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ON THE JNU STUDENT MOVEMENT AND THE ROLE OF THE ABVP! Friends, _ The ABVP in its pamphlet yesterday, has once again taken the intelligence of the student community for granted. For days now, the ABVP has been engaged in a hate campaign of lies and half-truths. Yesterday's pamphlet carries on in the same vein. This campus is witness to a long history of struggles, under the banner of the SF I-AISF led JNUSU. In a period marked by the withdrawal of the state tom education, which is part of the neoliberal dogma that both the BJP and the Congress celebrates as its economic philosophy, universities aaoss the country are faced with severe fund crunch. The UGC has been abdicating its responsibility of developing the academic intastructure of the universities, be it in terms of construction of new hostels or providing adequate funds for the university libraries. It was in this backdrop that the SFI-AISF raised the slogan of "More Hostels, More Books" and SFI-AISF led JNUSUs since 1997 to 2003 (with the sole exception of 2000 when ABVP had won the Presidenfs post by one vote) have waged relentless struggles and succeeded in forcing the JNU Administration and the Central government to allot more funds to address the problems faced by JNU students. Can the ABVP deny the fact that six new hostels have been constructed in JNU and existing hostels also expanded, during the period 1997 to 2004, when the SFI-AISF has led the students' union except for the year 2000-01? It is the result of this achievement that with the allotment of Lohit-Chanctabhaga~ no outstation student of the University would be without hostel accomodation from this year. Of this struggle for more hostels or this achievement ABVP can claim no part. In fact in 1999, when students were sitting on an indeffnite hungerstrike demanding hostels, ABVP was took out a protest march and burnt the effigy ofthe JNUSU! When the JNU Administration cracked down upon the agftation and 63 students were arrested, 14 of them sent to jail, ABVP sided with the Administration, supported the sine die closure of the university and provided 5sts of Left activists to the Ponce. It was the massive soidarity expressed by the entire university community that ensured that the sine die was withdrawn, the arrested students released and the ploy of the ABVP and the BJP-Ied government to destroy the democratic student movement ofJNU was foiled. Can the ABVP answer .

why out of the 63 students who were an-ested during the decisive agitation on hostels in 1999 (even the Delhi High Court had upheld the demand ofthe agitation and asked the JNU Administration to construct more hostels) none were from the ABVP? It is but natural that the ABVP would seek to conceal its shameful history in this campus by trying to denigrate student movements and struggles on genuine issues, because .

the only movements they befieve and participate in are the likes of RSS-VHP-BJP led ram mandirmovement and anti-reservation agitations. .

The achievement of the outgoing SFI-AISF led JNUSU in reinstating the electerJ students' representatives to the Academic Council, the highest decision making body of the UniVersity, has to be seen in the context when across the counby democratic rights are being curbed elected students' unions are betng banned When the students are being systematically denied representation in decision making bodies of universities, and anti-studentmeasures like fee-hikes and fe!lowship cuts are being imposed undemocratically, the greater democratisation of the Academic Council by mcludmg e'ected student representative, which has been agreed to in principle by the JNU Administration following the recent ag1tation is a big ad.Jance made by the JNU studentmovement We would requestthe ABVP, which has said that no commitment in this regard was made, to go through the agreement signed by the VC (widely publicised by the JNUSU), which clearly mentions that a 3-member Committee would be formed to suggest the modalities of elected students' representation, which has already been agreed upon in principle. While the students have got used to their non-participation in any genuine struggle, it is at least expected that they make sense of agreements signed between the JNUSU and the Administration. .

When the students of JNU were fighting for the formation of the GSCASH, an institution that mari<s a historic achievement in our struggle for genderjustice, the ABVP was engaged in a vitriolic anti-GSCASH campaign, terming it to be an instrumentof 'male victimisation' and trying to invoke patriarchal sentiments to sabotage its formation. While the SFI-AISF has been engaged in a struggle to strengthen the body, the ABVP has been setting the record for a most consistent defence of sexual offenders, by bringing out protest marches in defence of a faculty member who had harassed a foreign student (and indicted by the GSCASH for being guilty of sexual misdemeanours) or defending habitual offender Bhaskar Yadav. Defending aiminality of all varieties has, however, been the USP for the ABVP since long. In this semester ABVP's contribution to JNU has been its repeated attacks on the freedom of expression, whether it was the disruption of the film show on the 14th August or the public meeting on the 171t1 Au gust .

ABVP has sought to justify their 17th August lumpenism by saying that Mr.Geelani is a "suspected terrorist" even when he has been acquitted by the Court and charges against him have been dismissed. They are trying to obfuscate the fact that it was the ABVP, which was on the wrong side of the law on that night, when it tried to physically prevent a free citizen to air his views in public. The SFI·AISF does not endorse the views of Mr.Geelani regarding Kashmir, neither was Mr.Geelani called to speak from our platform. Our views on Kashmir match those of the Left Parties, thatthe solution to the problem of Kashmir neither lies in secession nor continued state repression, but by granting genuine autonomy to Kashmir and making peace with Pakistan. Article 370 of the Indian Constitution needs to be strengthened in this regard and not abrogated as demanded by the BJP or deliberately subverted, as has been done by successive Congress governments at the Centre. Moreover, the SFI-AlSF stands completely opposed to the RSS-ABVP's advocacy of the trifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir on communal lines which is completely opposed to the letter and spirit of the Indian Constitution. The ABVP should introspect whether their opposition to Mr.Geelani's presence in JNU arose outof any genuine concern towards the Kashmir problem, or because of the fact that he is a Muslim from Kashmir who cannot but be a "terrorist" according to their communal outlook. The reason that a section of the population of Kashmir share pro-secessionist views is because of decades-long denlal of their legitimate cultural and material aspirations. If we are truly comm;tled to safeguarding the territorial integrity of India, we have to first recognise this faot and be committed in making conscious efforts to heal the wounds inflicted upon the Kashmiris both by extremist violence and state repre.ssion. As university students, the least that we can do is to listen and engage with different shades of Kashmiri opinion and not brand innocent people as "terrorists " and "anti-nationals ". .

Sd/-Rohit, Nimesh Chandra; (Co-Convenors), Central Campaign Committee, SFI-AISF .

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IMG_4125_result by AZM Javi y Marta