Kr. D., Awadhesh Kr. Trlpathl, Sanjeev KumarGuest Speaker Pranay Krlshna,ex-President, JNUSU.

Followed by 'l'om:uumn lmu:a~ssaox.

Tapti Mess 27.10.04(Tonight) .

9:30pm.

Why is our Government Cozylng Up to Brutal Dictators and Racist Killers?.

The BJP, which believes in wiping out the minorities and the Israeli Ariel Sharon who believes in "ethnic cleansing the Palestinians were naturalfrien~sandallies. The former kills in the name ofthe Moriginal homeland of the Hindus· and the latter in the name ofthe "original homeland oftheJews".lronically, the unholy "axis" of Sharon's genocidal Israel, India led by the communal fascists and Bush's war mongering US was forged in the.

nameof"fighting terrorism".Butthe new progressive Governmentatthe Centre is again making frtends.with some ofthe world's most bloodthirsty and brutal dictators, onceagainin the name of "fighting terrorism·. "Terrorism" is a ready-made excuse for befriending terrorist regimes!Vajpayee's red carpet for Sharon was greeted with spirited protests all over India. But what went less noticed was Sonia Gandhi's warmmeeting and handshake with Sharon. Clearly, the shift in India's traditional pro-Palestine stance, in favour ofan understanding with Israel is not.

simplyamatter ofIdeological unity of the Sangh and Sharon. The handshake of the Indian ruling class with the Sharon, who has the bloodofinnocents of Palestineon his hands, Is obviously dictated by the Imperialist US, to whom Congress Is as obedient as the BJPwas..

So, the UPA is furtheringthe defence and trade ties that BJPhad forged with Israel. Many defence deals have been clinched with the.

Israeli Military. Saddest and most shameful ofallisthe fact that even the CPI-CPI(M), which had opposed Vajpayee's closeness withSharon, has kept mum on the UPA's military andtrade ties with the racist colonizers who rule Israel. Instead, the CPI(M) has said that.

it isnot averse to state to state relations" with Israel. Recall that Jyotl Basu, as West Bengal CM, had led adelegation of Industrialists to.

do business with Israel in June 20001 And in February 2002, the SFI-AISF's JNUSU representatives of SLL&CS invited the CulturalAttache ofthe Israel Embassy to be the Chief Guest at the Closing Ceremony ofthe SLL&CS Film Festival Kalrav..

TheCongress-led UPA Government claims to continue India's traditional support to the Palestinian cause, while doing defence deals with Israel.EventheCPI(M) insists that it stands with the Palestinian people,and is opposed to Israeli terror against them, but they have no objection to doing.

business with Israel. We would like to ask the Congress andthe CPI(M), howIs Itpossible to support the cause ofthe Palestinianpeople while doing business with the State that colonlses them? Isn'tIta betrayal ofthe brave freedom struggle of the Palestinian.

·people, to allywith andbuyguns from the Israeli Armythatbutchers them?.

Meet the Goons ofRangoon.

Another instance of the UPA's friendship with akiller regime can be seen in the fact that the head of the Burmese military dictatorship, General.

Than Shwe, is now being officially hosted in India. He has met senior Army leaders as well as the PM, and has discussed "crackdown on terror" in.

the.f'~orth-East, which borders Burma..

Let us take abrief look at the history of Burma, and meet the new friends ofour Central Government. For nearly 50 years, Burma has been.

crushed underthe jackboots of one ofthe most ruthless military dictatorships in the world. It has denied its citizens, especially its ethnic minorities, the.

basic right to survival. .

a)>daily reality inBurma..

The rape ofethnic minority women by the military, the massacres of minority civilians, forced labour, destruction ofcrops and seffiements,are.

)> .

Nearly two million civilians ofvarious ethnic minorities have been turned into refugees in theirown land, and have been forced to flee to.

jungles and mountains by the Army. .

)> .

For the past few decades, nearly 100, 000 people have been incarcerated in these dungeons. People are arrested and tried in kangaroo.

courts for offences like reading "forbidden poetry in public or taking photos of failed crops. Nobel Laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, leader oftheBurmese Opposition,has braved years ofimprisonment, and many Burmese students have spent most of their young lives in jail..

)> .

Thousands ofstudents, leading waves ofmovements, as well ethnic minorities fighting for autonomy, have been arrested, tortured, killed. Pro-democracyactivists have had to flee to the Thai-Burma border where they have even set up astudents' army to further the struggle for democracy..

Why, exactly, is General Than Shwe, the current head ofthis killer regime. aguestof our Government? Is it merely coincidence that the.

Burmese dictator is In Indiato discuss 'fighting terrorism', at the same time when a pro-democracy movement againstthe AFSPA is.

sweeping Manlpur on the Burma border?.

Note that the Burmese dictator met Army Chief NC Vij, who recently defended the Assam Rifles men who raped and killed Manorama Devi ofManipur,saying that "she was amilitant", and asserting that "she was not raped". (The fact that the post mortem report shows that she was raped withbullets, Is ofcourse of no consequence to Mr. Vljl) The Burmese Military Is expert In the rape and murder of so many ethnic minority women.

Indian Army howto crush the pro-democracy movement In ManlpurlBut itis notthe Congress alone which believes that the Burmese Reign ofTerror can help us fight "terror" In the North East. TheCPI(M)'s organ,People's Democracy dated 10 August carries the statement of the party's Politiburo, recommending that India seek "cooperation of .

and In crushing thepro-democracy movement In Burma. No doubt their assistance and advice will be Invaluable In teaching the .

Myanmar (Burma)" in containing insurgency In the North E.ast.

Isn'titall too clear that both Congress and CPI(M), both ofwhom are ardent supporters ofthe draconian AFSPA, actually want the Burmese.

'Tlilitary dictators to "cooperate"in crushing the anti-AFSPA movement in Manipur?.

Let JNUSU Election Give a Fitting Reply To Those Who Side With Racist, Dictatorial Killer Regimes!.

Dhlraj Kr. Nlte, Convenor, Central Campaign Committee. A/SA, JNU .

J .

.

The widely reported fake encounter killing of Chungkham Sanjit and Rabina Devi (5 months pregnant) on July 23rd 2009 and the arrests and arbitrary detention of several noted environmental and human rights activists under various laws like National Security Act, 1980; Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, created a ripple of reactions, within the media, the general public and the Government.

In this context, a team of concerned citizens undertook a fact finding mission to Maniour from 5-8 November 2009 to investigate and report their findings on the state of heightened tensions and civil unrest in Manipur.

The Independent Citizens’ Mission comprised of Dr. K.S. Subramanian, IPS (retd.), formerly of the Manipur-Tripura cadre and currently Visiting Professor, Jamia Millia University, New Delhi, Shri. Sumit Chakravartty, Editor - Mainstream, Kavita Srivastava, National Secretary PUCL, and Vasundhara Jairath representing Delhi Solidarity Group.

The report was released by Prof. Randhir Singh, former Professor of Political Theory, University of Delhi and author of several books on left politics in India. The release was followed by a panel discussion on the situation in Manipur and the report findings. The panelists were:

•Surendra Mohan, former Member of Parliament and Chairman, Khadi Board.

•Tapan Kumar Bose, General Secretary, Pakistan-India Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy and is also associated with the South Asia Forum for Human Rights (SAFHR)

•Shoma Chaudhury, Editor (Features), Tehelka

The widely reported fake encounter killing of Chungkham Sanjit and Rabina Devi (5 months pregnant) on July 23rd 2009 and the arrests and arbitrary detention of several noted environmental and human rights activists under various laws like National Security Act, 1980; Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, created a ripple of reactions, within the media, the general public and the Government.

In this context, a team of concerned citizens undertook a fact finding mission to Maniour from 5-8 November 2009 to investigate and report their findings on the state of heightened tensions and civil unrest in Manipur.

The Independent Citizens’ Mission comprised of Dr. K.S. Subramanian, IPS (retd.), formerly of the Manipur-Tripura cadre and currently Visiting Professor, Jamia Millia University, New Delhi, Shri. Sumit Chakravartty, Editor - Mainstream, Kavita Srivastava, National Secretary PUCL, and Vasundhara Jairath representing Delhi Solidarity Group.

The report was released by Prof. Randhir Singh, former Professor of Political Theory, University of Delhi and author of several books on left politics in India. The release was followed by a panel discussion on the situation in Manipur and the report findings. The panelists were:

•Surendra Mohan, former Member of Parliament and Chairman, Khadi Board.

•Tapan Kumar Bose, General Secretary, Pakistan-India Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy and is also associated with the South Asia Forum for Human Rights (SAFHR)

•Shoma Chaudhury, Editor (Features), Tehelka

The widely reported fake encounter killing of Chungkham Sanjit and Rabina Devi (5 months pregnant) on July 23rd 2009 and the arrests and arbitrary detention of several noted environmental and human rights activists under various laws like National Security Act, 1980; Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, created a ripple of reactions, within the media, the general public and the Government.

In this context, a team of concerned citizens undertook a fact finding mission to Maniour from 5-8 November 2009 to investigate and report their findings on the state of heightened tensions and civil unrest in Manipur.

The Independent Citizens’ Mission comprised of Dr. K.S. Subramanian, IPS (retd.), formerly of the Manipur-Tripura cadre and currently Visiting Professor, Jamia Millia University, New Delhi, Shri. Sumit Chakravartty, Editor - Mainstream, Kavita Srivastava, National Secretary PUCL, and Vasundhara Jairath representing Delhi Solidarity Group.

The report was released by Prof. Randhir Singh, former Professor of Political Theory, University of Delhi and author of several books on left politics in India. The release was followed by a panel discussion on the situation in Manipur and the report findings. The panelists were:

•Surendra Mohan, former Member of Parliament and Chairman, Khadi Board.

•Tapan Kumar Bose, General Secretary, Pakistan-India Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy and is also associated with the South Asia Forum for Human Rights (SAFHR)

•Shoma Chaudhury, Editor (Features), Tehelka

The widely reported fake encounter killing of Chungkham Sanjit and Rabina Devi (5 months pregnant) on July 23rd 2009 and the arrests and arbitrary detention of several noted environmental and human rights activists under various laws like National Security Act, 1980; Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, created a ripple of reactions, within the media, the general public and the Government.

In this context, a team of concerned citizens undertook a fact finding mission to Maniour from 5-8 November 2009 to investigate and report their findings on the state of heightened tensions and civil unrest in Manipur.

The Independent Citizens’ Mission comprised of Dr. K.S. Subramanian, IPS (retd.), formerly of the Manipur-Tripura cadre and currently Visiting Professor, Jamia Millia University, New Delhi, Shri. Sumit Chakravartty, Editor - Mainstream, Kavita Srivastava, National Secretary PUCL, and Vasundhara Jairath representing Delhi Solidarity Group.

The report was released by Prof. Randhir Singh, former Professor of Political Theory, University of Delhi and author of several books on left politics in India. The release was followed by a panel discussion on the situation in Manipur and the report findings. The panelists were:

•Surendra Mohan, former Member of Parliament and Chairman, Khadi Board.

•Tapan Kumar Bose, General Secretary, Pakistan-India Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy and is also associated with the South Asia Forum for Human Rights (SAFHR)

•Shoma Chaudhury, Editor (Features), Tehelka

Many in Delhi protested the killing, in Ramban in Kashmir, of seven unarmed people when men of the Border Security Force opened fire.

.

15.11.05 .

For 30 Seconds Of Thrill On TV Or An Attempt To Give Voice To The Unheard ??? .

'What was the benefit ofshowmg black flags-just 30 seconds on TV. The protestors are like those who strip themselves nakedwhile intoxicatedby bhang; they were mtoxicated by 30 seconds of adventure ... I congratulate the NSUI andABVP; they were far more restrained than one expected.'-a speaker at last night's public meeting held by JNUSU .

Showing black flags 1s betng compared to stripptng oneself naked. Let's ask ourselves, what was the point when the .

women of Manipur stnpped themselves naked to protest Manorama's rape and murder last year? Was it for publicity, .

adventure' or sensattona 1sm? People of the entire North East suffered and struggled against State repression and a draconian killer law like AFSPA for fifty years. If the mothers of Manipur had not stripped themselves naked to protest against the AFSPA last year, would AFSPA ever havo been forced onto the political consciousness of the nation? .

Fnends, those who rue us nave a habit ofdenying and ignoring 1ssues until forced to face questions in thepublic gaze. If the Government is not quest oned by the pubiJC, 1t will continue to sell out India's sovere1gnty by helping the US to target Iran The show of black flags by students was not for the 'childish thrill' of disrupting a PM's speech-disruption was neverthe intention. Itwas in fact the highest exercise of democracy by a citizen-by holding our highest elected representative accountable to public questioning on questions of supreme national interest .

In those 30 seconds, the slogans and black flags of students told the entire world that in India, a Prime M1mster must .

face questions of students rf the Patent Amendments Act. AFSPA and US arm-twisting are allowed to rule the land. Last n1ght, the JNUSU held a Pubhc Meet1ng 'In Defence ofOur Democratic Culture', addressed by several members of the teaching community_ This could have been a welcome move to allow the JNU commumty to discuss and debate the issues Involved. But how much democracy was followed m this meeting? What were the ways in which democracy was defined? We respect the right ofteachers and students to hold views that are sharply cntical ofours; but we feel the need to point out the disturbmg 1mphcations of some of the views. .

In the Public Meeting, some speakers condemned the students who waved black flags, one teacher sa1d wavmg black flags and shouting slogans was a right of students and an acceptable mode of protest But most speakers were umted m the op1mon that if the JNUSU Council's had taken a decis1on not to protest 1n front of the PM students should not have protested. Let us examine these propositions: .

Myth of Union Decision .

When and w here did the Union 'decide'? It ts a matter of concern that 10 the JNUSU pubhc meettng, the elected Councillor from AISA was not allowed to make a statement but was given barely one minute to ask a question white a former JNUSU President belonging to SF/ was allowed to speak for 20 minutes! The AISA .

Councillor Wished to point out the followtng· The JNUSU VP, in a meetmg w1th the VC, had assured the Admin that there would be no protest, before any Council Meeting was called to drscuss the matter. The Counc11 meeting held the next eventng was also unconstitutional stnce rtwas not convened with the 24-hour min1mum notice required by JNUSU Constitution. In other words. the JNUSU was treated by the VP as an appendage of SFI -and an unconstitutional Council Meeting was used to ratify an assurance that the VP had already given beforehand. .

Even in the unconstitutional Council Meeting, no room was left for rssues ra1sed by the AISA Councrllor to be included in the JNUSU 'memorandum'. As a result, opposition to AFSPA and Patent Act did not figure in the memorandum. .

Are all students bound on ldeo!ogical issues by a majoritydecision in the JNUSU? This is a dtstorted understanding of democracy-whtch silences issues of ideological debate in the name of 'Union decision'. Th1s will mean that all dissent will be gagged and muzzled because the Union is of a particular political persuasion. Consider some examples. .

In 1990, a UGBM 1n JNU passed a resolution opposing Mandai Commission reservations. Yet, radical students continued to defend Mandai whrle facmg phys1cal VIolence by right-w1ng forces Recall 1996 the Un1on with a powerful ABVP presence did not agree to opposrng Advani's v1sit Yet, a thousand students rejected the Union pos1t1on and asserted their right to protest In DU, the DUTA has often been dominated by the right-wing, wh1ch invanably passes resolutions againstreservations Far from being bound by such resolutions, Left teachers boldly assert the1r struggle to rmplement SC/ST quotas Take the example of last year: the majonty m the Un1on Council supported Nestle-yet hundreds ofstudents reJected that position and rnob1lised a counter opm1on to k1ck Nestle out. .

Some speakers yesterday mentioned the fact that in 1981, PM Indira Gandhi was stopped from giving her speech-the JNUSU led by SFI then led the protest against her visit. Why did the JNUSU led by SFI justify this protest then, while vetoing the proposal to protest against Manmohan now? Some speakers sa1d that the JNUSU 1n 1981 took .

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Science Schools .

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Urgent revisiOn and enhancement of Fellowship amount in keep1ng with ris1ng cost of living. University should provide medical care cover for any work related hazard in the lab-based research. .

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Ensuring greater transparency and democratisation in lab allotment to all bonafide students. Transparency and objectivity in overall evaluation process, partJcularly, in the evaluation by the doctoral committees in clearing progress reports and granting 9B: the onus of 'under-performance' .

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must not lie with the student alone. .

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Redressal of high drop-out rates in SBT and SIT. .

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Fulfillment or SC/ST/OBC/PH quota in teaching and nonteaching appointments and an end to the rising trend of large-scale guest faculty on ad-hoc basis. .

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Purchase of latest edition books, school-based library and updated reading materiats, Cutting the delay in procuring chemicals and mstruments. Proper maintenance of existing lab equipments, and timely disbursal of Fenowships .

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On Course Structure a) starting introductory courses on methodologiCal and historical overview of TPS tor MA students, the VSA should include popular, folk, regional and contemporary art practices in the syllabus, and CN S should expand the course structure covering documentary, women. queer filmmakers and diverse non-industrial filmmaking practices. b) A beginner course on theory for M.A students. c) restart the dissertation writing courses for each discipline in MA 4"' Semester. d) The interdisciplinary linking of three subjects in M.A and M. Phil/ PhD, d) ex.pand the scope and duration of workshop on Academic Writing. On Democratisation: SFC must be strengthened with regular meetings. Remedial Classes need to be regularized, covering as many courses as possible. as the M. Phil synopsis presentation now takes place in the 2m Semestc.~. there should be study leave for fieldwork/ archival work, Regular wor1< in progress presentation for PhD shJdents, SAA must start anonymous student feedback for reviewing course structure. On Facilities: More diverse DVO collection in SAA Library, a permanent space for performance, regularising theatre wori<shops, extension of library timings at least WI 7 pm, Reading Room in SAA should be 24x7, s1art.ing a blog containing Information regarding feDowship, seminars etc and .

journal for SAA students, Funds for student seminar, film festival, .

an archive in the SAA library of visual materials, Photocopier .

shop in SM buading. .

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A visitlng faculty/fellow with expertise in the fteld of law, research methodology workshop, plalform for mutual learning in co-ordination with scholars from other centres. working paper series of CSLG, Centre's Web portal with alumni details. Improvement of library facilities, CSLG cultural festival, establishment of Centre's canteen, provision of pantry on an Interim basis and replacement of coffee vending machine. Sanitary napkin dispenser at CSLG. street lights from CSLG lo Paschimabad Bus-Stop. .

What Should be the Model of JNUSU .

TheAISAandAISA-Ied JNUSUs have a constructive, pro-student, pro-people vision or politics, a proven track-record and positive agenda of expanding social inclusion. .

In contrast, AISA's contenders have little to offer but a negative agenda of slander and anti-AISA-ism. Far removed from every agenda of students' rights and interests, ABVP exists only to spread communal venom and lumpenism, while NSUI only surfaces during election time to splash money power and a .

compt culture. · .

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The country and campus have already wtnessed how CPI(M) and SFI have struck deep blows to the credibility of the Left, by shamelessly embracing corporate land grab, pollee firing on peasant movements, by even seeking to 'contextualize' the rape and murder ofTapasl Malik, and by reinforcing communal myths against minorities. In the campus. SFI-AISF le~ J~USU (2002-03) tried to corporatize campus spaces by bnnglng 10 Nestle. SFI-AISF 'dissociated' from workers' struggle (2007), refused to recognize or support the struggle against faulty 'cut-off In OBC reservations during 2008-2010 and slandered 1M GSCASH verdict. Chairperson and complainant when one of their leaders was found guilty by the GSCASH (during 2008)1 .

The DSF, a breakaway group of SF/. eontinues to follow SFI's footsteps in betraying the struggles for inclusive polices. For instance, the DSF, when nheaded JNUSU during 2012-13. did nothing to scrap delinklng of ihe BA-MA in SLL& CS or for reduction of viva weightage in JNU admissions. Like SFI, DSF too is silenl on Operation Green Hunt and speaks in double voices on AFSPA. The AISF was a wilfing junior partner in all the crimes of the SFI in JNU, and now it is a partner of the breakaway DSF. .

