New Delhi: The four-year-old Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students Association (BAPSA) of Jawaharlal Nehru University made a debut in the JNU Students Union Council this year. This is being dubbed as a small, significant victory amid the sweep of the Left coalition.
BAPSA opened its account in the JNUSU Council with the research scholar Sanjay Kumar winning the seat of Councillor in School of Arts and Aesthetics.
Kumar, who is researching on “Women’s Representation in Modern Indian Art”, said: “This is a victory of oppressed unity. We will represent the cause of those coming from marginalised sections,”
He said he will take up the issues of women and fight for the restoration of Gender Sensitization Committee Against Sexual Harassment and try to bring down the drop-out of students from marginalised background dealing with difficulty of speaking English language. He would fight against the scuttling of reservation policies on campus, Kumar said.
Kumar added, “In JNU, Left says they are fighting fascism. But for BAPSA, fascism is not new. Whether it is Left or Right, we have always been marginalised and faced fascism. Our causes have been misappropriated by other forces. With this victory, we are going to fight for the rights of the oppressed.”
Keep Up the Fight
The BAPSA leaders have dubbed this small victory as an important one. Shabana Ali, who stood for the post of President in JNUSU 2017-18 polls said, “It is an exciting challenge for us. Until now we were not in the JNU Students’ Union Council. But with this win we are going to get legitimacy to work with the student community.”
Ali added that after the UGC notification on 100% viva voce implemented in 2016, there was a drop in the number of students from marginalised communities. This led to the decline in their average votes.
BAPSA was one of the parties that vehemently protested when the Executive Council meeting happened to discuss 100% weightage to vive voce exams.
“The left parties didn’t join us then,” said Kumar.
In 2016, the UGC introduced a new regulation to streamline the process of admission to Ph.D and M.Phil programmes, giving 100 percent weightage to viva. The entrance test was only qualifying in nature. This was scrapped this year.
Ali said that most of the support comes from M.Phil and PhD students but with the 2016 UGC gazette notification there was a fall in the number of students from SC ST students. “If they won’t be there, who will vote for us,” she said.
A BAPSA activist shared with News 18 "Non-Fulfillment of Reservations in Offers (Quota) 2014-2017.
For the year 2017-2018 the unmet quota for SC is 96.6% and 99.31% for ST and 91.73% for OBC and 50% for the physically handicapped. This is quite a surge from 2016-2017. The unmet quota recorded for SC, ST, OBC, PH was 7.09%, 13.33%, 8.67% and 0%. The numbers are obtained from BAPSA members.
Despite no support, the BAPSA leaders made a foray. Sandeep Noonia, who is also a founding member of BAPSA and student of Social Medicine said, “Both the Left and the Right have the faculty campaigning for them. There is a Johri and a Pattanaik for both Right and Left. But we face discouragement. Our movement is questioned."
He added, “We don’t have any parent party or central registered party to go back to for support. We struggle on our own.”
Finding a positive sign in the elections, Ali added, “We have found that our core support is in place. The number of voters is almost same for different posts, which means almost the same people are voting for us.”
More than electoral
What BAPSA has achieved is important but BAPSA sees itself primarily as a “discourse to counter other discourses that appropriate their causes”.
BAPSA for its members is more a critique and social argument than a party designed for electoral gains.
“It is more about setting our own discourse than letting others do. There is a Marxist perspective of class that does not take into account the caste reality of our lives. They don’t talk about the hierarchy in our society,” said Noonia, who is also a founding member of BAPSA.
While critiquing the left, BAPSA member Dharm Rajkumar said, “We have inherited our politics from Gautam Buddha and there has been no disruption, while the Left is more colonial. I am not saying that Marx and Lenin are not important. If they had come here, they would have realized that caste is the worst form of fascism.”
He added, “Left has projected itself in a very fashionable manner. They claim to fight for Dalits, women and marginalized. But Dalits, tribal communities and women should enter the university before you fight for them,” added Rajkumar. He also said that the Left policies have not been inclusive.
The Left leaders, however, defended their politics saying that they have been working to make the campus inclusive.
"We have worked for the deprivation points, and making campus inclusive for the marginalized section of the society," said Om Prakash, an AISA leader.
Former JNUSU General Secretary Rama Naga said, "in the past, the School of Arts and Aesthetics have also picked a non-Left councillor. Last time the councillor was claimed to be an independent candidate. So it could have been anyone if not BAPSA."
He added, "They have won a post in the JNUSU, which is welcoming. But if you analyze the the vote share it one cant not say that it has risen."
Naga said, "The mandate of the student community has been with the Left. The JNU students community since 9th February incident have understood that who wants to shut down JNU and who is fighting to save it."
Naga said that one has to work on the ground throughout the year to get the faith of students. Around the year the administration brings up multiple anti-students moves. "So if you are not part of those movements it is hard to convince the students to support you. And JNU student are extremely mature enough to judge whom they should vote in this critical time," he added.
An Open Bonding
When the JNU campus erupted in celebrations after the eventful elections, flags waved across the grounds outside the SIS building where counting took place.
There were red flags of the Left coalition contesting with the saffron flags of the ABVP. The blue flags of BASPA were being waved too, along with the rainbow flags of LGBQT Community.
Doleswar Bhoi from Orissa said that the Left has been in politics for 40 years but the issues of marginalized were not taken seriously. “That’s why BAPSA emerged, bringing all the oppressed community together.”
He added, “There is not just red, blue and saffron but also rainbow on campus.”
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