JNU: A castle with facade of liberalism

JNU lives on opium of sex, and those deprived of such indulgences unleash the vengeance of intellectual masturbation on the campus.

"Chutiye, tujhe kaha tha naa ladkiyon ke beech mein rahiyo (...had asked you to stay in midst of girls," one young girl shouted to her co-agitationist male friend, who was still shaking, after being pulled out from the police bus with much pleadings with khakhi-clad personnel.  

The boy in his early 20s had chickened out after being shoved into the police bus for violating the section 144 near Shastri Bhavan, which houses Ministry of Human Resources Development (HRD), in New Delhi. The girls shouting at him were skilled agitationists; always running out to corners to escape water canon charge. They knew the tricks. The police put on the job to deal with street agitators largely consist of male constables, and they largely stay away from female agitators.  

They belonged to All India Students Association (AISA), which captured the JNU Students Association (JNUSU) from Students Federation of India (SFI) years ago. The students on the JNU campus flocked to the AISA with thoughts that the SFI was more intellectual, and not brave enough to hit the street to translate the aims as espoused by them into realities.  

THE AISA endeared itself to female students in a big way. It was in contrast to the SFI where female students raised slogans for their male leaders. The SFI seemed ideologically enslaving the female followers. The AISA on the contrary sought to turn the tables. It may be interesting to check for female leaders and positions of eminence they get in the parent political organization of SFI -- the CPI (MP). Brinda Karat is a none face seen from its ranks, and she has to beg to most of politburo members to get a Rajya Sabha nomination. 

Hundreds of students hailing from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) had laid siege to the Shashtri Bhavan for days following the suicide of Rohith Vemula of the Hyderabad University. After a week the Shashtri Bhavan stopped seeing their spectacles. They withdrew from the Jantar Mantar as well.

The SFI and AISA both have strong Kerala connections as far as JNU campus is concerned. But the JNU over the years has begun getting students from other states like Jharkhand and Maharashtra too. The demographic footprint is surely expanding. And this demographic expansion in recent years has led to competitive student politics, with SFI and AISA seemingly looking elitist and not giving voice to those who come from Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) communities. 

And, so, their is a young brigade called BAPSA (Birsa Munda-Ambedkar-Phule Students Association) jostling to be as agile and as fierce to raise the slogans "Down with Modi" at Shashtri Bhavan. Holding all blue flags, girl students of BAPSA proudly give full name of their units, and say "we're not with AISA and have large number of members in JNU". 

The SFI and AISA hailing from the stable of the Left which espoused the causes of the proletariat have seen the Dalits branching out to carve independent identities. Vemula too hailed from All Ambedkar Students Association (AASA) and had snapped ties with the SFI.     

Incidentally, the JNU spread over 1000 acres of land on the ruins of the Arawali mountain range with rich fauna, including jackal, Nil Gai, reptiles, is least intrusive in the lives of the students. Authorities consider it being none of their business if rooms in boys' hostels in night display "don't disturb" tag, "because they're with girls". The campus also has common hostels. The JNU is arguably a campus where girls enjoy sexual liberty, which no place in India may offer. And, those who can't display the tag of "don't disturb" outside their rooms have all the night by themselves to debate and discuss Lenin, Marx, and Mao Zedong in the lawns of various dhabas with bidi, cigarette, and chai in rich supply to their motley audiences.   

AND, students would not mind indulging in taking dreams of Lenin, Marx, and Mao forward -- at least in speeches and on streets -- if they're richly provided with scholarships funded by the tax payers. The Left lives in a castle built with facade of liberalism where they whip up passion for Afzal Guru, "liberation of Kashmir", "break up of India". If they don't do so, they would not look rebels. And not to look rebels would be against the spirit of their ideology, which they wear up their sleeves day and night, and, invariably, spends whole life searching for ways to take off the red robes the JNU gives them. 

They are supposedly researchers, which must be very demanding and time consuming. But cyber cafes nearby at Ber Sarai do a lot of research for them for a few bucks for print outs.