Thus, the 'permutations' of SFI or DSF-AISF have nothing to show in terms of struggle-and much to hide in terms oftheir betrayal. Therefore they resort to endless slander of AISA to hide their own shameful track record. AISA in JNUSU has meant victory after victory for social inclusion. Therefore, SF/, DSF-AISF sponsored slander is not just a slander against AISA: it is an attempt to deny and discredit these crucial struggles and achievements for social justice, inclusion and democracy. .

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At a time when the Modi Sarkar is waging an all out war on our rights and freedoms, it is only an AISA-Ied JNUSU that can wage and win the battles to defend and expand students' rights and socially Inclusive policies. Make JNUSU a resolute voice in solidarity with people's movements against communal offensive, corporate loot, state repression. caste and gender violence. If the struggles on viva weightage, new hostels, better infraslructure, scrapping Lyngdoh or workers rights are to be won. none but an AISA-Ied JNUSU can pursue those struggles to their logical conclusion. Give a full mandate to AISA to carry forward the struggles for social inclusion and democracy in the .

campus and society. .

Central Panel .

President: Ashutosh Kumar .

Vice-President: Anant Prakash Narayan .

Gen. Secy. Chintu Kumari .

Jt. Sccy.: Shafqat Hussain Butt .

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AbhaArya Debottam Saha Rama Naga Sandlp Monda! Shashi Bhushan Gupta Mellem Wangnaotim Minhaj Ahmed Khan N Sai Balaji Pankaj Singh Kushwaha Su krlta Lahirl .

SLL&CS .

Chelan Tyagi Hamid Raza Samia Khan .

Mee nal Gupta .

Waqqas Mahmood .

Vijay Kumar .

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Shweta Raj. Sandeep saurav ~a .

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for Central Campaign Com~iltee,AISA, JNU .

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JNUSU Elections 2014: Our Perspective and Agenda .

Upholding the Model of a Pro-Student, Pro-People, Socially-Committed JNUSU .

Reassert the Vision of an Inclusive, Democratic, Secular,Gender-justCampus andSociety-.

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We live in challenging times when higher education Is being .

turned into an exclusive enclave of a few through fees hikes .

and commercialisation and campus democracy is being .

curtailed, w11en knowledge generation and dissemination is .

baing tailored to corporate interests. The Modi Govemment is .

in power. The RSS agenda is no longer a hidden agenda. Quite .

openly. Drnanath Batra and his team are seeking lo devalue .

and destroy school education. In cofleges, the ABVP has .

Indulged in vlofence.;Jnd threats against seminar speakers and .

cultural activists like Sheetal Sathe -!'rom Patna to Mumbai. .

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The 'acche din' fo~ perpetrators of communal violence, Sanghi terrorism. corporate plunderers and custodial killings are here. In UP and all over the country. love is being branded as 'jehad', and Muslim youth are being profiled as potential terrorists. even when they fall in love! Privatization and commercialization of education is entering campuses in various avatars. Struggle against AFSPA and other draconian laws continue unabated. even as from Sharmila stands re-arrested for her heroic resistance. Dissenting voices and people's movements are being branded as 'anti-national' and harassed by the police. Even humanitarian disasters-like the terrible floods m Kashm1r -are being spoken of in ugly communal and jingoistic tones. .

In these challenging times, what kind of JNUSU do we need .

to elect? .

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In th e past year. the JNUSU distinguished itself by the promptness of its response to every assault on sh:.ldents' and people's rights, and a steady expansion of students' rights and facilities inside JNU. It was the AISA-Ied JNUSU and AISA that ensured that Delhi's students offered stiff resistance to Modi when he use<i a DU college as a platform for his election campaign. The AISA-Ied JNUSU then took the campaign to Banaras to challenge Modi in his constituency. The Supreme Court's verdict found that innocents had been framed by Gujarat cops and Government under Modi in the Akshardham case -the AISA-Ied JNUSU braved police repression to hold a protest .

promptly. Suffering and struggling people of Bhagana. Badaun, Muzaffarnagar, students of the North East battling racial profiling on Delhi's streets, people of Kashmir under the Army jackboots, have all been able to count on AISA and AISA-Ied JNUSU for solidarity, for deep engagement and participation . in the~r struggles, and for helping their voices to be hoard 1n DeihL Students of DU f!Qhting the FYUP, ~uld count upon the_At~A .

and AISA-Ied JNUSU to champion thetr cause and lend solidarity and strength to iheir struggle. UPSC aspiranls fighting against CSAT, scrapping of several .

classical and foretgn languages, and elitist bias. could count upon the AISA-Ied JNUSU and AISA to join, support, a_nd ~ursue their struggle. In the ongoing DUSU potts. the AISA IS g1ving a stiff fight to the NSUI ~nd ABVP, and showing ~ow, In th ese times of the right-wing in power, a Left s~udents organ1zation can capture the imagination and confidence of common students. Within JNU, the AISA-Ied JNUSU has taken forward the campaign for social inclusion and justice. We ne.ed to ensure that there is no gap, no relaxation in these struggles. .

Significant Achievements of JNUSU 2013-14: .

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24x7 opening and upgradation of the Central Library, ~ncluding installation of relevant software and more plug po10ts. .

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Historic Reversal of 'Delinking' and Restoration of the 1ntegrated BA-MA programme in SL. .

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Establishmentofan autonomous, 'Open Access' JNU Press. .

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Increase (n annual family Incomecap forMCM scholarships from Rs. 1 lakh to 2.5 lakh. .

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Upgrading of the Central Placement Cell and starting of Web Portal for online Registration for jobs and lntemshtps. .

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Ensuring a barrier-free campus with ramps, lollf}.ls, sn.oolh .

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footpaths w~Braille tiles and grills,. pni:t Hft& for making the "campus increasingly accessible to students with disal)illties. .

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ForciAg JNU administration to issue CGPA to Percentage conversion chart. .

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Improvement of health care facilities in the JNU Aeafthcentre .

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Starting the Construction of new hostel (Shlpra 2)~. upgradation of SPS do.rm to full hostel and opening of several dormitories. .

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A powerful struggle rebuffed the draconian flne,.,.aj and undemocratic hostel rules. .

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24x7 opening of the Sports Stadium. .

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Recognition of more Mad8J'Sas. .

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Pursuing a legal case in the Supreme Court for reduction of viva voce weightage. .

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'Other' option introduced In gendercategory in JNU's fonns. .

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Ensuring the formation or a committee for making GSCASft verdicts binding on the JNI) administration. .

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Active st~ps for gendersensitlsation programme have been inifiated by a monitoring body of teachers and students followiQg the positive recommendations of 10-m&mbar commlltee, .

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Approval of three Sanitarypad dispensing ma"chlnes. .

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Release ef.additianallists for NET -JRF for 2013 June exam.. .

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Relaxation ofthe Eligibility Criteria from 55% to 50%for0BC candidates in NET-JRF and Faculty appointment. .

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Sustained Struggle Against UPSC's Discriminatory Policies such as exclusion of so-called 'foreign languages and against CSAT. .

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A huge Mass Deputation to the CJI for Scrapping of Lyngdoh recommendations and restoring JNUSU Constitution .

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Defending JNU"s Socially Sensitive Shop Allotment Polley .

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Rejection of Forced Imposition of Hindi In Administrative Forms in JNU .

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Repeated and Vigilant interventions to ensure Rights of contract wort5ers in the campus. .

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Installation of portraits of Birsa Munda, Jotlba Phule and Savitribal Phule lo the JNUSU office. .

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Each or these stru~gles a'J.d collective gains cor:estilule a creative model of studenrs· politics of significant policy level interwnooos inspired by the Ideals of expaAding democracy and soc.4a1 inclusion in hrgher education. In the year to com~. there is a need to deepen this process of democratisation an~ lhctUsion. With this pers~active, we are proposing the followtag; .

Issues of Social -lu!ftlce and Inclusion .

Reducing Viva Weightage: During the pastyear, tht~autdcl .

JNUSU has been pursuing thiS crucial ~-~l.i'~ .

Supreme Gourt. This struggle must .,_ .

conclusion. DSF's ideological metnll:l.__\ .

openly in writing, opposed redluctlcJ,I\· .

significantly in 2012-13 the ""'..,, .

deliberately made it im~IOS!~~~ .

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... .

Recall Savitrlbal Phule, who in late 19th century .

Maharashtra, defended couples who had married across .

caste, struggled for the right of widows to study and remarry, .

and started a school for girls. She was pelted with stones .

...It is Impossible to draw the masses intopolitics without also and cow-dung by angry people who accused her of corrupt-.

drawing in the women; for under capitalism, the female half ofthe ing their daughters. .

human race suffers under adouble yoke. The working woman and Salute Rakhmabal, a 20-year-old woman in the 1880s, .

peasant woman are oppressed by capital; but In addition to that. who said she wouldn't live with the man to whom she had .

dven in the mostdemocratic ofbourgeois Republics, they are, firstly, been married at the age of 11 , because she wanted to be m an inferior position because the law dentes them equality with free to study medicine! The law said such women who re-fused to cohabit with their husbands must be jailed, and the .

men. and secondly, and this is most important, they are 1n domestic courts gave her a prison sentence. Great and powerful men slavery, they are ·domestic slaves, crushed by the most petty, most like Sal Gangadhar Tilak wrote editorials attacking her for mental, most arduous. and most stultifying work ofthe kitchen, and being 'singed with the flame of knowledge' -a thirst for edu-by Isolated domestic, family economy in general.-VI Lenin .

What does 'Women's Day' mean? cation was 'unnatural' and 'unbecoming' forwomen. they said. .

The ads tell us it's a day when husbands are supposed But Rakhmabai, displaying Incredible courage, wrote letters .

in newspapers, asserting, "Because you cannot enter our .

to buy women washing machines and kitchen gadgets, when feelings do notthink we are satisfiedwith the life ofdrudg-.

ery that we live, and that we have no taste for, and aspi-.

boyfriends are supposed to buy them flowers. Radio Mirchi, ration after, a higherlife... " She did eventually study medi-.

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for instance, Invited male listeners to send messages to their .

girl friends and wives "to make them feel special". Is Women's cine and become a doctor. .

Day just another 'Day' demarcated by corporales, to con-The many reincarnations of patriarchy .

sume more and more? Or is it a day to remember the dis-From the legacy of these struggles, independent India .

A day to look back at women whose struggles are the basis has framed a history of contradictions. Today, women incriminations and violence that women face 365 days a year? .

yet deeply entrenched anti-women patriarchal values .

of this celebration of women's rights? our country appear more free to study and work. and are continually reinvented and reincarnated in many .

"A pedestal is as much a prison" the one hand, society will place women on a pedestal and different forms. When fees for education are hiked, women .

Patriarchal society is famous for its doublespeak. On are the first casualties, since it is deemed more necessary .

clatm to worship them. Our culture is fond of saying, "Janani that their brothers should study. Girls are not allowed to be .

Janmabhoomi Swargadapi Gariyasi"(Mother and Motherland born-not just in poor households, but more so in b .te homes .

are dearer than heaven), or "Yatra Narishcha pujyante, even in the capital city where we live. Women are the worst .

ramante tatra devta' (Where women are worshipped, gods hit by joblessness, since they continue to work often below .

reside there). But, as Gloria Steinem observed ·~ pedestal minimum wages and their work is deemed 'unskilled'. Where .

is as much a prison as any other small place." The revolu-whether the violence of the corporates, there is violence -.

communal or casteist violence, and the violences of the state .

tionary Hindi poet Gorakh Pandey, too, reminds us of the --it is always women who are the first to be affected, the .

prison walls that our society builds, of the way in which first to be made the targets of attack. The possession of .

women are burnt to death or forced to suicide In the very the body of the woman and the prestige of the community or.

home in which she is worshipped as 'ghar ki lakshmi': women as commodities and the link that is made between .

There are walls in every house I Shut windows in every wall, I .

Bangingagainst closed windows, herhead/Bloody, she lies fallen.! nation reiterates itself in the public domain. Modes of patriar-.

chal violence in society are manifested in its most brutal .

In every home there are burning ghats,/ln every home, there are .

form in the political arena. We see this in AFSPA, a law .

gallows,linevary home there are wal/s,/Banging against the walls which the Indian army has used to brutally rape women in .

she falls,!Halfthe world falls,!AI/ humanity falls ... the North-East, in the state-sponsored communal genocide .

The first blows to the walls ofpatriarchy in Gujarat, where saffron Hindutva brigade raped pregnant .

;' Women's Day reminds us of the long struggle that women women and massacred those young and old or in Singur and launched to break down the prison walls of patriarchy. It re-Nandigram where sexual violence was used as a strategy by .

the CPI(M) cadres to quell the protests of people being dis-minds us of the thousands of soctalist and communist work-placed from their land. While claims for women's empower-only when they broke down all the prison walls; they knew ment are reiterated by successive governments at the state ing women, who knew that when women would be truly free and central level, these are but empty claims for these self-that the liberation of women was linked to a struggle for the same governments not only engage tn the forms of patriar-liberation of the whole of humanity. Masses of working chal violence, and also turn a blind eye to the suffering and .

struggles ofwomen. The present UPA government ~as ":'~de .

women struck work In Chicago on 8 March In 1910, tall claims of a gender-sensitive budget. But the1r poliCieS sparking off a huge movement for the right to vote, .

equal wages and an 8-hour working day. The German make the prices soar and women go hungry; they relegate .

Socialist leader Clara Zetkln, at an International Con-women to the most casual and contractualised jobs; and of .

ference of Socialist women, proposed that this day be course they, like the BJP-NDA before them, shy away trom observed as International Women's Day. even tabling the Women's Reservation Bill! .

On March 8, It Is a time for the women's moveme~ ute to the personal and political struggles of our foremothers,.

For us, Women's Day must be an occasion to pay trib-to renew Its resolve to take on the ruling classes, rip ~ who dealt the first blows to the prison walls of our society. the masks of 'women's empowerment' and decla,., n .

Rokeya Sakhawat Hussain and the words of Helen Reddy's song, "I am woman, ,.., Remember me roarnn numbers too big to Ignore..." .

Rassundarl Deblln the 19th century, who taught themselves .

to read and write secretly, in dark kitchens after everyone in Vlsmay Basu, Jt. Secy; AISA. .

the house was asleep! .

Sucheta De, Gen.Secy., AISA, JNU .

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June 29, 2008 a bomb rips through a market place in a village located in the northeastern state of Assam. According to initial reports, eight killed and 45 injured, some critically. So was reported in the media. But the mess in Assam and other regions in the northeastern part of India have a much more violent history than the blast on June, 29, the most recent of many since the conception of India as an independent country.

The responsibility for the blast was taken by ULFA, UNITED LIBERATION FRONT OF ASSAM, one of more than two dozen militant groups, fighting for either an independent homeland or then more political economy. In the past 25 years as many as 10,000 people have lost their lives in the violence. Thousands more have been displaced; now living in refugee camps.

The tensions have never seemed to subside; while certain militia group’s dird make deals with the government which brought some calm in the region; other armed groups have continued with their terrorist activities. The year 2006 saw a spate of bombings by ULFA until August when the government agreed to stop its military operations in the region. The truce only lasted till September, and in November the military operation resumed. There have been constant attacks on politicians, security forces and railway construction workers ever since. Like Assam are six other states with equally fierce movements calling for more autonomy, known as the SEVEN SISTERS STATES OF INDIA. They are situated in the northeastern part of the country, comprising of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Tripura states. The states are joined to rest of India by a narrow piece of land, called the chicken’s neck

.

The region is marked by multiplicity of tribes, ethnicities, cultures and religion. it is home to around 400 tribes or sub tribes. The whole of northeast India is marred by conflicts, including infighting amongst various villages, tribes and other warring factions, all for secession for their many districts, villages and tribes. Violence is also pitted against migrants of Bangladesh, Myanmar and Nepal.Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Meghalaya are relatively more peaceful than the rest.

Nagaland is the oldest of insurgencies of India and is believed to have inspired almost all the ethnic groups in the region. More than 20,000 have been killed before a ceasefire was announced in 1997. They demand a separate homeland comprising of mainly Christian dominated areas of Nagaland along with certain areas in Manipur, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. The region is endowed with oil reserves worth billions. A state owned company – Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) was forced out of the area until 2006, when it was allowed back in. The government has been trying to ease tension in the region by striking deals with the rebel groups but no real breakthrough has been made to ensure a long term peace in the area. Manipur has been fighting for an independent country since 1974. The Indian army took control of the state in 1980. Lack of education and job opportunities has forced many to join separatists groups. Army has been carrying out operations to tackle the insurgency problem but that has only added to the sufferings of the locals. Some 6000 people have been displaced because of the operations and rebel fighting. A controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act or AFSPA has been a subject of debate and criticism for long. This act gives various concessions to the army which

has led to extreme violation of human rights.

Another issue that haunts Manipur is its proximity to the opium fields of the Golden

Triangle, which has driven people to drug addiction. Incidents of HIV/AIDS are also

on an increase as a result. The last of the seven states Tripura, has been a refuge for many Bengalis after the war of 1971, when Bangladesh got its independence. The influx of refugees and the building of a fence by the government along the border of Bangladesh have prompted attacks by the two major rebel groups, the NATIONAL LIBERATION FRONT OF TRIPURA (NLFT) and the ALL TRIPURA TIGER FORCE (ATTF). With thousands homeless and harsh living conditions, life is miserable for the local population.

Artists in Mumbai had created special banners showing solidarity with Sharmila and walked from Jhangir Art Gallery to Kala Ghoda

Sharmila is in Delhi today to attend court.

Artists in Mumbai had created special banners showing solidarity with Sharmila and walked from Jhangir Art Gallery to Kala Ghoda

Sharmila is in Delhi today to attend court.

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I""\ .. . """ · .

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' Association (A\SAl.

_. __..c 1 ~ :2 ?, 10,0;{ .

All India Students' Association (AISA) .

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Press Release : JNUSU Elections 2007 .

23,to.o:r.

Vote for AISA.

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To give a fitting rebuffto the casteist YFE and communal ABVP.

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To make sure that JNUSU does not stand in support of the killers of Nandigram, rapists of Tapasi.

Malik in Singur and murderers of Rizwanur RahmanFor a powerful assertion of students and workers rights on campus, fellowships, reservations andbetter campus facilities! .

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Against the neo-colonial assaults of Nuke Deal, SEZs and Patents! .

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t For a powerful source of solidarity with peoples' movements against SEZ, corporate land grab, v.

displacement, witch-hunt of minorities, state terror and AFSPA! .

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re ~· .

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Addressing a Press Conference at JNU today, AISA's Presidential Candidate Sandeep Singh challenged the Youth for.

Equality (YFE), saying that "The YFE's claims of 'equality' are exposed b~ the fact that they brought out casteist ~r,.

'\ts.

leaflets in JNU branding dalit students as 'inferior mortals' and 'substandar-d human beings', and by the fact that they .

;eddistributed COs showing burning of copies of Dr. Ambedkar's works. Their anti-quota campaign reeked of casteism.

and elitism: they 'protested' by shining shoes and sweeping streets, implying that these jobs (which are.

generally done by dalits and OBCs) are demeaning." rof. .

yearSandeep also took on the ABVP. saying that neither ABVP nor YFE had done nothing all year on a single students.

castes and minorities. ABVP's own real face, Sandeep said, had been exposed by the murder of Prof. .ars; .

issue; they had only indulged in abuse and violent and lumpen attacks against students from marginalised.

Sabharwal in Ujjain by top leaders ofthe ABVP. were .

. )OS tOSandeep. who was General Secretary in the last JNUSU, said that AISA .representatives in the JNUSU last year.

had played a crucial role in defining the character of the JNUSU:.

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.rn and Ensuring that the JNUSU took up the issue of scholarships for deprived students and research scholars;.

rusticated and punished for supporting workers' rights; Raising the issue of violation of workers' minimum wages and successfully defending students who were 1witch-' B.A. 1st year;.

