The two leading organisations of the opportunist pro-Lyngdoh alliance, SFI and AISA, took out ‘victory’ marches after Monday’s UGBM. The victory they celebrated was the victory of Lyngdoh, of pro-privatisation and brahminical forces, and of the University Administration. What was defeated in the UGBM was not merely DSU’s resolution. The pro-Lyngdoh alliance led by SFI and AISA has engineered—as per their promise, by hook and by crook—a major setback to the progressive students’ movement.
Right from the beginning of this semester the game plan of the pro-Lyngdoh alliance was clear. It had nothing to do with elections according to the JNUSU Constitution, but they were simply laying their blueprint for bringing in Lyngdoh. SFI first started creating a frenzy for elections. Elections were flaunted as a mere spectacle, as a carnival and not as the vibrant political exercise which JNUSU elections had always been. AISA which talked of ‘informed debate’ did not take any position against Lyngdoh in the entire semester, rather started seeing ‘advantages’ in a Lyngdoh union. The campus saw their desperation, to bring in Lyngdoh in the garb of ‘bringing in elections’. Their flight from the UGBM on 20th September, their undermining of its mandate and their resuming of the failed ‘negotiations’ with Gopal Subramaniam, everything pointed at their desperation to usher in Lyngdoh. They had made up their minds to surrender to the forces of privatization, meritocracy, market- everything that Lyngdoh stands for. So they did not dare to inform the students about the hollowness of the “relaxations” instead continued a virulent misinformation campaign. They lied to the students about the reality of the draconian Grievance Redressal Cell and craftily hid the fact that how it will render elected students union into a mere puppet in the hands of the administration. Even in their half-hearted reporting of the “relaxations” they did not divulge that Gopal Subramaniam has denied the holding of public meetings prior to election or that provision for denying student’s candidature on meritocratic grounds will remain intact. Lyngdoh wants elections to be reduced to a mere bureaucratic affair rather than being a part of a vibrant political culture.
The pro-Lyngdoh forces have already accepted Lyngdoh and therefore they craftily avoided a wider debate and discussion on these “relaxations” to mislead students. DSU has consistently critiqued and exposed the ‘relaxations’ and how they are nothing but an eye-wash. Despite our concerted efforts DSU could not adequately counter the misinformation campaign taken up jointly by AISA, SFI, ABVP, NSUI. But our fight will continue. The pro-Lyngdoh forces did not dare to put anybody’s name as proposer or seconder in the resolution which they tabled which is the established norm. They simply don’t want to take responsibility of the consequences of accepting these “relaxations”.
The fight against Lyngdoh in JNU which is the only remaining battle against these draconian set of rules thus stand thoroughly compromised because of these degenerate forces, but it is far from being over. A large section of this campus is uncompromising in this battle because it is their political conviction that forces of Privatization and brahminism can not be negotiated with but must be rejected in toto. A large number of students have taken a resolute position in this fight against the Lyngdoh Committee recommendations, both in the previous UGBM and this one. Our struggle must be intensified and we must continue fighting till the draconian Lyngdoh recommendations are completely demolished. The fight against Lyngdoh is a fight against all the forces which want to render the higher education into a marketable, meritocratic commodity. The fight against Lyngdoh is basic fight for the right to unionize. These are indeed difficult battles but JNU students have always fought these difficult battles to resist forces of privatization in the campus or to ensure social justice.
The opportunist pro-Lyngdoh alliance defeated truth in Monday’s UGBM. But truth has been defeated in many places and on many occasions. Truth is defeated when millions of people are rendered destitute by state and corporate sponsored displacement. When 80% of the country’s population is forced to survive on a mere Rs 20 a day. When millions of children die of malnutrition. When lakhs of farmers are forced to commit suicide. When lakhs of women are forced to sell their bodies. When the state and Hindutva forces kill Muslims in Gujarat, Bhagalpur, Forbesganj, Gopalgarh and Rudrapur. When dalits are lynched in Jhajjhar, Khairlanji, Mirchpur and Paramakudi. When the occupying armed and paramilitary forces unleash a regime of murder and rape to suppress the nationality struggles in Kashmir and North-East. But over and above all these truths, there is the spectre of a larger and much more powerful truth that is haunting the subcontinent. And this is the truth of the uncompromising peoples’ struggles. The people who are fighting braving extreme state repression and feudal oppression for their land, livelihood, dignity or freedom in India, Kashmir or Northeast are waging an uncompromising struggle against imperialism and feudalism. In solidarity with these people’s movement and taking inspiration from them, DSU stands in firm resolve to carry forward and intensify the struggle against Lyngdoh, privatisation of higher education and the brahmanical hegemony over knowledge production.
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