Pursued the campaign for recognition of Alimiat Fazeelat Madarsa certificates in JNU admissions to .

Joining AIIMS doctors in their protest against caste discrimination in AIIMS; sEZ and.

Standing in solidarity with the people's movements against SEZs, police firing at Nandigram and l~ did not.

Khammam, scrapping of Nuke Deal through a vote in Parliament and fake encounters, minority witch-nere\y tor.

hunting and communalisation of police be it in Gujarat, Maharashtra or West Bengal. ights andSandeep Singh said that the SFI representatives in JNUSU nment tory betweensupported the rapists and killers of Tapasi Malik, the killers at Nandigram; argued in favour of SEZ and grammes andEnsuring pro..student utilisation of campus funds on more scholarships and better health facilities.

making departments and infrastructural facilities dependant on corporate funding. tlficates in JNU rather than wasteful use of funds on 'beautification' and defeating a1 .

attempts of backdoor privatisation by .

1categof'l \n bOttf Urgent increase in hostel facilities for men and women to address the ongoing accommodation crisis.

Ensuring democratic formulation of XI th plan for the expans.lon of JNU's academic programmes and.

infrastructure. I ~reas\ng funds .

support admissions to B.A. 1st year .

Ensuring Success for ongoing campaign for recognition of Alimiat Fazeelat Madarsa certificates in JNU p.:r.o...

Ensuring Rights of the Physically Challenged, including fulfilment of the 3% quota for PH category in bothstudent admissions and faculty appointments; representation in decision making bodies; increasing funds for.

readerslwmets .for..ttm ,Y.is~ally challenged; setting up sound indicators. ramps, and other support systems; stems; .

P. T. 0.. .

.

.

-----... .

What reaiiV happened in Netail What reallv Is happening in India! .

third front, to share platform with Jayalalitha and .

What happened In Netal, West Bengal a few Chandrababu Naldu, part of NDA and allies of communal-days back murdering 8 people and injuring several, Is a.

brutality fascist RSS-BJP..

blatant Instance of state-sponsored The political bankruptcy of CPI(ML} Liberation on the lk, .

perpetrated by CPI (M) goons. In Netai like hundreds other hand has once again come to the fore in recently s .

other camps set up in .1ungal Mahal area, a Harm.ad camp j .

was set up in the house of a local CPI(M) leader, Rathin concluded Bihar elections. Its general secretary Dipankar Dandapat, a school teacher. The Han11ad Vahlnl had been Bhattyacharya saw a 'new possibility' in allying with CPI(M) in Bihar. We would Uke to ask AISA, the student wing of forcing villagers, especially young boys to join their camps .

and go through necessary training by the Kensal river-side Liberation, is it not crass opportunism to oppose .

't CPI(M) in the campus and in West Bengal while allying camp. They even issued diktats that any family which won.

with CPI(M) In Bihar for electoral considerations? Does send at least one person to the camp would be shot dead. it not prove that In shedding crocodile's tears for the .

They were also forcing women to come and cook for the .

camp inmates. The day before the massacre the harmads people, or AISA's 'struggles against imperialism, agains1 .

repression' and 'corruption' etc. are no different from SFI's .

gave the villagers an ultimatum by going to ten houses hollow politics of rhetoric and hypocrisy? Is it not NGO-ised.

threatening them and even beating up three persons as 'intervention' in the name of 'revolutionary politics'?consequence of not sending family member to the camp. .

Police and local CPI(M) leaders made it amply clear to the their politics of revisionism, .

villagers that Harmads have their tacit and direct support. These forces in .

The day of the massacre, villagers saw Harmads patrolling opportunism have resorted to continued lies and .

deceit. In anticipation of an election result like Bihar, .

.

the area with arms in broad daylight. They informed police .

but as police did not tum up, thousands of villagers where their alliance have miserably failed to provide any .

genuine alternative to the people they are now up in arms .

.

gheraoed Dandapafs house and started protesting. The to delegitimize genuine people's struggle for an alternative. .

CPI(M) goons in the presence of local CPI(M) leaders They wilfully ignore the condemnation and criticism o1 .

started firing indiscriminately from the rooftop and from the Mamata and TMC made by the PCPA and the Maoists for .

.

back. Police and CRPF who were stationed hardly three not taking a position against operation Greenhunt and .

miles away reached the scene 6 hours later. withdrawal of security forces from the Jungal Mahal region. .

s social fascist root goes back in history. In the In quoting several PCPA and Maoist activists out of .

CPI(M)'context, what they try to perpetuate the bogey of TMC-.

.

name of countering Maoists, the torture and murder of .

hundreds of protesting people have been made a everyday Maoist alliance, and regain their own lost ground in .

parliamentary opportunism by delegitimizing aspirations for .

.

reality by the Harmad Vahini in Jungal Mahal with the peoples' democracy and for a classless society..

support of CRPF, para-military and pollee. In the past as .

never shied away from crushing and The violence in West Bengal and anywhere in this.

well, CPI(M).

massacring any resisting voice. The memory of atrocities country must be understood In its true context of .

.

committed by CPI(M) through police and its private militia in relentless class struggle for peoples' emancipation. In .

Singur and Nandigram is still afresh. The people will not thirty years of uninterrupted run CPI(M)-Ied West Bengal .

forget that the CPI(M) as a faithful party of the Indian ruling government has done nothing but to create a politically .

classes was instrumental in the execution and privileged cadre-base which has intimidated people. .

imprisonment of hundreds of youths during the Naxalbari oppressed any dissenting voice, repress any resistance, .

revolutionary upsurge of 1960s-70s who were bravely and intensified the existing oppressive social relations. 11 .

fighting the Indian state. In Marichjhapi, CPI(M)-Ied has played the role of a faithful running dog for US .

.

government left a whole refugee population in isolation and imperialism. It has given Monsanto to direct its agricultural destitution to die in an island by cutting off all supply of food policy which is nothing but corporate-farming against the and drinking water. In recent times, CPI(M) goons interest of small-land holding peasants. It has no problem ransacked, demolished settlements, killed people forcing in letting the US-army to use West Bengal airfields for others to flee in the name of 're~capturing area' like In military purposes. It has brought in comprador Tata and Singur and Nandigram. Even before Manmohan-has given all forms of subsidy without disclosing terms and .

Chidambaram model of displacement in the name of condition to the people. It Invited notorious Salem group to started in full throttle, CPI(M)-Ied West.

'development' Nandigram with dire consequences. In manufacturing Bengal government launched the biggest ever eviction-consumer goods like cars. motorbikes etc. 1hey propagated .

drive of working people in India in 1996 called 'Operation .

Sunshine'. Slums were burnt down, hawkers' stalls on the 'development', which for the people is nothing but forced eviction. The police, company goondas and Harmads have .

pavement were demolished and hawkers were arrested evicted peasants from fertile lands, brought to them indiscriminately in the name of beautification, leading to displacement and corporate-loot o1 .

massive displacement and loss of sources of livelihood. nightmares of policy is no different from This is the past record of the 'party of workers and resources. CPI(M}'s Chidamabaram's ploy to sell the country to Vedanta. .

Essar. Posco and thereby satisfy his imperialist masters..

peasants'! Only a resolute peoples' resistance forced a CPI(M) Is party to the same enemy which the ;:sople ofwithdrawal of the operation later. .

Opportunistic alliance is the one which allies with Jharkhand, Chattishgarh, Bihar. Orissa. Kashmrr, North-.

imperialist interests and against the East etc. are fighting against. People of Jungal Mahal a_re.

ruling-class, .

people. CPI(M) in their recent history has made this amply fighting the same battle against a fascist state and rts clear that they can be with anybody but with the people. brutal repression; for democracy and freedom. The people They came out from UPA pretending to oppose 'Nuclear-have given clear Indication that the social-fascist CPI(M)'s Bill' as a part of their so-called anti-imperialist struggle. days are numbered. Thus, ~what happened in Netai' is However be it through sanctioning of several SEZ projects another Instance of brutal mass murder by the CPI(M) gangs that by now has become synonymous with the.

in West Bengal or implementing draconian laws like AFSPA .

in Tripura, and UAPA CPI(M) has always maintained its 'Left' rule in West Bengal. The people are fighting .

allegiance to the Market-guru Manmohan or the war-valiantly against it and with these fighting masses we monger Chldambaram. On the other hand, their 'tight' stand wtth full solidarity. .

as:~ainst communalism does not stop them, in the name of .

, -.

Sd/-Saurabh11 Kumar, .:>~Lr t::La y, , \ I,J .

Sd/-Gayettri Dixit, President, ABVP, JNU. .

.

.

Irom Sharmila, 38, has not eaten anything,

or drunk a single drop of water for ten years.

She has been forcibly kept alive by a drip

thrust down her nose by the Indian State.

Irom Sharmila, 34, has not eaten anything,

or drunk a single drop of water for ten years.

She has been forcibly kept alive by a drip

thrust down her nose by the Indian State.

For ten years, nothing solid has entered her body.

Not a drop of water has touched her lips.

She has not combed her hair.

She cleans her teeth with dry cotton and

her lips with dry spirit so she will not sully her fast.

Her body is wasted inside and internal organs practically lost.

Her menstrual cycles have stopped. Yet she is resolute.

Whenever she can, she removes the tube from her nose.

It is her bounden duty,

she says, to make her voice heard in

“the most reasonable and peaceful way”.

This is the land of a Gandhi whom the nation has forgotten.

"Menghaobi" Irom Sharmila Chanu (born March 14, 1972),

also known as the Iron Lady of Manipur, is a civil rights activist,

political activist, journalist and poet from the Indian state of Manipur.

Since November 4, 2000, she's been on a political fast demanding

the Government of India to withdraw

the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958, also otherwise known as AFSPA,

from Manipur and other areas of India's north east.

Ten years since it began in 2000,

Irom Sharmila Chanu's fast is unparalleled in the history of political protest.

Bradley Manning

has not seen daylight for the last 7 months.

. He is held in a 6 x 12 foot cell.

. He cannot talk to others

. He is not allowed to exercise in his cell

. Every 5 minutes he is woke up

to ask "Are you ok?" to confirm whether he is still alive

. No news or news paper

. 23 hours of each day he is put inside the cell

. For security reasons he is not given pillows or sheets

. This is most likely to create long-term

psychological injuries,

from which one rarely recovers.

All he did was to tell aloud the cruelties

of American State to the world

He is supposed to be the source of wikileaks on American defense establishment.

His sin was telling the truth to the world!

In the land of liberty no one expects him to see the day light again.

It is because of people like him that we have come to know that the combined

unaccounted money of China, Russia put together is merely a fraction

of the Indian Black money in the Swiss Banks

.

-vprre an On · an Sis Pro~ '9o'ng GscA.~~~ .. ,. .

1 -essor JJ_.

' . [ .

.

SC ACQUITS ALL THE ACCUSED OF 2002 AKSHARDHAM TERROR STRIKE ! .

.

Slams Gujarat Police Probe! ...._._,. s:r~rnina. Incarceration and injustice, .14.

.

-.---·~._..,., .

23.5.14 1Oth Anniversaryof Custodial Rape and Killing of PalestinianDeath Toil Crosses130-Israeli Thangjam Manorama in Manipurby Assam Rifles! PM Says: '"World Pressure Will Not .

10 Years of Refusal to Punish the Culprits! .

.

..~ J _I! 9 1 i· (;.~~~Remember Manorama, .

~a I JJ~~ .. .

s-~· ...: .. ~~ ..,; ~:~t~. Resolve to Scrap AFSPA .

.

The ( In an ir .

r lll -· AR~~ .

on Aks =.. .r;~, .

three ' .

Acquit .

which .

· · ~ Speakers Gautam Navlakha noted HumanRightsActivist Dr. Pap~ri Bora .

Centre for Women's Studies, JNU .

Stop UsThere Is Still More To Go!" In 2012, the Israeli State Had Described Its Annual Genocidal Killing of Palestinjans as 'Mowing the Lawn'! .

Rise Up Against The Ongoing Genocidal Military Offensive by Racist Occupier Israel on Gaza! .

Join------.

.

United Protest Demo at Israeli Embassy 14JulyMonday Assemble at Ganga Dhabaat10am .

10 years ago, in the early hours of 11 July 2004, the bullet torn body of 32 year old Thangjam Manorama Devi was found in.

integr .

Laipharok Maring of lmphal East district of Manipur. She had earlier been picked up from her home by the Assam Rifles on the 111nste pretext of being a 'suspected militant'. She had been fired with several bullets. There were gunshot wounds on the genitals and semen on her skirt. suggesting that she was raped before being tortured and killed. On July 15, women from the Meira Paibi.

and g .

(Mothers' Front), in an unprecedented show of protest against this custodial rape and killing, marched to an Assam Rifles base The S in lmphal, stripped naked and raised a searing banner "Indian Army Rape Us". This most assertive and milrtant protest by the of tn Mothers of Manipur shook people's conscience across the world. An unresponsive ·mainstream' was shaken out of its indifference unde to the horrors of AFSPA and state repression that people in the North-East were witnessing everyday for decades. .

Even after 10 years, the case pertaining to the rape and murder of Manorama is still pending before the Supreme Court. The.

Th e .

army and central government have gone all the way to the Supreme Court to dodge prosecution, even though a judicial The · .

enquiry appointed by the state of Manipur has found the army personnel guilty. .

mve .

.

At the heart of this massive injustice lies the draconian Armed Forces Special Powers Act (1958), AFSPA, which is in vogue in most POT parts of North East for last 66 years and in Kashmir (since 1989). This "lawless law". derived from the British period, gives.

., .

of tl immense licences to the armed forces in declared 'disturbed areas' to perpetrate atrocities against civilians and yet enjoy viol immunrty from any prosecution. Under the AFSPA, even a non-commissioned officer of the armed forces enjoys the 'special' power to kill on mere suspicion and gets legal immunity from prosecution. It confers a sense of impunity on the armed forces,The resulting in untold numbers of disappearances, outright murder and massacre in the name of 'encounters', torture, rape and .

w it! .

sexual violence and a host of other horrific violations of human rights and civil liberties. The widely exposed and protested fou instances of massacres like Oinam and Malom in the North-East, and the discovery of numerous unmarked mass graves in the Bra Kashmir Valley, the brazen cases of fake encounters like Pathribal and Macchhil or everyday instances of encounters, rape, and .

brutalities that go unreported, expose the brutal realities of civilian life in Kashmir and North~East under the 'security' forces'.

abc .

jackboots of PSA and AFSPA..

.

6:3 .

Indeed, the specific manner in which AFSPA has been instituted and invoked shows that AFSPA is fundamentally based on and.

thE .

derived from the violence to uinstitute order" rather than to "preserve" order, to institute the legttimacy of the "Indian State" m Th specffic areas and their inhabitants wherern the "Indian-ness" are problematic." It was for the repeal or the AFSPA that !rom su Sharmila, stirred by the gunning down of 10 civilians in Malom by the Assam Rifles in 2000, started a hunger fast ~ that lasts to this .

day. The nature of our 'investigative" agencies, the ease with which they frame innocents as uterrorists", t~e ease with which.

ex people are killed every single day under AFSPA is no secret. They reveal the underlying politics of witch-hunting and take.

w 'encounters' -a politics of racial profiling and communal targeting, a politics that allows these shameful ste~eotypes to continue.

tr.

.

' j": unabated . .. \e ,, ln the wake of the powerful people's movement in Manipur in 2004. the UPA-1 had set up the Committee headed by Justice Jeevan.

rT Reddy in 2005 to review the AFSPA. The Jeevan Reddy Committee had recommended repeal of trus law. The Admi0istrative "' Reforms Commission headed by Veerappa Moily in 2007 also recommended its repeal. Internationally, the UN bodies including d the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and recently the UN t Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders have consrstently urged for rts repeal. Yet the Jaw conttnues. Justice Verma .

. . , .

Committee (JVC). formed after the 16 December gang rape and murder tn Delhi, recommended the review of AFSPA and the.

'·. 1 .

immunity it grants to the armed forces in cases of sexual violence against women in the 'd,sturbed ~reas'. JVC obs~n:ed "that E .

"impunity for systematic or isolated sexual violence in the process of internal security duties 1S being· legittmised by th'e AFSPA" and "women in conflict areas are entitled to all the security and dtgnity that is afforded to citizens in any other pv.rc ofour colJntiy." The committee recommended that the requirement of sanction for prosecution of armed forces personnel shoilld be specifically excluded when a sexual offence is alleged and they should be tried under. norma/law, and also suggested to 'take special care for the safety of complainants and witnesses in cases of sexual assault by armed personner. However the Central govegtment discarded these important recommendations given by Justice Verma Committee. .

Ten years after Manorama was brutally raped and killed, AFSPA continues. In addition to AFSPA. ~Xtra-jurid,cal viofence:of the state continues to be supported by draconian Jaws. such as Disturbed Areas Act (DSA). ChhCtt~.

isgSA·}, Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), National Security Act (N~A)"and N(.!tionnl lrw~sti£Jatiye Age·ncy Act ('NIA). AISA appeals to the student community to participate in a public meeting tonight at Godavari mes& fronf9)0 pm onwards, agairtst AFSPA and all forms of state repression. .

Ashutosh, Gen.Secy, AISA, JNU Chintu, Jt. Secy. AISA, JNU .

.

.

.

Gang-rape of Fahmeena (in Srinagar) by security forces on 29 October 2004. Soon afterwards, on 4 November 2004, .

at Matt~n~ Praveena Akhtar was gang-raped by security forces. Aisha Begum and her young daughter were sexually .

assaulted by a Major in their home at Handwara on the night of 6 November. .

.

.

The torture, rape and killing of Thangjam Manorama (Manipur) in 2004. .

.

.

Recently, mass graves of more than 2000 people were unearthed in Kashmir-people who had 'disappeared', been tortured and killed. Again and again, the streets of the North East and Kashmir have erupted agai1:1stAFSPA. For more than 10 years , lrom Sharmila has been on an indefinite hunger strike demanding the scrapping of the AFSPA. On August 15'h 2004, young Pebam Chittaranjan set h1mself on fire in protest against the AFSPA; several women of Manipurshed their clothes and came in front of the Army headquarters in the nude, saying -''Indian Army Rape Us!" These are acts of extraordinary courage by ordinary citizens, when faced with the routine brutality of the state against its own people. AFSPAwas introduced in the name of countering 'terrorist' activity. It is now more than fifty years since AFSPA has been in force, and there is no evidence that AFSPA has been successful in its stated aim either in the north-east or in Jammu and Kashmir. Rather, AFSPA has put in place a reign of terror and a reign of blatant suppression of democratic rights wherever it has been in force. Forced by the massive protests against AFSPA after Manorama Devi's rape and murder, the UPAhad 1nst1tuted the Jeevan Reddy Commission to review AFSPA. Though the Jeevan Reddy .

.

.

Commission has several problems, it too was forced to recommend the repealing of AFSPA given the enormities of the atrocities happening under AFSPA. Even after a commission appojnted by the government bas made these recommendations. the UPA refuses to_s..ciap AESPA .

Today is September 11lh. In the popular perception, this day is synonymous with the highly condemnable bombing of the World Trade Centre in Washington DC. While we recollect and condemn these bombings, let us not forget that th1s incident was used as an excuse by the US to wage a horrific and devastating war in Afghanistan and Iraq, and to intensif1 the ongoing genocide in Palestine. And while the media reminds us of the WTC bombings on September 111h. let us also remember that this day has other histories too: .

In India, on September 11lh 1958, AFSPA came into effect September 11'" 1973 1s the day the democratica ly .

elected government of Salvador Allende in Chile was overthrown by the CIA; in 1922 on this day, the Bnt1sh .

Parliament drew a map of ethnic cleansing in Palestine; in 1990 George W. Bush, Sr. announced the lJS .

government's decision to go to war against Iraq. .

For all people who defend democratic values and who stand against state repress1on. September 11:t> is an occasio'1 to stand up against all these atrocities. AISA appeals to the student community to participate in a protest march r tonight, starting from Ganga Dhaba at 9.30 pm, in solidarity with the ongoing movement against AFSPA and .

against state repression. .

Sucheta, Gen. Secy, AISA, JNUVismay, Vice-President., AISA, JNU .

.

.

fellowships -theAISA representatives in JNUSU raised and .

each centre, · 6ux:reasefhe.

clinched many ofthese issues. Immediate tunctlonallsa!iOn of Laogugelabin theSL ~ensiOO · 1 andThe regularisation of centralised placement cell, frequency o1 bus to Down Campus at critlcal hours ltke 9a.m.1 a.m JNUSU 2007-08: A Perspective.

expansion of hostel and health centre facUlties, ~~agesollwar and tntemet facilities in the computers of SLL&CS's The past year saw many sagas of repression and resistance: against SEZs,wJ.fl facUlties, democraticformulation ofXlth plan corporate land grab and police bullets at Katinganagar, POSCO, Slngur..

romputer room.

are some of the key issues that must addressed on an urgent.

basjs_ Proper dassrooms for a!! centres SLL&CS Elect AISA Nandlgram. and Khammam, fake encounters and 'disappe?rances' from.

More language magazines, journals and daily newspaperfor the · Kashmir to Gujarat to the North East to Chhattisgarh. Perpetrators of theExpansion of Sports Facilities with a central gym, two Common Room. to R~ist SEZs, Corporatization, and 1993 Mumbai riots. Identified by the Srikrishna Commission, went scot-freeaddit!onal lawn tennis courts, canteen in the stadium area, Water cooler with purifier must be installed in the canteen UPA s Surrender to US Imperialism ! while blast accused were sentenced. In a sting operation, Gujarat BJP leadersextension of timing ofthe sports complex, renovation of the Expansion of Centre for Indian Languages (CIL) to lndudeothef ~ . To give a fitting rebuff to the revealed chilling details ofhow theyconducted the mass murderofhundredsBasketball Court nearTapti andset up a New Court near Teflas, Indian Languages, (Stich as Tamil, Kanada. Malayalam. Bengali ~ of Muslims in 2002 and manufactured explosives under Narendra Modi.

caste1st YFE and communal ABVP and 's.

Badminton courts are absent in Tapti and lahit, spo.rts funds Oriya),introduce aComparitive Uterature programmeinSll&CS, MPhlV direct instruction and with the blessings of the state government.

anti-people NSUI I.

tor maintanence of sports equipments. PhD programmes in the Korean language..

Centre-spedfic libraries in the School. From North-East.Narmada, The Indo-US Nuke. Deal initiated by the BJP-NDA and now peddled by.

Foreign students constitute a vibrant section of the JNU Kalinganagor,to Singur. Nandigram -the UPA government hangs like a dark shadow over lndja's sovereignty. It.

Immediately increase the number of permanent farulties in severnl de-.

community, and to develop JNU as a Centre of Excellence in Be the Voice of People's Resistance! threatens to make India's own foreign policy subservient to a US law, and to.

partments like Urdu, English.

SouthAsia and drawtalents from across the world, itis urgent US plans. The CPI-CPI(M) did not push for a vote on the Nuke Deal in.

SIS For a powerful assert ion of students.

that there should be fee waivers and concessions to students Parliament (a move which could have defeated the Deal decisively} and did coming from poorer backgrounds, more so from third world Sllldenls should be subsidized &encouraged to attend national and workers rights on campus! not even demand that it be scrapped. Instead, despite all the CPI-CPI(M)societies.Also the various canteens and foodstalls should be and international level seminars. Ensure fellowships, Reservations! threats of withdrawing support, they and t:he Congress have both agreed to encouraged to provide items suitable to their food habits. Srudents exchange programme for MAlevel students. Strengthen GSCASH, and Equal 'pause' the Deal, even. as the Congress pursues the Deal behiRd the scenesOpportunity Office, Placement Cell ! and waits for a better political moment in which to clinch it. The UPA Govt.

The existing system oftee concesions should be made more A school level magazine with a permanent wall magazinetransparent and democratic. highlighting issues of our times Resist Witch-hunting of Minorities! shamefully supports the military dictatorship in Burma, which is massacring.

pro-democracy protestors on the streets, and enjoys business and military.

Against the neo-colonial assaults of.

School Specific Issues Expanding the Computer Centre althe School with at least 10 relations with the racist and colonial Israel..

Nuke Deal, SEZs and Patents!.

computers and JSTOR facility.

sss No to the Betrayal of the SFI-AISF YFE took up the banner of 'merit' and 'equality' to block OBC quotas..

More participation on cultural on Displacement, SEZs, Patents, But it was found that in their ovm stronghold ofAllMS. SC/ST doctors were.

Expansion of the Academic Programmes by turning the existing Science Schools: AFSPA! discriminated against and denied seats while non-SC/ST students with far.

Women's Studies Programme and Programme for Studies in Installation of 50 computers and library facility for sps lower marks were given plum seals! So much for 'merit'..

Discrimination and Exclusion into full-fledged centres; Central Panel CPI(M)'s proud boast used to be that what Bengal does today, India will.

.

Completion of new SPS building.

operfionalising of North-east Studies Programme President : Sandeep Singh do tomorrow· Ironically, CPI(M)'$ model of rule in West Bengal has become.

Improvement of functioning ofDSA and SAP libraries: Xerox More regular bus service for down campus Vice-President : Shephalika Shekhar a replica of that of ruling class regimes: with SEZs, state repression at Singurfaolities in SAP Ubrary of CPS, CSSS hbrary, access JSTOR Proper infrastructurein SIT Gen. Secy : Pallavi Deka and Nandigram; pampering of corporales and pauperising ofthe poor; ruraland computerized catalogue, departmental libraries to be Renovation of SIT toilets wh1ch are in patheticcondition hunger and even starvation deaths, and state repression. But in the matter.

Jt. Secy : Md Mobeen Alam.

accessed in lunch hours, CHS DSA library needs enrichment, Installation of computers and other required machinery and of people's resistance, indeed, the rural poor and democratic citizens ofWproper dusting, filing and cataloguing of books, better hardware in SIT Bengal are showing the way. Nandigram became an inspiring model of anti-maintaineoce of the library in Zal<ir Husain centre. Extension of sss SEZ struggles in other states-and now the ongoing militant food movement.

.

Fulfilment of SC/ST quota in teaching and non·teaching Ashok Kumar K.C. in W Bengal is emerging as a model ofstruggle against siphoning offof PDS.

-timings of all departmental libraries. Students representation .

appointments Javed Iqbal Wani rations. The citizens of Kolkata defended secularism and women's rights by.

required on library committees..

School-based library in SES demanding justice for Rizwanur Rehman, while the CPI(M) Govt defended.

Scanning of textbooks for major courses for ph-ysically Meera Visvanathan the communal and anti-woman police who hounded him to his death..

More field trips for SES students.

chaflenged students on an immediate basis; easy access to Sucheta De.

Closer home in JNU, wcrl<ers who revealed that minimum wage laws.

libraries : Ramp for DSA library, basement section of main More democratic functioning and transparency in science Urvashi Tilak were routinely violated in JNU were thrown out oftheirjobs. And when studentslibrary. schools demanded legal minimum wag2s for workers. they were rusticated. But a.

Revitalize SfCs in all centres, elections must be held· To raise andclinch the above issues of struggle andt -SIS students' movement supported by citizens all over Delhi succeeded in forcing.

interaction between SFCs and SSS Councillors to be make JN~SUa leadingsource ofsupportandsol/darlt; Arvind Kumar the Administration to withdraw the rustications..

regularized to peoples movements In the country, we appeal to the Khalid Abdalla Abdelwahab .

.

There was also a move to introduce corporate funding in JNU -and the.

Options to lake out of centre courses should be increased students of JNU to elect A/SA's entire panel to th Madri Kakoti challenge ofenhancing scholarships for needy students and researchers..

Telephone booth In SSS 1 JNUSU this year. e Monallsa Adhikari The Response of JNU Students Movement and JNUSU to .

Speedy completion of renovation and removing of all Vlsmay Basu the Burning Questions of Our Time.

construcfioo related problems..

.

SLL&CS Last yearAtSA held the posts ofJNUSU Vice President and General Secretary.

More computers in SSS: Computer rooms in social medicine We're Witness To The Sufferings OfOur and broke new ground in the student movement. AISA office bearers of.

CPS, CHS to have more computers. existing CO!Tlputers to ~ Struggling People ! Abhlneet Raj JNUSU alone held protests against the police firing at Nandigram andmade-functional P. Kumar Mangalam Khammam. SFI's JNUSU leadership supported the SEZ policy of corporate.

Remedial courses in languages to be made functional We Shall Bear witness To Their Liberation II Syed Mohammad Raghib land grab and defended police firing at Nandigram; and even remaine~silent .

Audio-visual transmission facilities in classrooms Uday Kr. Shankar on Khammam because in Khammam they saw the spectre of Nand1gram..

The JNUSU General Secretarx.visited Singur in December 2006, following.

Sanitation of toilets in both bundings Vlshal Kumar .

Tapasi Malik's rape and murder by CPI(M) leaders, while SFI defended the.

Sll&CS .

rapists and killers ofTapasi Malik..

Placement cell for the sludeots of SLL&CS sAA s.Karmegam.

lllaease lhe number ol oplionals and the seats thereof, strecmJne lheir Against state terror in Kashmir and the North East; against discriminatoryallotmadprocess. 'codes' imposed on North East students by Delhi Police, against UPA Govl's.

3peedy ~ofAlimlat and Fazeelat cef1iflcates for B.A First Year support for military dictatorship in Bunna, AJSA's JNUSU leadership tookacmssGtS. initiatives while SFI remained silent. AISA's JNUSU leadership mobilised to.

Eledioo lo Student-Faculty Committee (SFq election should be held for Sdl-Awadhesh, demand scrapping ofthe Nuke Deal through a vote in Parliament, while SFImerely asked to pause· the deal, thus letting it the Deal stay alive and keeping.

Convenor;Campaign Committee AISA .

the UPA-CPI(M) alliance undisturbed!.

I I .

JNU .

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strong .Jan Lokpal Bill to ptuush the corrupt caught the imagination of the country, AISA's campaign asserted the crying need to link corruption with the issue of neo-liberal economic policies of privatisation. Our slogan was .

''Uberali.ration-P,ivatisation Breeds. Comtption! l'igbt J>rivatimtion! F..nd C.ormptio11!'' .

AISA asserted that corruption today is not only a matter of morally corrupt individuals. Rather it has been institutionalised .

by the present phase of rampant privatization policies that have opened the doors for corporate loot of extremely valuable resources like land, minerals, spectrum, etc in the .

country. Thf'~e policies ho.ve rl"~nlte.d in an unpr"-"'"'A..,nted increase in the scale of corruption, leading to scams amountin~ to la.kh!: of aorcs in these sectors like rnineul~, natural resources and spectrwn. .

And as thousands and thousands of people become aware of corruption and take to the streets, they are being faced with brutal crackdowns. Therefore, the movement against .

cottuption today has inc.-xtnc:ably got li.n.kcd to the vi1:al .

questions of civil rights, space of common people's voices and dissent in a living democracy. .

A high point of 1\ISA's anti-corruption campaign was the 100-hourbarricade against corruption and corporate loot at Jantar Mantar from 9'h-1Jh August 2011, where thousands of students from across the country participated. Tills barricade was organised at a time when the beleaguered .

UP.A ha~ banned protcst8 and continuous gatherings atJantar Mantar tn an attempt to quell the growing anti-corruption movement. AISA activists faced arrests and detentions, and on the strength of the panicipanta' militancy and determination, succeeded in reclaiming Jantar Mantar .

as a space of protest. This was a significant blow to the attempts of the UPA to shrink the spaces of protest in the national capital. AISNs campaign also robustly asserted that the anti-corruption movement cannot be silent on the burning issues of democracy and secularism that the country faces. .

Confronting the Burning Questions of Our Times .

AISA has always believed that our involvement cannot remain confined to seminar rooms and classrooms; the students' movement must have an integral link with social movements. .

Thi$ is a link that we have strcngrhened over several year5. .

2004 i\.ISA participated in the struggle of the Honda .

~I.A'I;~·t:::w~o.,.rkers at Gurgaon. with the JNUSU Pr.esident .

··" ~ .

' I'".

~' .

being among the first to express solidarity with the workers after their brutalisation by the Haryana Police. .

2004 When the women of Manipur shook the conscience of the nation with their nude protest against the rape and killing of Manorama Devi by Armed forces, AISA mobilised the students of JNU in several protests and campaigns agajnst AFSPA. The AISA President and JNUSU President from AISA visited Manipur at the height of the movement. .

2004 The .AISA-led JNUSU responded promptly to the tsunami tragedy, organising massive collection drives in which the entire JNU student community partidpated. AISA also sent a relief team to the .

affected areas of Nagapattinam. .

2005 To familiariseJNU with the struggles of tribals against Mining MNCs, starvation and state repression in the .

Kasbipur-KotaJ)ut-Kalahandi zone of Oriso<a, .

AlS.I\ councillors from SSS organised an exposure trip of students to the area in the sununer vacation of June 2005. .

2005 When Manmohan Singh visitcdJNU campus on 14 November 2005, AISA gave a call for Black Flag protest against UPA's repressive role in North-East and Kashmir through hated laws like AFSPA, .

1\fanmohan Singh's O xford speech hailing Drit:ish rule, his surrender before US imperialist diktats, India's vote against Iran at IAEA and his slew of .

nco-liberal assaults on life and liYclihood of Indian .

people. Black flag protestors were brutallv beaten up by NSUI and i\BVP goons at rhc ve~uc. SFI, then allied to UPA, opposed the black flag protest and sided with the right-wing elements. Subsequently. .

SFI joined the NSUI and ABVP in a first ever move inJNU's history tried to censure and impeach the then JNUSU President Mona D as in an UGBM on 27 November for the 'crime' of showing Black Flag to the prime Minister. Progressive and democratic students ofthe campus rallied with A.ISA and defeated shameful unity the right-wing forces and SFI and defeated the in the UGBM. .

2006 When tr.ibals protesting against TATA steel plant and displacemt'nt were gunned down in Kalinganagar on January 2. 2006, the AIS1\ -ledJNUSU took a team of students to visit the struggling tti.bals. .

200<i In Apri12006, when the Narmada Bachao Andolan came to Delhi to protest against the L'Pi\ Govt's .

Referendum Against VC, 2010 .

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What Was She Wearing.

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I'm sick of the question - How was she dressed?.

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Show me the man slumped over the counter with a bullet in his head join.

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Dressed like someone who deserves to be dead. Public Meeting.

Tell me the 6 year old girl assaulted in church was asking for it..

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Or the girl raped in gym class looked like a slut in those sweat pants..

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What clothes - pulled from what rack Patriarchy, State,.

Will prevent an attack?.

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Tell me the store - and I'll go back Gender Violence :.

And buy the right clothes this minute - Tasks Ahead.

The out·it that prevents rape if you're in it..

.

See I didn't understand.

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I didn't understand that I could buy a shirt that says `I deserve to be hurt' speakers.

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I had no clue I could put on a shoe Nivedita Menon JNU.

That says do whatever you want to do to me.

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See, your needs come ·irst Suddhabrata Sengup-.

After all I am wearing a tight skirt ta.

Instead of the assault-proof dress.

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And I notice that you have the fault-proof vest Sarai, CSDS.

So it's my fault I guess.

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Apparently I didn't say No as loud as my clothes could say Yes Kavita Krishnan.

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See I didn't know that my No wasn't enough national secy AIPWA,.

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I didn't understand that my body became less precious.

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`Cause certain dresses made me look hot 2 Jan Today.

And I guess if I'm wearing the wrong top Shipra Mess.

Then my yes is the same as my `Stop'.

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And you shouldn't have to, just because I begged you to 3.00pm.

I'm begging you, tell me the magic out·it and I'll buy it.

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Apparently my No wasn't heard even when I screamed.

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So I need my clothes to be quiet. - Steve Connell.

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ACT NOW: End Gender Violence! Carry Forward the Struggle for Women's Freedom and Equality!.

.

The 23-year-old Delhi gang-rape victim finally succumbed to her injuries on 29 December morning after battling on bravely for.

13 days. The unknown young woman will go down in history as one of India's most memorable fighters for the cause of justice.

and freedom for India's women - freedom without the fear of violence and fetters of patriarchal domination..

.

The courage of that brave fighter has unleashed spontaneous waves of movements on the streets. But now, the political class.

and the government, after the most callous apathy and repression, has begun to respond with a range of token gestures and.

palliatives. Can the scar inflicted by the brutal gang-rape be healed by such hollow gestures?.

.

Is rape an alien cancer in mainstream society? Or in fact, is it the most violent and sordid expression of a deep-seated prejudice.

and structural discrimination against women that defines mainstream society and culture in India today? Even at this height of.

the ongoing country wide protest, that a range of political leaders of various ruling parties could make vicious sexist comments.

and then get away with token `apology' and the respective parties refusing to take any action against them, are a shocking.

pointer to the misogynist mindset of the ruling elite. Similarly, leaders of several parties have made comments blaming the.

rape victim herself..

.

Further, casteist rape, communal rape, and custodial rape - all very often sponsored by and patronised by the State and.

dominant social groups, is shameful reminder that rape remains a favoured weapon by dominant sections or by the State on.

marginalised and oppressed people. The two previous landmarks of the women's movement against sexual violence in India.

have both been custodial rapes - the Mathura rape case in which policemen raped an adivasi teenager and then were acquitted.

by a court which held that Mathura had been `habituated to sex'; and the powerful movement spearheaded by Manipuri women.

in 2004 against the AFSPA following the rape and murder of Thangjam Manorama..

.

The Government is attempting to address the ongoing agitation with some flashy and sensational `solutions,' divorced from.

the actual tough questions asked by the women's movement. It is important to foreground those tough questions and refuse.

to allow them to be deflected by a high-pitched debate on extraneous issues..

.

Changes in rape laws and other laws dealing with discrimination and violence against women, and more importantly with the.

mechanism of implementation and the justice delivery system, are of urgent importance and the government must be forced to.

adopt an inclusive and transparent democratic process in proper consultation with women's movement to bring about much-.

needed and much-awaited changes in this direction..

.

But the impetus generated by the December upsurge in Delhi and across the country cannot and must not be allowed to be.

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lost in a battle exclusively concerned with legal provisions for justice to rape victims. Already we have seen the protests target.

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instances of victim-blaming and rape culture. In the latest instance, a successful campaign took place against the offensive.

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rape-celebrating lyrics of rapper Honey Singh. We need to face and question every aspect of patriarchal culture that fosters.

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rape and other forms of violence against women. The movement must remain alive, and become part of the daily life.

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breath of our society, doing daily battle with entrenched patriarchal common sense..

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Shweta Raj Student Representative to GSCASH Minakshi JNUSU Representative to.

..

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A3 .

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... .. .

consideration, and even condoned as a necessary price to pay for 'national security.' Regardless of which party rules, mdividual or groups painted as 'enemies of the nation' can be arrested, tortured and eliminated at will-no questions asked -in the guise of 'national security' and 'war on terror.' .

~-hen fake encounters and fabricated charges of terror combine with the usimperialist agenda of 'war on terror', It IS a huge boost in the arm for the ideological climate of communal fascism. This is all the more so because it isn't linked to one party-the BJP-alone. When prc;>minent and respected media commentators argue that 'law' should be sacrificed for 'order'; that the Indian spy agencies should be allowed to conduct 'controlled killings'; and that the IB and national security cannot survive unless exempted from obligations to the Constitution; such opinions do not provoke widespread outrage and are rarely described as 'fascist.' But these are the insidious ways in which the fascist .

consensus is created. .

When rul~ng ~lass parties do raise these issues of fake encounters or custodial killings, there is often a cynical opportumsm Involved. So, Salman Khursheed will shed tears for Batla House at Azamgarh during an election meeting, or V.:ill apologise -in Kashmir -for the Kunan Poshpora mass rape by the Army-at the same advising Kashmiris to forgive, forg~t and move on. But the UPA Government will resist any judicial probe into the Batla House encounter, and has consistently protected Army personnel accused of rape, be it in Kashmir or Manipur! .

~n Delhi, as the newly formed Aam Aadmi Party's election campaign unfolds, similar concerns arise. The MP did ISsu: a statement_on the Ish rat Jahan fake encounter. A letter by Arvind Kejriwal addressed to Muslims in Delhi raises th~ ISs~e of the Witch-hunt ofMuslims in false terror charges, and reminds them that Prashant Bhushan is an advocate active 10 the struggl~ for justic: in the_Gujarat ~002 pogrom, Ish rat Jahan and Batla House cases. But simultaneously, AAP leader ~umar_VIshwas, a_s1_nger w1th ~ cons1derable following, has been taking public positions pandering to quite anoth;r -nght-_wmg, chauvm1st -constituency. On the lshrat Jahan case, he commented on Facebook: "Is lshrat lah~~5 death bigger than the death of50000 innocents of Uttorakhand?, going on to lament the 'conscience-less po~ttJcs that slyly knots up the coun:ry's major problems in irrelevant questions to pit people against each other." On Tw1tter, Kum~; Vishwas was _asked, wo~ld ~~~e to hove Ram Mondir ot the site or not?? My question is to Kumar not AP:,~,membe: , and Kum~rV1shwas repl1ed, Every Indian wants Ram Mandir at its site except BJP because then they wr .~sean tssue ofmakm~people foolu. Again, the notion that 'every Indian' wants a Ram Mandir where the Babri .

~~~J~d~;;'e~db~\~~~:~~~-loaded one, but Vishwas seems free to pander to these sentiments without being .

If one believ~s that~ 19-.year~o/d girl drugged and killed in cold blood by police is an 'irrelevant' issu d h ~-ecausesh,e rs a Muslim gtrl accused in death ofbeing a terrorist, she should be contrasted as r e: a? ~ at, trrelevant) with the 'innocents' ofUttorakhand and children o'Bihor one sho ld t ( P esumably guilty and .

h h 1;, J ' ' no presume to speak of'de , .

w ere t e IJe ond freedom ofeach citizen is ofequal value irrespective of their iden( 1M mocracy' Bat/a House issue figure only in the MP's letter to Muslims? Isn't it even more im rty. e wo~~er-why should the on these issues? Wouldn't a letter by AAP to its own leader Kumor v· h h. port/ant to sensltJse the non-Muslims .

t . . rs wos Jmse'f be more in orde t . .

ou rageous positrons that ore pondering to communal and chouvinist sentiment? r, o correct his .

Th~s~ who defend scams, corporate plunder, destruction of people's livelihood to . . . .

policies, fake encounters and custodial killings· those who Vl.olat I b I appease tmpenallst economic .

.

· e a our aws and trample · d · h.

t ose who defend rape and prescribe lakshman Rekhas for wo th h on '" ustnal democracy, .

D l.t . . . men, ose w o protect perpet·at f .

a 1s, mmont1es, and adivasis those whoj·ustify impunity for A ' ors o massacres of .

. ' . rmy personne 1who rape and k'll · h.

K h.

as m~r-all must be made accountable for democracy to have its true meaning. I In t e North East and .

On the eve of Independence Day, let us resolve to challenge the false terms of deb t .

ensure that the issues of peoples' movements-issues at the h rt d I . a e set by the ruling class and · 1 ea an sou of democracy _ ·.

I.

c ear In e ecttons, in public discourse, in classrooms and in the streets. are raised loud and .

16.8.13 -An Abridged and edited version of "Towards Lok Sabha 201.f. p · r, Movements Back In The Frame" By Kal'ita Krishnan, 24 .July lOJ~ttc'~'g 'he Concerns OfPeople's .

· . oumercurrenrs.org .

Anubhuti, Vice-President, AISA, JNU Sarfaraz, Jt. Secy, AISA, JNU .

4 .

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CHALLENGES OF OUR TIMES-II .

8~1~ad 'DeH«J.~: Unpack The Ruling Class Political Discourse That Seeks to Silence Burning Questions of People's Movements Recent years have witnessed .sustained democratic struggles and intense people's movements. There were massive waves of protest against corruption, corporate plunder and the policies that promote it, against rape and rape culture .

and for women's freedom. .

Pitched battles have been waged at Nagri near Ran chi and against the Keodankulam, Jaitapur, POSCO, Vedanta projects, that threaten to grao land and livelihood and endanger safety. Workers ·have held unprecedentedly successful mass scale all-India strikes, and have struggled against crackdowns on labour laws. ana industrial democracy, most notably at Maruti's Manesar factory. .

Sustained campaigns to expose and demand justice in fake encounter and custodiaHorture and custodial death cases and against witch-hunt of Muslim youth are taking place -in the Batla House, lshrat Jahan, Malegaon and Mecca Masjid cases, at Azamgarh and Darbhanga, to name just a few. Efforts of activists have yielded results in exposing extrajudicial killings under cover of the AFSPA in Kashmir and Manipur, and lrom Sharmila's heroic fast has drawn enormous support in her .crusade against the AFSPA. .

Even as perpetrators of Dalit massacres in Bihar were set free, campaigns against the judicial massacres have emuged .

with new determination. We have seen the struggles of adivasis fo; justice against massacres masquerading as fake .

encounters in Odisha and Chhattisgarh, and against the atrocities of the Salwa Judum. And in the face of all odds, .

brave women like Zakia Jafri (wife of Ehsan Jafri, butchered during the Gujarat 2001 massacre) and Bibi Jagdish Kaur .

and other women who survived the Sikh massacre of 1984, are keeping the struggle for justice alive. .

A Choice between 'Governance' and. 'Secularism'? .

As the Lok Sabha polls of 2014 approach, the mainstream media and ruling parties are defining the ctioice before the Indian citiz.en as a choice between 'governance' and 'secularism'-a short-hand description of choice between 'Modi as equivalent to governance' and 'Congress as equivalent to seculaTism'. It is impl.ied that if we want 'governance', we should concede that communal violence or 'fake encounters or corporate land g.rab are irrelevant questions. And it is implied that ifwe want 'secularism', we must likewise agree to overlook massive corruption, open plunder, opportunism, .

and outright repression. .

Must we resign ourselves to this 'choice'? Or must we assertthat such a 'choice' is an affront to the tough questions .

posed by the people's movements? .

On the eve of Independence Day let us instead strive to unpack the official, superficial discourse of 'governance' and 'secularism', which empties these terms of any democratic content -and define it in terms that are compatible with the highest, most consistent democratic norms, with the goals for which people's movements are striving. .

The New Myths of.'Governance' and 'Development' .

the corporate media1s language, 'governance' and 'development' have always meant neoliberal, pro-corporate.

1 pnolicies (supposedly 'good for the economy'), insulate? from the comp~lsi_ons of 'populism' ~read democra~). And if .

people protest ag~inst what's 'good for th~ ~conomy but bad for the1r nghts to land, llv~hhood, labour nghts .

'good governance' is supposed to be the ab1hty to control and suppress protests. .

· ·mportant to reca ll that, until the Radia Tapes and revelations of multiP.Ie scams spoilt the story,.

Itis 1. , d 's· -.

f ted by the corporate media as a model leader representing goo governance. 1m11ar1y, we ca was e ently Bihar eM Nitish Kumar was the media d~rling, hailed for changil'lg the old 'feel-bad' Bih;u .

very rec , · g.in an agenda of 'development' and 'growth.' Today, the new corporate-backed superman of.

h.

us enn 'd ·di .

osed to be Narendra Modi. But in each of these cases, these votaries of eve1opment are pres1 ng over ~:i~ies that are :he_harbingers of crony capitalism, widespread displacement, environmental degradlatiOR .

loss of Jives and hvehhoods. .

Intensify the struggle for Doubling MCM! Fight Administrative .

support JNUSU's Indefinite Hunger Strike l!('i;J .

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Minakshi (VicePresident, JNUSU), Akbar (Convenor,SSS), Sandeep :tau .

(Councillor, SSS}, Sarfaraz (Councillor, SL}, Anand, Anuj, Ashish, Azram, .

Ashutosh (Convenor,SIS}, Sudeep (Councilor,SIS), Abhay, Anjali, Ch,tu.

011 Rclny Oay 3 .

Hirnankar, Kusum, Lakshml, Manisha, Mohasin, Pooja, Preaksha,.

Aug 15-16 .

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Braving Roadblocks, Defeating Cynicism, .

27 .04.08.

'' ThG Quest For A Socially-Inclusive JNU Is Bound To March OnII.

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\ education in ·· ·.

of more thar ·' ---~~.

over the past two weeks, we have seen a determined struggle for a socially just campus, for democratisation ofnictr,.tive neutrality. The relay hunger strike, that lasted 11 days and saw the participation.

was howeve · · .. -·-"""" 4 ""tn manv of JNUSU'skey demands.There .

by now. SFI . ._ admitted, a Recall Savltrlbal Phule, who in late 19th centuryMaharashtra, defended couples who had married acroaa.

students· ...it is impossible to draw the masses into politics without also caste, struggled for the right of widows to study and remarry,Union, as drawing in the women; for under capitalism, the female half ofthe.

human race suffers under adouble yoke. The working woman and and started a school for girls. She was pelted with stonesJNUSU ha peasant woman are oppressed by capital; but in addition to that, and cow-dung by angry people who accused her of corrupt-representa even In the most democratic ofbourgeois Republics, they are, firstly, ing their daughters.nothing bt .

in an Inferior position because the law denies them equality with Salute Rakhmabal, a 20-year-old woman in the 1880s,SFl's ' men, and secondly, and this is most important, they are "In domestic who said she wouldn't live with the man to whom she hadpressure slavery, they are ndomestlc slaves", crushed by the most petty, most been married at the age of 11 , because she wanted to bethough it mental, most arduous, and most stultifying work ofthe kitchen, and free to study medicine! The law said such women who re-...~... "' by isolated domestic, family economy in general."-V1Lenin fused to cohabit with their husbands must be jailed, and theWhat does 'Women's Day' mean? courts gave her a prison sentence. Great and powerful men.

like Bal Gangadhar Tilak wrote editorials attacking her for.

The ads tell us it's a day when husbands are supposed being 'singed with the flame of knowledge' -a thirst for edu-.

to buy women washing machines and kitchen gadgets, when cation was 'unnatural' and 'unbecoming' for women, they said..

boyfriends are supposed to buy them flowers. Radio Mirchi, But Rakhmabai, displaying incredible courage, wrote letters.

for instance, invited male listeners to send messages to their in newspapers, asserting, "Because you cannot enter ourgirl friends and wives "to make them feel special". Is Women's feelings do notthink we aresatisfiedwith the life ofdrudg-.

Martyrs Ne Day just another 'Day' demarcated by corporates, to con-ery that we live, and that we have no taste for, and aspi-.

ration after, a higher life... " She did eventually study medi-.

Says Joe sume more and more? Or is it a day to remember the dis-cine and become a doctor..

never kill criminations and violence that women face 365 days a year?.

A day to look back at women whose struggles are the basis The many reincarnations of patriarchy.

went on too of this celebration of women's rights?.

went on too "A pedestal is as much a prison" From the legacy of these struggles, independent India.

has framed a history of contradictions. Today, women in.

From SanDi our country appear more free to study and work, andPatriarchal society is famous for its doublespeak. Onin every mint the one hand, society will place women on a pedestal and yet deeply entrenched anti-women patriarchal valueswhere worki claim to worship them. Our culture is fond of saying, "Janani are continually reinvented and reincarnated in manydifferent forms. When fees for education are hiked, women.

their rights, Janmabhoomi Swargadapi Gariyasi"(Mother and Motherland are the first casualties, since it is deemed more necessary.

are dearer than heaven), or "Yatra Narishcha pujyante, that their brothers should study. Girls are not allowed to be.

it's there you .

it's there you ramante tatra devta' (Where women are worshipped, gods born-not just in poor households, but more so in elite homesreside there). But, as Gloria Steinem observed '" pedestal even in the capital city where we live. Women are the worst.

-Joe Hill was is as much a prison as any other small place." The revolu-.

tionary Hindi poet Gorakh Pandey, too, reminds us of the hit by joblessness, since they continue to work often belowleader and rae m!nimum -.vages cr.d their work is deemed 'unskilled1in Utah, USA v prison walls that our society builds, of the way in which Whare.

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on false charge women are burnt to death or forced to suicide in the very there is violence ---whether the violence of the corporates,by firing squa, home in which she is worshipped as 'ghar ki lakshmi': communal or casteist violence, and the violences of the stateprior to his ext There are walls in every house I Shut windows in every wall, I ---it is always women who are the first to be affected, thewritten to 8 Banging against closed windows, her head/Bloody, she lies fallen.! first to be made the targets of attack. The possession of.

women as commodities and the link that is made betweenanother comt .

In every home there are burning ghats,/ln every home, there are the body of the woman and the prestige of the community or"Don't waste. gallows,linevery home there are walls/Bangingagainst the walls nation reiterates itself in the public domain. Modes of patriar-ourmng. Orga .

she falls, !Halfthe world falls,!AI/ humanity falls ..." chal violence in society are manifested in its most brutal.

form in the political arena. We see this in AFSPA, a lawSd/-Aw The first blows to the walls ofpatriarchy which the Indian army has used to brutally rape women inWomen's Day reminds us ofthe long struggle that women the North-East, in the state-sponsored communal genocide.

launched to break down the prison walls of patriarchy. It re-in Gujarat, where saffron Hindutva brigade raped pregnant.

minds us of the thousands of socialist and communist work-women and massacred those young and old or in Singur anding women, who knew that when women would be truly free .

Nandigram where sexual violence was used as a strategy byonly when they broke down all the prison walls; they knew the CPI(M) cadres to quell the protests of people being dis-.

that the liberation of women was linked to a struggle for thelong.

I .

placed from their land. While claims for women's empower-.

abst .

liberation of the whole of humanity. Masses of working ment are reiterated by successive governments at the stateresc women struck work In Chicago on 8 March In 1910,resi same governments not only engage in the forms of patriar-.

sparking off a huge movement for the right to vote, and central level, these are but empty claims for these self-.

this .

equal wages and an 8-hour working day. The German chal violence, and also turn a blind eye to the suffering andYFI Socialist leader Clara Zetkin, at an international Con-struggles of women. The present UPA government has made.

l ference of Socialist women, proposed that this day beYFI .

observed as International Women's Day. tall claims of a gender-sensitive budget. But their policiesCP make the prices soar and women go hungry; they relegate JN\l.

For us, Women's Day must be an occasion to pay trib-women to the most casual and contractualised jobs; and of.

COt .

course they, like the BJP-NDA before them, shy away fromute to the personal and political struggles of our foremothers..

who dealt the first blows to the prison walls of our society. even tabling the Women's Reservation Bill!Remember Rokeya Sakhawat Hussain and On March 8, It Is a time for the women's movement.

Rassundari Debl in the 19th century, who taught themselves to renew Its resolve to take on the ruling classes, rip off.

r the masks of 'women's e,mpowerment' and declare, In.

to read and write secretly, in dark kitchens after everyone in.

r the house was asleep! the words of Helen Reddy's song, "/ am woman, heart Sucheta De, Gen.Secy., AISA, JNU me roar/In numbers too big tO Ignore.".

Vlsmay Basu, Jt. Secy, AISA, Jr4tJ .

committed to reserv""'" ..,..-·-. .

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Campus Front demands repeal of AFSPA in Manipur

Campus Front demands repeal of AFSPA in Manipur

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'lltD{2_D/) .

in Solidarity with .

Srinauar to lmohal .

5(lve DemocrClcy .

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lrom SinuhaJit .

RepeCll AFSPA Brother oF lrom ShClrmilCl .

Jan Karwan .

ShabirHussain .

which is at Delhi on 19 Oct 2011 19 Oct Tonight.

From K~shmit and others--K~verf Mess 9.30pm .

"Born into the turbulent 70s, Sharmila grew up in a Menipur, wherein its people were undergoing a process of rediscovering its identity, historical pride and lost nationhood. I shall not dwell much on the wounds ofthe pastorhowa proudand independent nation was reduced to a centrally administered region in 1949.f1!.!1 1mustsav wounds that refuse to heal with time ordemocratic pretensions of the state brought insurgency in 1964. andso also a series ofstudent orcivil society movements since the early lOs " .

-I rom Sharmila's brother I rom SinghaJit. acceptmg the GwangJu pnze on I rom Sharmlla's behalf m2006 .

From 16\h October 2011 , a 'Jan Karawan' demanding repealing of the Armed Forces Spec1al PowersAct (AFSPA} has been travelling across the country-raismg 1ssues of state repression and democracy This campaign, which began in Srinagar, will travel4500 kms through Jammu and Kashmir, PunJab. Haryana, New Delhi, UPA, Bihar Jharkhand, West Bengal and .

Assam before culminating tn lmphal1n Man1pur .

AFSPA has been in force for more than five decades Desp1te a protracted peoples movement against 1t. th1s dracon1an legislation contmues to protect a reg1me of torture, rape, illegal detentions and murder in the entire north-east and in Jammu and Kashmir because various state governments (including the CPI(M)-Ied government in Tripura) and the UPA at the centre are unwilling to repeal it. AESPA is a simple denial of the fundamental right to life. and the right to liberty and security The fact that AFSPA remains in force is yet another Indicator of the real nature of 'democracy' .

and 'freedom' in India. .

Again and again, the streets ofthe North East and Kashmir have erupted againstAFSPA For more than 10 years, lrom Sharmila has been on an indefinite hunger strike demanding the scrapping of the AFSPA On August 15111 2004, young Pebam ChittaranJan set himself on f1re in protest against the AFSPA; several women of Mampur shed their clothes and came in front of the Army headquarters 1n the nude, saying-ulndian Army Rape UsI" These are acts of extraordinary courage by ordinary citizens, when faced with the routine brutality of the state. .

. What exactly is life under AFSPA? Recently. Kashmir's Human Rights' Commission has acknowledged the existence ofmore than 4000 mass graves in Kashmir-people who had 'disappeared', been tortured and killed under the protective shield of AFSPA. The unearthing of mass graves in Kashmir is just another instance of the horrific reality of life under .

AFSPA. What has the Army done with its 'Special Powers'? A small selection of its 'achievements include: .

Four months of army torture and violence against the villagers of Oinam (Manipur) in 1987; .

The gang rape of the women of Ujanmaidan (Tripura) by security forces in 1988; .

Indiscriminate firing on civilians by armed forces personnel when a tyre of their own jeep burst in the town of Kohima (Nagaland) in March 1995; .

Torture ofthe villagers of Namtiram (Manipur) 1n 1995; the army's reign of terror 1n Jesam1 (Man1pur) in January 1996; and the rampage of the village of Huishu (Man1pur) in March 1996 .

Gang-rape of Fahmeena (in Srinagar) by security forces on 29 October 2004. Soon after.vards. on 4 November 2004, at Mattan, Praveena Akhtar was gang-raped by security forces. A1sha Begum and her young daughter were sexually assaulted by a Major in their home at Handwara on the night of 6 November .

The torture, rape and killing ofThangjam Manorama (Manipur) in 2004. .

It is clearly the responsibility of the democratic and progressive sections of soc1ety to support the ongoing movement against AFSPA. Today, the Jan Karawan agamstAFSPA is reaching New Delh1 on 1ts way to lmphal AISA has organized a public meeting in JNU in solidarity with this campaign, wh1ch will be addressed by members of this campa1gn mcludmg lrom Sharmila's brother lrom Singhajit and a student from Kashmir Shabbir Hussam AISA appeals to the student community to participate in the public meeting tonight (9.30 pm) at Kaveri mess in large numbers. .

Condemn ABVP's Hooliganism and Violence Against the Anti-AFSPA Jan Karawan!! .

Today afternoon, when the Jan Karawan against AFSPA was holding its scheduled March in the North campus of Delhi .

university, a bunch ofABVP activists indulged in physical violence and disrupted it. ABVP goons threw stones and glass .

bottles on the participants of the rally. Not just this, the Delhi Police shielded these habituallumpens-instead of taking .

action on the ABVP goons. the police lath1 charged the anti-AFSPA rally, and detained the part1c1pants. including several .

AISA activists. lrom Sharmtla's brother lrom Smghajit has also been assaulted In campus after cam~us, ABVP, devoid .

of any student issues, is routinely orchestrating violence and hate-mongering as its staple for political survival and .

vittating campus atmosphere. AISA calls upon all democratic forces in the campuses to resolutely resist ABVP's .

\.. growing lumpenism and violence and defend the space for debates, discussion and dissent. ./ .

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Abhishck Kr. Yadav, Vic\!-Presidenl, AI SA, JNU Suchcta, Gen.Sccy . AISA.JNU .

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strong Jan Lokpal Bill to punish the corrupt caught the imagination of the country, AISAs campaign asserted the crying need to link corruption with the issue of neo-liberal economic policies of privatisation. Our slogan was .

Liberalisation-Privatisation Breeds Corruption! Fight Privatisation! End Corruption! .

AISA asserted that corruption today is not only a matter of morally corrupt individuals. Rather it has been institutionalised by the present phase of rampant privatization policies that have opened the doors for corporate loot of extremely valuable resources like land, minerals, spectrum, etc in the country. These policies have resulted in an unprecedented increase in the scale of corruption, leading to scams amounting to lakhs of crores in these sectors like minerals, natural resources and spectrum. .

And as thousands and thousands of people become aware of corruption and take to the streets, they are being faced with brutal crackdowns. Therefore, the movement against corruption today has inextricably got linked to the vital questions of civil rights, space of common peoples voices and dissent in a living democracy. .

A high point of AISAs anti-corruption campaign was the .

100-hour barricade against corruption and corporate loot at Jantar Mantar from 9th-13th August 2011, where thousands of students from across the country participated. This barricade was organised at a time when the beleaguered UPA had banned protests and continuous gatherings at Jantar Mantar in an attempt to quell the growing anti-corruption movement. AISA activists faced arrests and detentions, and on the strength of the participants militancy and determination, succeeded in reclaiming Jantar Mantar as a space of protest. This was a significant blow to the attempts of the UPA to shrink the spaces of protest in the national capital. AISAs campaign also robustly asserted that the anti-corruption movement cannot be silent on the burning issues of democracy and secularism that the country faces. .

Confronting the Burning Questions of Our Times .

AISA has always believed that our involvement cannot remain confined to seminar rooms and classrooms; the students movement must have an integral link with social movements. This is a link that we have strengthened over several years. .

2004 AISA participated in the struggle of the Honda workers at Gurgaon, with the JNUSU President being among the first to express solidarity with the workers after their brutalisation by the Haryana Police. .

2004 When the women of Manipur shook the conscience of the nation with their nude protest against the rape and killing of Manorama Devi by Armed forces, AISA mobilised the students of JNU in several protests and campaigns against AFSPA. The AISA President and JNUSU President from AISA visited Manipur at the height of the movement. .

2004 The AISA-led JNUSU responded promptly to the tsunami tragedy, organising massive collection drives in which the entire JNU student community participated. AISA also sent a relief team to the affected areas of Nagapattinam. .

2005 To familiarise JNU with the struggles of tribals against Mining MNCs, starvation and state repression in the Kashipur-Koraput-Kalahandi zone of Orissa, AISA councillors from SSS organised an exposure trip of students to the area in the summer vacation of June 2005..

2005 When Manmohan Singh visited JNU campus on 14 November 2005, AISA gave a call for Black Flag protest against UPAs repressive role in North-East and Kashmir through hated laws like AFSPA, Manmohan Singhs Oxford speech hailing British rule, his surrender before US imperialist diktats, Indias vote against Iran at IAEA and his slew of neo-liberal assaults on life and livelihood of Indian people. Black flag protestors were brutally beaten up by NSUI and ABVP goons at the venue. SFI, then allied to UPA, opposed the black flag protest and sided with the right-wing elements. Subsequently, SFI joined the NSUI and ABVP in a first ever move in JNUs history tried to censure and impeach the then JNUSU President Mona Das in an UGBM on 27 November for the crime of showing Black Flag to the prime Minister. Progressive and democratic students of the campus rallied with AISA and defeated shameful unity the right-wing forces and SFI and defeated the in the UGBM. .

2006 When tribals protesting against TATA steel plant and displacement were gunned down in Kalinganagar on January 2, 2006, the AISA-led JNUSU took a team of students to visit the struggling tribals. .

2006 In April 2006, when the Narmada Bachao Andolan .

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What Was She Wearing.

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I'm sick of the question - How was she dressed?.

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Show me the man slumped over the counter with a bullet in his head join.

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Dressed like someone who deserves to be dead. Public Meeting.

Tell me the 6 year old girl assaulted in church was asking for it..

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Or the girl raped in gym class looked like a slut in those sweat pants..

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What clothes - pulled from what rack Patriarchy, State,.

Will prevent an attack?.

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Tell me the store - and I'll go back Gender Violence :.

And buy the right clothes this minute - Tasks Ahead.

The out·it that prevents rape if you're in it..

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See I didn't understand.

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I didn't understand that I could buy a shirt that says `I deserve to be hurt' speakers.

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I had no clue I could put on a shoe Nivedita Menon JNU.

That says do whatever you want to do to me.

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See, your needs come ·irst Suddhabrata Sengup-.

After all I am wearing a tight skirt ta.

Instead of the assault-proof dress.

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And I notice that you have the fault-proof vest Sarai, CSDS.

So it's my fault I guess.

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Apparently I didn't say No as loud as my clothes could say Yes Kavita Krishnan.

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See I didn't know that my No wasn't enough national secy AIPWA,.

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I didn't understand that my body became less precious.

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`Cause certain dresses made me look hot 2 Jan Today.

And I guess if I'm wearing the wrong top Shipra Mess.

Then my yes is the same as my `Stop'.

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And you shouldn't have to, just because I begged you to 3.00pm.

I'm begging you, tell me the magic out·it and I'll buy it.

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Apparently my No wasn't heard even when I screamed.

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So I need my clothes to be quiet. - Steve Connell.

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ACT NOW: End Gender Violence! Carry Forward the Struggle for Women's Freedom and Equality!.

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The 23-year-old Delhi gang-rape victim finally succumbed to her injuries on 29 December morning after battling on bravely for.

13 days. The unknown young woman will go down in history as one of India's most memorable fighters for the cause of justice.

and freedom for India's women - freedom without the fear of violence and fetters of patriarchal domination..

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The courage of that brave fighter has unleashed spontaneous waves of movements on the streets. But now, the political class.

and the government, after the most callous apathy and repression, has begun to respond with a range of token gestures and.

palliatives. Can the scar inflicted by the brutal gang-rape be healed by such hollow gestures?.

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Is rape an alien cancer in mainstream society? Or in fact, is it the most violent and sordid expression of a deep-seated prejudice.

and structural discrimination against women that defines mainstream society and culture in India today? Even at this height of.

the ongoing country wide protest, that a range of political leaders of various ruling parties could make vicious sexist comments.

and then get away with token `apology' and the respective parties refusing to take any action against them, are a shocking.

pointer to the misogynist mindset of the ruling elite. Similarly, leaders of several parties have made comments blaming the.

rape victim herself..

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Further, casteist rape, communal rape, and custodial rape - all very often sponsored by and patronised by the State and.

dominant social groups, is shameful reminder that rape remains a favoured weapon by dominant sections or by the State on.

marginalised and oppressed people. The two previous landmarks of the women's movement against sexual violence in India.

have both been custodial rapes - the Mathura rape case in which policemen raped an adivasi teenager and then were acquitted.

by a court which held that Mathura had been `habituated to sex'; and the powerful movement spearheaded by Manipuri women.

in 2004 against the AFSPA following the rape and murder of Thangjam Manorama..

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The Government is attempting to address the ongoing agitation with some flashy and sensational `solutions,' divorced from.

the actual tough questions asked by the women's movement. It is important to foreground those tough questions and refuse.

to allow them to be deflected by a high-pitched debate on extraneous issues..

.

Changes in rape laws and other laws dealing with discrimination and violence against women, and more importantly with the.

mechanism of implementation and the justice delivery system, are of urgent importance and the government must be forced to.

adopt an inclusive and transparent democratic process in proper consultation with women's movement to bring about much-.

needed and much-awaited changes in this direction..

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But the impetus generated by the December upsurge in Delhi and across the country cannot and must not be allowed to be.

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lost in a battle exclusively concerned with legal provisions for justice to rape victims. Already we have seen the protests target.

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instances of victim-blaming and rape culture. In the latest instance, a successful campaign took place against the offensive.

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rape-celebrating lyrics of rapper Honey Singh. We need to face and question every aspect of patriarchal culture that fosters.

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rape and other forms of violence against women. The movement must remain alive, and become part of the daily life.

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breath of our society, doing daily battle with entrenched patriarchal common sense..

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Shweta Raj Student Representative to GSCASH Minakshi JNUSU Representative to.

..

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strong Jan Lokpal Bill to punish the corrupt caught the 2004 workers after their brutalisation by the Haryana.

imagination of the country, AISA's campaign asserted the 2004 Police..

crying need to link corruption with the issue of neo- 2005.

liberal economic policies of privatisation. Our slogan was 2005 When the women of Manipur shook the conscience.

"Liberalisation-Privatisation Breeds Corruption! Fight Privatisation! of the nation with their nude protest against the rape.

End Corruption!" 2006 and killing of Manorama Devi by Armed forces,.

2006 AISA mobilised the students of JNU in several.

AISA asserted that corruption today is not only a matter of protests and campaigns against AFSPA. The AISA.

morally corrupt individuals. Rather it has been institutionalised President and JNUSU President from AISA visited.

by the present phase of rampant privatization policies that have Manipur at the height of the movement..

opened the doors for corporate loot of extremely valuable.

resources like land, minerals, spectrum, etc in the country. The AISA-led JNUSU responded promptly to the.

These policies have resulted in an unprecedented increase in tsunami tragedy, organising massive collection.

the scale of corruption, leading to scams amounting to lakhs drives in which the entire JNU student community.

of crores in these sectors like minerals, natural resources and participated. AISA also sent a relief team to the.

spectrum..

affected areas of Nagapattinam..

And as thousands and thousands of people become aware.

of corruption and take to the streets, they are being faced To familiarise JNU with the struggles of tribals against.

with brutal crackdowns. Therefore, the movement against Mining MNCs, starvation and state repression in.

corruption today has inextricably got linked to the vital the Kashipur-Koraput-Kalahandi zone of Orissa,.

questions of civil rights, space of common people's AISA councillors from SSS organised an exposure.

voices and dissent in a living democracy. trip of students to the area in the summer vacation.

of June 2005..

A high point of AISA's anti-corruption campaign was the.

100-hour barricade against corruption and corporate When Manmohan Singh visited JNU campus on.

loot at Jantar Mantar from 9th-13th August 2011, where 14 November 2005, AISA gave a call for Black.

thousands of students from across the country participated. Flag protest against UPA's repressive role in North-.

This barricade was organised at a time when the beleaguered East and Kashmir through hated laws like AFSPA,.

UPA had banned protests and continuous gatherings at Jantar Manmohan Singh's Oxford speech hailing British.

Mantar in an attempt to quell the growing anti-corruption rule, his surrender before US imperialist diktats,.

movement. AISA activists faced arrests and detentions, India's vote against Iran at IAEA and his slew of.

and on the strength of the participants' militancy and neo-liberal assaults on life and livelihood of Indian.

determination, succeeded in reclaiming Jantar Mantar people. Black flag protestors were brutally beaten up.

as a space of protest. This was a significant blow to the by NSUI and ABVP goons at the venue. SFI, then.

attempts of the UPA to shrink the spaces of protest in the allied to UPA, opposed the black flag protest and.

national capital. AISA's campaign also robustly asserted sided with the right-wing elements. Subsequently,.

that the anti-corruption movement cannot be silent on SFI joined the NSUI and ABVP in a first ever move.

the burning issues of democracy and secularism that in JNU's history tried to censure and impeach the.

the country faces. then JNUSU President Mona Das in an UGBM on.

27 November for the `crime' of showing Black Flag.

Confronting the Burning Questions to the prime Minister. Progressive and democratic.

students of the campus rallied with AISA and.

of Our Times defeated shameful unity the right-wing forces and.

SFI and defeated the in the UGBM..

AISA has always believed that our involvement cannot remain.

confined to seminar rooms and classrooms; the students' When tribals protesting against TATA steel plant and.

movement must have an integral link with social movements. displacement were gunned down in Kalinganagar on.

This is a link that we have strengthened over several years. January 2, 2006, the AISA-led JNUSU took a team.

of students to visit the struggling tribals..

2004 AISA participated in the struggle of the Honda.

workers at Gurgaon, with the JNUSU President In April 2006, when the Narmada Bachao Andolan.

being among the first to express solidarity with the came to Delhi to protest against the UPA Govt.'s.

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Flood Relief Team at Supol, Bihar, 2008.

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Referendum Against VC, 2010.

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4.

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All India Students' Association (AISA) 12.08.04 .

Speak Out Against The Refusal To Scrap Armed Forces Special Powers Act I Say NO to POTA Through the Backdoor I .

~ Join J,UO'J'I~S'f )JJ\Jl(~ll .

... .

r. 9:30pm.

12.08.04(Tonight) .._..., -~.

from Ganga Dhaba As we approach Independence Day. the 3 montit-oldUPA Government tells us that it has ushered in a new da'~-off!_eedom, a "return to democracy" after the draconian mlc of the BJP-led NDA. But the new Govt.1s self-congrntulalions arc intem1pted.by the slogans of the pcopl~on the streets ofManipur, protesting the rape and murder ofManorarna Dcvi. The ~ople in Manipu_r rcmi_nd . .

us that in Independent India, the poor and marginahscd are not free. They demand democracy-they recetve m return da1ly P?hcc .

bullets. This crackdown on the voices ofdemocracy in the North East, and the Congress' outright refusal to scrap tl!e Armed . .,._. .

Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), which gives the army the legal righttotorture and kill people in custody on mere suspicion, · is an ugly stain on the rosy picture of'restored democracy' painted by the UPA. .

Goodbye 'Human Face', Welcome Back to Congress' Draconian Face I POTA Will Die, But Its Spirit Will Live On in the Unlawful Activities Act t haven't lasted long. Already, Pranab Mukheijee has said there is 'no question'.of.

The Congress claims of a 'human face' scrapping the AFSPA. and POTA may go. but its key provisions will stay. The UPA says 1t will scrap POTA or allow 1t to lapse. Docs this mean that you can no longer be called a 'terrorist' for your beliefs .

in certain ideas? That the definition of·terrorism' will no longer be vague enough to include members ofhuman rights groups who campaign against false encounters? Does it mean that popular protest movements will no longer be branded as 'terrorism'? Nothing ofthe kind! The Government is taking care to make sure that POTA lives on in disguise. POTA's definition of terrorism will be tncorporatcd in the c.xisting Unl;mrful Acli\itics Act Just as a rose by any other nnmc will smell as sweet. a bl&tek taw by another name will be as draconian as ever! TADA, POTA. AFSPA, Unlawful Activities Acl. .. the brand names change, but the ruling class keeps producing such laws which equate dissent and protest with crimeand terrorism. .

Further, all the organisations banned under POTA will continue to be banned, and those booked under POTA will continue to be tried under POTA. These cases will be reviewed by a panel constituted under POTA itself. Will such a panel really withdraw cases .

3ga1nst the innocent tribals and activists booked under POTA? We have seen how the Bihar Govt. is pursuing TADA etscs. long .

afterTADA1 s lapse, against innocent datil agrarian labourers, while withdrawing the case against the chiefofa landlords1 army. We .

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have also seen how the UP Government has withdrawn the POTA case against Raja Bhaiyya, notorious for his feudal crimes against .

dalitand backward poor. Recently, Kranti Kumar Singh, a former AISA activist ofLuclmow University who is nmv a CPI(ML) activist .

.

in Lakhimpur, UP, has been booked under the Gangster Act and thrown injail. For the system, Raja Bhaiyya is a hero and a Minister, .

while anyone who organises the struggles ofpoor and marginaliscd people is a ·gangster', a 'terrorist', a 'criminal' who indulges in .

'review' may set free VlPs like Vaiko, but U1e bulk ofpoor tribaJs and minorities, who are victims.

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'unlawful activities'. No doubt, the .

ofPOTA, will continue to suffer long after its lapse. .

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Mainstream Media in Defence of Draconian Laws .

The mainstream print and electronic media revealed its prejudices and biases, as "veil as its ignorance, on the issue ofblack laws. First, .

u blacked out the rape and killing ofManorama Dcvi~ only the brave and continued resistance oflheManipuri people, including tile nude .

.

protest women activists, could force the media to stop ignoring the issue. Further, a leading national daily, the TO!, even published a .

photograph of Vietnamese monks, claimingthat they were North East students! .

'act responsibly' on the AFSPA issue..

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The HTeditoriaJ of August 9, also revealed its biases by exhorting the Government to .

The cditoria1advises the Govt. not to scr:lp the AFSPA. but to set up a public griev:~nces p:mcl to "take up every alleged ·:11 rocity,., . .

It urges the Govt. to retain the AFSPA in order to g1vc the police and army "legal protection for domg thc1rjobs", but adds that they .

mustbe '-answerable for any illegal acts they may corrunit in the process". Clearly the editorial refuses to acknowledge the fact that .

acts like the custodial torture and killing ofManorama Devi are legal under the AFSPA! It is not the·misuse' ofAFSPA. but its use .

which is dracoruan. Such language by the media, accepts and excuses 'atrocities' and 'iiJegal acts' by the Armed Forces, as part of .

.

the 4proces..~' of the fi~ht n~ain~t terrorism. Once the lileople ~·Democracydt 1-8.Iugust). The CPI(M) staLCillCnL docs not CJil the AfSPA a draconi4U1lcgislatJml, nc1lh~r .

'ent to the e.xtentofsayingthat the "Actcould.

does it accuse AFSPA ofviolating human rights. In fact, its PB Member, Sitaram Yechury v..

not be repealed because itwould hamper the government's ability to declare area'i as 'disturbed'. Ifan areawas to be declared ali .

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disturbed, this act should be in place".(HT.com, Aug 10). watchdog 1 the CPl and CPI(M) have no intention ofgetting the AFSPA.

Clearly,_ both the ruling establishment UPA and its ' .

It ~s the common people who have sacrificed their blood, liberty and even life to keep aliYc the struggle against draconian.

scrap~. .

laws. It 1s this struggle which we must strengthen ifour democracy is to have any meaning. .

Sd./-Mona Das. President. AISA. JNU. Sd./-Satya Venkat Siddhardha Kr. D., Jt. Secy.. AIS~JNU. .

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-----~ .. -·.., ~· '-'i.:lW-I'UIJC:SD IGIDJKD, Jl. ;:,ecy.~ AL3""H; .lr«T. .

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Recall Savitribal Phule, who in late 19th century ~e-~On lnternat1onal Women's Day 2008 Maharashtra, defended couples who had married across .

... it is impossible to draw the masses into politics without also drawina in the women; for under capitalism, the female half of the human-race suffers under a double yoke. The working woman and oeasant woman are oppressed by capital; but in addition to that. dven in the most democratic ofbourgeots Republics, they are, firstly, m an mferior position because the law denies them equality with men, and secondly, and this is most important, they are "in domestic slavery, they are "domestic slaves , crushed by the most petty, most mental, most arduous. and most stultifying work ofthe kitchen, and by tsolatod domestic, family economy in general. -VI Lenin .

What does 'Women's Day' mean? .

The ads tell us it's a day when husbands are supposed to buy women washing machines and kitchen gadgets, when boyfriends are supposed to buy them flowers. Radio Mirchi, fof instanca, invited male listeners to send ITiessages to their girl friends and wives "to make tht:m feel special". Is Women's Day just another 'Day' demarcated by corporates, to con-sume more and more? Or is it a day to remember the dls-cnminations and violence that women face 365 days a year? A day to look back at women whose struggles are the basis .

of this celebration of women's rights? .

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"A pedestal is as much a prison" .

Patriarchal society is famous for its doublespeak. On the one hand, society will place women on a pedestal and claim to worship them. Our culture is fond of saying, "Janani Janmabhoomi Swargadapi Gariyasi"(Mother and Motherland are dearer than heaven), or "Yatra Narishcha pujyante, ramante tatra devta' (Where women are worshipped, gods reside there). But, as Gloria Steinem observed "A pedestal is as much a prison as any other small place." The revolu-tionary Hindi poet Gorakh Pandey, too, reminds us of the prison walls that our society builds, of the way in which women are burnt to death or forced to suicide In the very home in which she is worshipped as 'ghar kl lakshmi': .

There are walls in every house I Shut windows in every wall, I Banging against closed windows, her head/Bloody, she lies fallen./ In every home 'here are burning ghats,lln every home, there are gallows,lln every home there are walls/Banging against the walls she fa/ls,IHalfthe world falls,!A/I humanity falls ... .

The first blows to the walls of patriarchy .

Women's Day reminds us of the long struggle that women launched to break down the pnson walls of patriarchy. It re-minds us of the thousands of socialist and communist work-ing women, who knew that when women would be truly free only when they broke down all the prison walls; they knew that the liberation of women was linked to a struggle for the liberation of the whole of humanity. Masses of working women struck work In Chicago on 8 March in 1910, sparking off a huge movement for the right to vote, equal wages and an 8-hour working day. The German Socialist leader Clara Zetkln, at an International Con-ference of Socialist women, proposed that this day be observed as International Women's Day. .

For us, Women's Day must be an occasion to pay trib-ute to the personal and political struggles of our foremothers, who dealt the first blows to the prison walls of our society. .

Remember Rokeya Sakhawat Hussain and Rassundarl Debi in the 19th century, who taught themselves to read and write secretly, in dark kitchens after everyone in the house was asleep! .

Sucheta De, Gen.Secy., AISA, JNU caste. struggled for the right of widows to study and remarry, and started a school for girls. She was pelted with stones and cow-dung by angry people who accused her of corrupt-ing their daughters. .

Salute Rakhmabal, a 20-year-old woman 1n the 1880s, who sa1d she wouldn't live with the man to whom she had been married at the age of 11, because she wanted to be free to study medicine! The law said such women who re-fused to cohabit with their husbands must be Jailed, and the courts gave her a prison sentence. Great and powerful men like Bal Gangadhar Tilak wrote editorials attacking her for being 'singed with the flame of knowledge' -a thirst for edu-cation was 'unnatural' and 'unbecoming' for women. they said. But Rakhmabai. displaying incredible courage, wrote letters in newspapers, asserting, "Because you cannot enter our .

feelings do not think we are satisfied with the life CJf drudg-ery that we live, and that we have no taste for, and aspi-ration after, a higher life ... " She did eventually study medi-.

cine and become a doctor. .

The many reincarnations of patriarchy .

From the legacy of these struggles, Independent India has framed a history of contradictions. Today, women in our country appear more free to study and work, and yet deeply entrenched anti-women patriarchal values .

are continually reinvented and reincarnated in many different forms. When fees for education are hiked, wornen are the first casualties, since it is deemed more necessary that their brothers should study. Girls are not allowed to be born-not just in poor households, but more so in b . te homes even 1n the capital city where we live. Women are the worst hit by joblessness, since they continue to work often below minimum wages and their work is deemed 'unskilled'. Where there is violence ---whether the violence of the corporates, communal or casteist violence, and the violences of the state ---it is always women who are the first to be affected, the first to be made the targets of attack. The possession of women as commodities and the link that IS made between the body of the woman and the prestige of the community or nation reiterates itself in the public domain. Modes of patriar-chal violence in society are manifested 1n 1ts most brutal form in the political arena. We see this in AFSPA, a law which the Indian army has used to brutally rape women in the North-East, in the state-sponsored communal genocide in Gujarat, where saffron Hindutva bngade raped pregnant women and massacred those young and old or in Singur and Nandigram where sexual violence was used as a strategy by the CPI(M) cadres to quell the protests of people bemg dis-placed from their land. While cla1ms for women's empower-ment are reiterated by successive governments at the state and central level, these are but empty claims for these self-same governments not only engage in the forms of patriar-chal violence, and also turn a blind eye to the suffenng and struggles of women. The present UPA government has made tall claims of a gender-sensitive budget. But their policies make the prices soar and women go hungry; they relegate women to the most casual and contractualised jobs; and of course they, like the BJP-NDA before them, shy away from .

even tabling the Women's Reservation Bill! .

On March 8, It Is a time for the women's movement to renew Its resolve to take on the ruling classes, rip off the masks of 'women's empowerment' and declare, in the words of Helen Reddy's song, "/ am woman, hear me roar/In numbers too big to ignore... " .

Vismay Basu, Jt. Secy, AISA, JNU .

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strong Jan Lokpal Bill to punish the corrupt caught the 2004 being among the first to express solidarity with the decision to raise the height of the dam and drown o.

imagination of the country, AISA's campaign asserted the 2004 workers after their brutalisation by the Haryana livelihoods, the President of the AISA-le.

crying need to link corruption with the issue of neo- 2005 Police. and other AISA activists sat on a week-lo.

liberal economic policies of privatisation. Our slogan was 2005 strike in support of the NBA agitation..

"Liberalisation-Privatisation Breeds Corruption! Fight Privatisation! When the women of Manipur shook the conscience.

End Corruption!" of the nation with their nude protest against the rape 2006 In May 2006, AISA activists undertook an.

and killing of Manorama Devi by Armed forces, survey in Darbhanga in Bihar, pointin.

AISA asserted that corruption today is not only a matter of AISA mobilised the students of JNU in several corruption in the implementation of pu.

morally corrupt individuals. Rather it has been institutionalised protests and campaigns against AFSPA. The AISA under this scheme..

by the present phase of rampant privatization policies that have President and JNUSU President from AISA visited.

opened the doors for corporate loot of extremely valuable Manipur at the height of the movement. 2006 In December 2006, when farmers began th.

resources like land, minerals, spectrum, etc in the country. against displacement and the Tata factory.

These policies have resulted in an unprecedented increase in The AISA-led JNUSU responded promptly to the a team of students to Singur, also meet.

the scale of corruption, leading to scams amounting to lakhs tsunami tragedy, organising massive collection Malik's bereaved family..

of crores in these sectors like minerals, natural resources and drives in which the entire JNU student community.

spectrum. participated. AISA also sent a relief team to the 2008 In May 2008, the AISA-led JNUSU visited t.

stricken belt of Vidarbha to organize sup.

And as thousands and thousands of people become aware affected areas of Nagapattinam. debt-ridden farmers..

of corruption and take to the streets, they are being faced.

with brutal crackdowns. Therefore, the movement against To familiarise JNU with the struggles of tribals against 2008 When the students of Kashmir Unive.

corruption today has inextricably got linked to the vital Mining MNCs, starvation and state repression in forcibly removed from their hostels and.

questions of civil rights, space of common people's the Kashipur-Koraput-Kalahandi zone of Orissa, army excesses on campus before the v.

voices and dissent in a living democracy. AISA councillors from SSS organised an exposure Indian President, AISA joined the struggl.

trip of students to the area in the summer vacation JNUSU president visiting KU to particip.

A high point of AISA's anti-corruption campaign was the of June 2005. express solidarity with the struggle..

100-hour barricade against corruption and corporate.

loot at Jantar Mantar from 9th-13th August 2011, where When Manmohan Singh visited JNU campus on 2008 When massive floods took place in Bihar.

thousands of students from across the country participated. 14 November 2005, AISA gave a call for Black JNUSU organized two relief teams of.

This barricade was organised at a time when the beleaguered Flag protest against UPA's repressive role in North- who visited the flood-affected villages in.

UPA had banned protests and continuous gatherings at Jantar East and Kashmir through hated laws like AFSPA, and December to distribute relief..

Mantar in an attempt to quell the growing anti-corruption Manmohan Singh's Oxford speech hailing British.

movement. AISA activists faced arrests and detentions, rule, his surrender before US imperialist diktats, 2008 After the bomb blasts in Delhi and the Ba.

and on the strength of the participants' militancy and India's vote against Iran at IAEA and his slew of encounter in September 2008, AISA im.

determination, succeeded in reclaiming Jantar Mantar neo-liberal assaults on life and livelihood of Indian joined the citizen's fact finding team, also.

as a space of protest. This was a significant blow to the people. Black flag protestors were brutally beaten up massive Public meetings with lawyers,.

attempts of the UPA to shrink the spaces of protest in the by NSUI and ABVP goons at the venue. SFI, then and human rights activists against terror.

national capital. AISA's campaign also robustly asserted allied to UPA, opposed the black flag protest and hunting of minorities..

that the anti-corruption movement cannot be silent on sided with the right-wing elements. Subsequently,.

the burning issues of democracy and secularism that SFI joined the NSUI and ABVP in a first ever move 2009 When the farcical Right to Education Bill.

the country faces. in JNU's history tried to censure and impeach the in Parliament in July 2009, AISA along w.

then JNUSU President Mona Das in an UGBM on India Forum for the Right to Education.

Confronting the Burning Questions 27 November for the `crime' of showing Black Flag a Public Hearing on Right to Ed.

to the prime Minister. Progressive and democratic against Kapil Sibal's 100-day Agenda.

of Our Times students of the campus rallied with AISA and commercialisation of education and dema.

defeated shameful unity the right-wing forces and the government uphold its responsibilities.

AISA has always believed that our involvement cannot remain SFI and defeated the in the UGBM. a genuine, democratic right to education f.

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2011 When HRD minister Kapil Sibal went on.

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Seema Mustafa wrote in the Statesman: "The strongest youth unit after the sine die in 1983 -was started in 1994. but the AJSA-Ied senior facutty members of JNU like Profs. CP Chandrashekhar, JNUSU compromised with the JNU administration and finally.

of the party protested and demanded a level of decision-makingin the Issues that AISA raises; they are simply meant for Jayati Ghosh, Mohan Rao, Ritoo Jerath and Vivek Ku~ar and autonomy and instead of accepting the well-reasoned arguments agreed on a maximum of 10 deprivation po1nts. whiCh was a.

scoring brownie points vis-a-vis others. For instance. when RMP .

fo0l1er JNUSU Presidents like Albeena ~hakil, Ro.hlt an~ they were thrown out and the entire unit ln Jawaharlal Nehru betrayal of the aspirations of the students from the socially.

leader TP Chandrashekharan was killed in Kerala 10 May 2012, Dhananjay wrote to the SFI national_ leadership to recon~1d~r their deprived sections. The AI SA-led JNUSU led a successful agitation.

Unlversijy dissolved...The young people who tried for a change from.

AISA launched a full scale attack against the SFI in JNU for decision to dissolve the SFI.JNU umi and reverse the diSCiplinary within found themselves unable to cut through the impenetrable against efforts to introduce privatisalion in JNU in 1995..

defending the murderers, desptte the SFI-JNU unrt categorically .

action. A former JNUSU President, Comrade Albeena Shakil has walls that the party has built around itse~. where the benefits and : AI SA conceded space to the communal forces m JNU and.

condemning the gruesome murder and demand1ng punishme~t of .

recently been expelled from the Delhi State Committee of the CPI in 1996 JNUSU elections AI SA came 3"" on all central panel posts..

the guilty "irrespective of pol~lcal affiliations". The JNUSU PreSident (M) for advocating a conciliatory approach towards the SFI-JNU and advantages of discipline and consensus are be1ng fast turned into a ABVP won 3 posts in the central panel and a majority in the.

from the A/SA also visited TP disadvantage by those who have decided they will not listen: .

and another CouncJior attending the JNUSU Convention on campus democracy. Another Council but the SFI won the President's post by a slender marginChandrashek.haran s home in Onch1yam. However. ever since the Delhi State Commijtee member of the CPI (M) (who was a former AI SA in its pamphlet dated 27.08.20'12 has raised questions vis-a-of 4 votes."dissolution" and the coming into being of SFI.JNU, AISA and secretary o( SFI JNUuntt) has resigned in protest. vis SFI-JNU's relationship wtth the CPI (M). SFI-JNU retterates what : SF! held the President's post and led the JNUSUthe JNUSU office-bearers have conveniently dropped the TP it had stated in its pamphlet dated 9.07.2012: "SFI-JNU believes that.

SFI.JNU has stated that It will ''attempt to inUiate political continuously from 1996 to 1999. AISA did not have any JNUSU.

Chandrashekharan murder issue from their agenda: f also does CPI (M)'s positions on the events surrounding Singur-Nandigram, .

offtee-bearer during this period. The JNU entrance coachingnot flfld any mention lfl the SIS or SSS Convenor's reports! Is th1s dialogue with all CEC members, State Committees and primary the murder of RMP leader TP Chandrashekharan or the recent classes for the students from the deprived section were startedbecause the AISA feels it is no longer go1ng to yield electoral units of the SFI...Feedback received from SFI units across the support extended to Pranab Mukherjee in the presidential elections during this phase. Massive student ag~ations were launched on.

dividends in JNU? Isn't it opportunistic to play cheap politics on the country will be collated and presented before the Conference of have neither been correct nor have they helped in streng1hening the the issues of new hostels, against sexual harassment and.

murder of a committed Left leader, who was also an ally of the CPI-the SFI.JNU Unit, which will be held before the end of the Left and democratic movement. While criticising these positions, discrimination against students from socially deprived sections. In.

ML Llberat«:>n? monsoon semester, i.e. by November 2012...After due however, SFI-JNU duly acknowledges the track record of the CPI .

October 1999, 63 students were arrested and 14 student leaders.

deliberations, the Conference of the SFI.JNU Unit will take a (M) in playing a leading role in the fight in defence of India's.

Immediately after the last JNUSU elections. the newly elected including JNUSU office-bearers were sent to jail. The major.

on the question of larger organizationalJNUSU President from the AJSA had remarked that the mandate "is final decision democracy, secularism, social justice and economic seff-reliance achievements of the student movement of this period were the.

affillation."SFI-JNU has already received solidarijy from SFI units .

in favour of people's movements struggling aga1nsl SEZs, AFSPA and the radical initiatives of the Left Front governments in West construction of 8 new hostels (from Tapti onwards). the formation and Operabon Green Hunt". Has the JNUSU President or across the country, who are opposing the dissolution of the JNU unit Bengal, Kerala and Tripura in the field of land reforms, panchayati of the GSCASH (whic-h was the first such instiMion in any Asianwithm the SFI organisation and trying to reverse the decision..

anybody else from the AJSA taken a single initiative over the raj, mass education etc. SFI-JNU will also not hesttate to express university at that time) and the institution of the Equal Opportunity .

past six months to raise the issues of repeal of the AFSPA, or SFI.JNU has received a valuable solidarity message from solidarity with all the present day pro-people initiatives of the CPI Office to prevent caste-based discrimination An in~iative to .

scrcpping the SEZ Act or stopping "Operation Green Hunt"? eminent Left intellectual Dr. Ashok Mttra saying: ff you have (M), like the peasant slruggles of Rajasthan, the untouchability-introduce 27% reservation for the OBC students in JNU .

The only SEZ AISA was interested 11"1 opposing was the one in searched your conscience and it has endorsed your judgement that eradication movement in Tamil Nadu and Andhr a Pradesh, against admissions was undertaken during this period through the .

Nandigram as tf no more SEZs are being built or opposed in other what you are embarking upon is in defence of your cherished Khap Panchayat in Haryana or the national movement for food Progressive Admission Policy but could not succeed due to .

states today. Opposrng Greenhunt has become unnecessary for the ideology and you are prepared to go all the way to face the security etc. SFI-JNU will also stand in solidarity with all other resistance from casteist forces, who resorted to violence..

AISA today, because the Left Front government in West Bengal no consequences of your decision, please do go ahead. It has genuine peoples' movements, from the anti-POSCO movement led ! N3VP won the JNUSU President's post defeating the SFI .

longer exists. Like Mamata Banerjee, who once opposed the killing happened so often in history that elders leading a movement have by the CPI; to the struggles of tribal organisations a~~st forcibl~ candidate by one vote in 1999. SF! led the secular resistance .

of Maoist leader Azad and later once in power ordered the killing of made mistakes wh1ch the juniors through their initiative have got displacement and corporate takeover of forests for mmmg: the anti-against the communal and reactionary politics of the RSS-ABVP m.

another Maoist leader Kishenji herself, AISA's posturing on reversed. Bu1 they had to go through intense sufferings.. .By all AFSPA movements in Manipur and Kashmir; and also the struggles JNU. Not only did the AJSA have no role to play in the struggle.

Greenhunt" too is highly opportumstic. Similarly, AFSPA was an means argue fiercely with those who were till yesterday your closest waged by the CPI (ML) Liberation against the landlord armies liKe against the communal forces, it came up wnh a grotesque _theo~issue for the AJSA till the March 2'012 JNUSU elections jost because comrades, but please take care to avoid rancour in the exchanges Ranvir Sena in Bihar. In sum. SF/.JNU will on the one hand of "fascism out of power is more dangerous than fasctsm m it wanted to attack "CPI (M)'s double-speak" on AFSPA and not you gel involved in and. let the initiative ofa formal breach come -if resolutely avoid the trap of sectarianism and embrace all that is power", which was rejected by the JNU students. . .because rt is serious about the state repression unleashed under the tt has to come -not from your d1rection. None should be allowed the progressive and pro-people within the Indian Left. ~n the ot~r : SFI won back the President's post in 2001 and held It t1llAFSPA regliTle etJler in Kashmir or the North-Easl In contrast, chance of claiming that they did not sever the fraternal/inks but you hand, SFI-JNU will not flinch from adopting frrm posmons aga1nsl 2003. During this period a major struggle was won by the JNUSUover 25 members of the SFI-JNU unit along with the AISF opted out of your-o"r'ln ...The battle to protect the purity of the opportunistic and anti-people trends within any section of the L~ft. against the JNU administrallon forcing it to abandon the infamous.

travelled to Srinagar by road in May 2012 to participate in a .

ideology can never be a lost cause; the final victory is bound to be SFI-JNU believes that the way ahead lies in such a non-sectanan X" Plan. which was pushed by the BJP led government to.

Convention on the Democratic Rights of Kashmiri Youth and ours: and open-minded praxis." saffronise the curriculum in JNU. Ma1or ach~evements of thejoined in adopting a resolution demanding Withdrawal of .

student movement were modernisation of library facilities, massi-1e.

AF.:SPA and other democratic rights of the Kasmlrl people. It is this advice from an eminent intellectual, whom even the In keeping with this approach of non-sectarian praxis purchase of new books, and providing computer and internetAISA hails as an authentic voice of dissent within the Left that representatives from SFI-JNU participated in the programme.

When such electoralism has been the halmark of AJSA's politics, facilities for students across schools. Massive mobilisations.

currently guides the SFI-JNU. If the AISA considers all this as organised to demand "Justice for Bathani Tola" in July 2012 at thedoes it befrt the AI SA to indulge in name-caning? "shadow boxing", it only exposes its political bankruptcy and against communalism and imperialist wars were undertaken by t~e.

invitation of the AJSA and the SFI.JNU also condemned the police SFI-Ied JNUSU during this period, against the antt-MushmSFI·JNU: PRINCIPLED POSfTIONS, TRANSPARENT AGENDA narrow-minded sectarianism. lathicharge against the AJSA activists during ~~~r recent .

pogroms in Gujarat in 2002 and the wars against Iraq and The AtSA is vainly trying to create confusion over the pomical TOWARDS A NON -SECTARIAN, PROGRESSIVE AND parliament march. However. when the SFI-JNU mob1hs~d JNU .

dharna for food secunty and Afghanistan..

DEMOCRATIC STUDENT MOVEMENT: In order to understand the students for the Left Parties'.

positions adopted by the SFI-JNU and rts future agenda, which have Once the ABVP was completely routed in JNU by the SFI. been transparently communicated to the student community. A issues in the debate surroundmg the SFI-JNU, AJSA needs to look universal PDS in August 2012. AISA maintal1ed its sectanan AiSA made a comeback and won the JNUSU President's post in General Body Meeting of the SFI-JNU Unit held on 13" July 2012 beyond the trivia and focus on the more serious and substantive distance. 2004 elections. where all other central panel posts and majority In had resolved that it would conttnue to abide by the SFI Programme views from the Left, which are also available in the cyberspace. JNU STUDENT MOVEMENT: SffifNG THE RECORD STRAIGHT the council were won by the SFI-AISF alliance. In January 2005 a and Constitution and express unstinted solidarity with all pro-people Aditya Nigam wrote the following in the kaftla.org: "The leadership The JNU student movement has a glorious legacy of four decades, UGBM was held on the issue of a Nestle outlet which was opened mitiatives. struggles and movements launched by the left and or SFI-JNU deserves to be congratulated for the forthnght manner 1n which the SFI-JNU inherits. Numerous struggles have been waged during the earlier SFI-Ied union's tenure AISA's position of closingdemoClatic forces aga1nst the anti-people neohberal regime. The which tt has taken a position on some of the most critical issues that .

under SFI led JNUSUs: from the struggle against the draconian down the Nestle outlet was upheld in the UGBM. whne SFI's .

SFI-JNU resolved to fight against ultra-left sectarianism of the AJSA~ concern the future of the Left tn India. It is futile at this juncture to position of retaining the outlet with certain conditions wasfirmty oppose the DSU which espouses Maoist violence and also ask lhe kind of questions that are usually asked of people who Emergency imposed by the Indira Gamlhi regime ~ th~ 1970~ to .

challenging the reactionary anti-Mandai wave and frghhng agamst defeated. The SFI accepted the UGBM mandate and later self·.

criticize and counter the nght-<Jpportunist and anti-people trends decide at some point to speak up: why did you not speak up earlier? critically noted 1n its February 2005 Delhi State Conference.

the communal offensive of the RSS-BJP in the 1990s. AJSA has.

withm any section of the lndJan left and their mamfestations in JNU. Why did you support the decision to do X? Why did you not quit Report: ~ecould not gauge the mood of the student com~nity.

always hesitated to acknowledge this legacy of the SF! in JNU and.

Sff.JNU also resolved to adopt a non-sectarian approach towards when Nandigram actually took place? There is no correct and proper of late has started distorting the history of the JNU student on this issue and ignored dissent withtn our own ranks, leadmg to .

sb.Jdent struggles relentlessly frghl for issues concerning JNU time to speak up. To speak up publicly. that is. There Is always a movement since the 1990s for narrow sectarian purposes. In order misplaced political positions which caught us wrong footed on U1e sb.Jdents, work for broad based unity among progressive and time-lag between this public expression of dissent and tts initial .

to set the record straight SFI-JNU wants to clarify the following facts: issue.".

democrallc student organizations and m~iate meanmgfuJ debates on articulations in the 'proper party forums· It always takes a long, long ! AJSA won the JNUSU President's post again 1n Octo~.rtime before people actually decide to set aside considerations of AISA won the post of the JNUSU President for the first.

socialism in the 21't century. ! 2005. The JNUSU President from the AISA first agreed to a VISit.

'discipline' -and that is a moment of reckoning for people who are time In 1993 and held it till '1995. M agitation to restore the 20.

It was on the basis of this agenda that 96 comrades who were by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to JNU in November 2005 and.

serious about their poliUcs: deprivation points system in admissions -which was scrapped.

former members and sympathisers of the SFI in JNU, including .

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STUDENTS' FEDERATION OF INDIA .

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Manifesto for JNUSU Elections 2012 .

Friends, .

The forthcoming JNUSU elections are being held in the context of far-reaching political developments the world over as well as in India. The informed choice of the student community will play a significant role in ensuring that the JNU Students' Union remains a progressive instrument of struggle that will fight for the rights of the students and various oppressed sections in campus while linking itself up with the broader struggles outside. .

-Capitalism in Crisis .

Today capitalism is in the throes of the biggest economic crisis .

since the Great Depression. Being a direct outcome of the neoliberal capitalist trajectory driven by international finance capital, the crisis only points to the unsustainability of finance capital-driven globalisation. The global crisis of capitalism has inflicted untold misery on the poor and the toiling masses in different parts of the world. Contradictions have intensified in the advanced capitalist economies, the recent manifestations of which include forcibly imposed austerity measures, large public bailouts for banks and finance corporations which played a big .

role in triggering the global crisis, massive lay-offs, rampant unemployment and widening of the gap between the rich and the poor. The social and economic distress in the developing world also demonstrates the tendency of imperialism to shift the burden of adjustment that accompanies the global economic crisis on to the poor and working masses of the Third World. High food prices leading to a renewed global food crisis and intensifying hunger in Asia and Africa, huge tracts of agricultural land being grabbed by global MNCs. agrarian distress and internal displacement of the · .

peasantry and other petty producers through such land .grabs. and the continuous pressure to do away with national regulations on trade and financial movements and to reduce public welfare expenditure are some examples of economic processes and policies that continually reinforce imperialist hegemony. Imperialism, led by US imperialism, while trying to shift the burden of the crisis on to the developing countries, has been intensifying military interventions through the NATO in West Asia, North Africa and other regions including in · neighbouring .

Afghanistan and Pakistan. . .

However, the assault by the ruling classes on the lives and livelihoods of the people has not gone unchallenged. Resistance movements challenging the hegemony of finance capital like the Occupy Wall Street movement and anti~austerity movements in several European countries have gathered strength. Greece which has been the epicenter of the eurozone crisis, has seen continuous protests and general strikes in the last two years. There have been mass protests, mostly by the youth in Spain, and general stn"kes by workers in Portugal, Italy. France, Britain and other countries. Students and youth are in the forefront of protests against public spending cuts in education and hikes in tuition fees. SeveralLatin American countries like Venezuela, Ecuador, and BorJVia along with socialist Cuba have been putting up stiff resistance to US imperialism. The people of Palestine .

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... have been bravely resisting the machinations of the Zionist Israel as well as the imperialist forces. Movements for democracy like the Arab Spring also reflect the intensifying anger among the .

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\ people in various countries against the curbing of political and .

' economic rights . .

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Resisting imperialist hegemony and building progressive alternatives to the neoliberal order constitute a historic challenge.

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.,. and responsibility for the Left and progressive forces worldwide . ' .

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Assaults by the Ruling C'lasses on the People of India .

In our own country. the neoliberal policy regime in place .for more than two decades has resulted in intensified exploitation for the working class, the peasantry, the poor and all sections of toiling masses. More than a quarter million peasants have committed suiCide in the last decade and a half. In other words, it means one suicide every half an hour. The sheer scale and nature of this human tragedy is unprecedented and unheard of in history. While the forcible suppression of workers' rights (examples abound .

from Honda to Maruti) has become commonplace in urban India, .

the last two decades have also witnessed increasing .

displacement of peasants and agricultural workers through .

indiscriminate land acquisitions for corporate-led industnalization. .

A large majority in the country has been facing under-nutrition. .

extreme poverty and livelihood crises Such processes have .

vigorously reinforced the class-cas~ inequalities that already .

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exist in the society. .

On the one hand, the ruling classes, mainly represented by the .

two large bourgeois parties, the Congress and the BJP, have .

increasingly gravitated towards glObal elite interests. The lndo~US .

Nuclear Deal, defense cooperation with the US, and repeated .

attempts to allow FDI in retail and to facilftate corporate entry in .

Indian agriculture bear testimony to the growing anti-people .

posturing of the ruling classes. On the other hand, movements .

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against anti-people policies and destruction of livelihoods are continuously building up amongst workers, peasants and various other sections of oppressed masses. From the struggle against Reliance's Maha Mumbai SEZ and the struggle by the Maruti workers in Manesar to nurses' struggles, unprecedented united actions by trade unions and agitations by students in various parts of the country against naked profiteering in the education -.

sector, tidal wave.s of popular struggles have begun to rise up to defend people's rights and livelihoods. Movements led by the organised Left for ensuring food security in the country, iarmers' movements in Rajasthan for rights to. water a·nd the struggle for house-sites for the displaced and homeless people in Andhra Pradesh have been some of the significant struggles that challenged the neoliberal assault on the ·working people. The historic judgement, wherein 215 government officials were .

convicted for brutalising Adivasis (17 of the officials held for rape) in Vachathi, Tamil Nadu. was the triumph of .a prolonged an.d courageous fight by the people, led by the CP.I(M} and mass organisations like Tamil Nadu Tribal Association and AIDWA The organised Left is in the forefront of movements against khap panchayats in Haryana, the two-t_umbler system in Andhra Pradesh and wapartheid walls" in Tamil Nadu. SFI has been a part of all these stru.ggles. both in solidarity and in terms of .

participation. .

The brazen. naked manner in whioh the UPA-11 government has reduced the Indian State to nothing more than an instrument of primitive accumulation for the ruling ~lasses is unprecedented in the history of andependent fndia From the 2G Scam. S-Band/Oevas-Antrix scam. CWG Scam and the KG basin scam to the latest ·coal-gaten scam. the sheer number of corruption scandals that have hit the Indian firmament during this period is mind-boggling. Enormous financial concessions to the corporate sector are the order of the day. even as public expenditure on ·rood distribution, education and health are being squeezed to periefit big private players. Human rights violations and atrocities contiAue to be perpetuated on the people in Kas~mif and in the North-East by the Indian State, in the name of "national security" .

and backed by draconian laws like AFSPA. .

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All India Students' Association{AISA) 30 9.~ .

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The SSS GBM Must Voice .

The Democratic Concerns of the People Resisting Black Laws I .

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'An Uncompromising Opposition to the killer economic policies of globalization I .

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Protest against the Cultural policing of RSS and its Communal hate campaign f .

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Tomorrow, the students of Manipur are launching a 15-day hunger strike at Parliament Street to protest against the repression in Manipur, and to demand scrapping ofthe Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act The Congress-led UPA Government has accused the thousands ofpeople conducting civil disobedience in Manipur, of being 'terrorists'. The Army Chief ofStaff has defended the custodial rape and killing of Manorama Devi by the Army, saying that she was a 'terrorist'. And the 'Meira Paibi' women activists who .

protested in the nude against Manorama's killing are in jail, booked under the 'National Security Act'! The Congress has point blank refused to discuss any repeal of the AFSPA, while even the CPI(M) leaders like Sitaram Yechury have said that AFSPA should not be scrapped, since the 'Govt.'s right to declare an area disturbed' needs to be preserved, even at the cost of human rights! Meanwhile, POTA is being scrapped, only to be recycled in the form of .

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another name-the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. If the UPA's promises of a 'human face' have proved to be hollow on the issue of black laws, the 'human' mask has totally disintegrated on the question of economic policies.The PM ofthe nation has shamelessly declared that he is out to 'sell India abroad', and is therefore pledging his undying loyalty to the killer economic policies prescribed by the World Bank.As a result, the rural poor who starved and the farmers who committed suicide In the BJP's regime, continue to do so unabated even now. Even on the minimum question offighting communalism, t he UPA Government has strengthened the hand ofthe BJP with its lack of will. By withdrawing the case against Uma Bharti of rioting in Hubli, and by backtracking on the Savarkar issue, Congress has once again shown its soft-saffron colours which provide fodder for the BJP. In campus, we have seen how the ABVP remained totally silent on all students Issues, while attacking the screening of .

films and holding of seminars. The students of JNU gave them a sound rebuff by turning. up in huge numbers in all the films it .

\ tried to disrupt, and nearly a thousand students turned up to defend Professor Geelani, falsely accused under POTA. ABVP Unit .

Presidentgave Press Statements, threatening to disruptthe 'Films for Freedom' festival ifitwas held in JNU. But AJSA, in solidarity .

with 300 filmmakers, held the festival in JNU, and thousands ofstudents defied this cultural policing by supporting the screenings. .

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The NSUI, which is a representative of Congress, of course has no option but to echo its parent party's anti-people .

economic agenda and soft-saffron politics. On campus, mess and library facilities are deteriorating as a result of the UGC's freeze on employmentofnon-teaching staff; the abysmally low expenditure on higher education is affecting the quality ofeducation in our University. We face the consequences ofthese anti-student policies daily. But the NSUI is silent on these issues, and during .

the JNUSU's agitation, did their best to confuse and derail the central thrust ofthe protest Unfortunately, the SFI-AISF too have display ed double standards on the crucial issues of black laws and economic policies. The SFI first claimed that itsupported scrapping of AFSPA; but once CPI(M)'s position defending AFSPA became public, ithas maintained deafening silence on this issue. Coming to the question of economic policies, its pretensions of opposing UPA Budget or economic policies stand totally exposed by its shameless defence ofthe West Bengal government's welcome to FDI, as well as to imperialistfunding agencies like DFID,ADS and World Bank, and imperialist'consultative' agencies like McKinsey and Price Waterhouse. Their parent party CPI(M) has pledged to play the role of a loyal watchdog to the Congress-led UPA. In such a situation, SFl-AISF is underdesperatepressure to demarcate itselffrom NSUI. So, itengages in periodic shadow-boxing with NSUI ·student community..

on economic issues. But this is nothing but a ploy to play a trick on the intelligence ofth-eSFI's double standards are clearty exposed in the concrete situation of our campus too. The previous SFI-Ied JNUSU of 2002-03, gave a green signal to the Administration's contract with the MNC Nestle-a concrete instance of leasing out JNU land to MNCs and corporate houses. Despite AJSA's consistent demand, the SFI-AISF members ofJNUSU have refused to take up the demand for scrapping ofthe contractwith Nestle. Now, the Administration is avoiding making the terms and conditions ofthe contract public. The struggle to scrap the contract with Nestle must be intensified. Also recall that in Mahi-Mandavi, when students protested against the privatized mess in 2003, the SFI-Ied JNUSU sided with the Administration, forcing the students to pay fines and sign apology letters! Even today, the mess workers in the hostel are all .

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employed on a daily wage basis by a private contractor, who takes money from the University, butpays the workers far less than the .

amount specified in the agreement. .

This year, the JNUSU movement, managed to enhance the library facilities, open up 6 new admission centres in backward areas, and .

forcethe Administration to agree in principle to restoring students' elected representation the Academic Council and Board of Studies. .

In the times to come, these gains must be defended and pursued In the face ofthe Administration's attemptto backtrack on them. .

The School ofSocial Sciences has made its mark as a centre of socially sensitlve research, and voicing of dis~ent AISA calls upon .

the students ofSSS to participate actively in the final School GBM, to evaluate the role ofthe JNU student movementin the past year, .

make the elected student leadership accountble, and also to voice the democratic concerns against black laws, anti-people .

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economic policies and their concrete manifestation In the campus. .

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Join the H unger Stri k e Called by the .

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Manipuri Students' Association, Delhi (MSAD) 11 am to 4 pm, Jantar Mantar2 from 1-15 October! .

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Participate in the SSS G B M in large numbers tomorrow (1 October)! .

Sd!-Dhiraj Kr. Nite, V. P., AISA, JNU Sci/-Awad.hesb, Gen. Secy., AISA, JNU .

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What Was She Wearing.

Im sick of the question How was she dressed?.

Show me the man slumped over the counter with a bullet in his headjoin .

Dressed like someone who deserves to be dead. .

Tell me the 6 year old girl assaulted in church was asking for it..

Or the girl raped in gym class looked like a slut in those sweat pants..

What clothes pulled from what rack.

Will prevent an attack?Patriarchy, State,.

Tell me the store and Ill go back.

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Gender Violence : .

And buy the right clothes this minute The outfit that prevents rape if youre in it. Tasks Ahead See I didnt understand I didnt understand that I could buy a shirt that says I deserve to be hurt speakers I had no clue I could put on a shoeThat says do whatever you want to do to meNivedita Menon JNU See, your needs come first.

Suddhabrata Sengupta .

After all I am wearing a tight skirtInstead of the assault-proof dressSarai, CSDS And I notice that you have the fault-proof vestSo its my fault I guessKavita Krishnan Apparently I didnt say No as loud as my clothes could say Yes national secy AIPWA, See I didnt know that my No wasnt enough formerJNUSU Jt Secy I didnt understand that my body became less precious Cause certain dresses made me look hot And I guess if Im wearing the wrong top2 Jan TodayThen my yes is the same as my Stop Shipra MessAnd you shouldnt have to, just because I begged you to .

3.00pm .

Im begging you, tell me the magic outfit and Ill buy it Apparently my No wasnt heard even when I screamed So I need my clothes to be quiet. -Steve Connell .

ACT NOW: End Gender Violence! Carry Forward the Struggle for Womens Freedom and Equality! .

The 23-year-old Delhi gang-rape victim finally succumbed to her injuries on 29 December morning after battling on bravely for 13 days. The unknown young woman will go down in history as one of Indias most memorable fighters for the cause of justice and freedom for Indias women freedom without the fear of violence and fetters of patriarchal domination. .

The courage of that brave fighter has unleashed spontaneous waves of movements on the streets. But now, the political class and the government, after the most callous apathy and repression, has begun to respond with a range of token gestures and palliatives. Can the scar inflicted by the brutal gang-rape be healed by such hollow gestures? .

Is rape an alien cancer in mainstream society? Or in fact, is it the most violent and sordid expression of a deep-seated prejudice and structural discrimination against women that defines mainstream society and culture in India today? Even at this height of the ongoing country wide protest, that a range of political leaders of various ruling parties could make vicious sexist comments and then get away with token apology and the respective parties refusing to take any action against them, are a shocking pointer to the misogynist mindset of the ruling elite. Similarly, leaders of several parties have made comments blaming the rape victim herself. .

Further, casteist rape, communal rape, and custodial rape all very often sponsored by and patronised by the State and dominant social groups, is shameful reminder that rape remains a favoured weapon by dominant sections or by the State on marginalised and oppressed people. The two previous landmarks of the womens movement against sexual violence in India have both been custodial rapes the Mathura rape case in which policemen raped an adivasi teenager and then were acquitted by a court which held that Mathura had been habituated to sex; and the powerful movement spearheaded by Manipuri women in 2004 against the AFSPA following the rape and murder of Thangjam Manorama. .

The Government is attempting to address the ongoing agitation with some flashy and sensational solutions, divorced from the actual tough questions asked by the womens movement. It is important to foreground those tough questions and refuse to allow them to be deflected by a high-pitched debate on extraneous issues. .

Changes in rape laws and other laws dealing with discrimination and violence against women, and more importantly with the mechanism of implementation and the justice delivery system, are of urgent importance and the government must be forced to adopt an inclusive and transparent democratic process in proper consultation with womens movement to bring about much-needed and much-awaited changes in this direction. .

But the impetus generated by the December upsurge in Delhi and across the country cannot and must not be allowed to be lost in a battle exclusively concerned with legal provisions for justice to rape victims. Already we have seen the protests target instances of victim-blaming and rape culture. In the latest instance, a successful campaign took place against the offensive rape-celebrating lyrics of rapper Honey Singh. We need to face and question every aspect of patriarchal culture that fosters rape and other forms of violence against women. The movement must remain alive, and become part of the daily life breath of our society, doing daily battle with entrenched patriarchal common sense. .

Shweta Raj Student Representative to GSCASH Minakshi JNUSU Representative to GSCASH .

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