Students of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) gave a landslide verdict in favour of the United Left Panel of SFI and AISA in the students’ union elections which were held on September 9. Alongside the victory of the United Left panel comprising of candidates belonging to the AISA and the SFI, this election also saw the complete and thorough decimation of the RSS backed ABVP. The ABVP which was able to win the joint secretary post in the last year’s JNUSU elections was relegated to the third spot in two of the central panel posts (president and joint secretary), while it finished a very distant second (given that the victory margins of the United Left candidates were 1304 and 1094 for the posts of vice president and general secretary respectively) in the other two posts. The rout of the ABVP in this election will become manifest when we consider that the ABVP on its own was able to win only one councilor in the newly elected JNUSU council while candidates backed by the United Left alliance swept almost all the council seats in SSS, SIS, SLL&CS, CSLG, SAA.  

These elections were happening in a context when the RSS’ attacks on educational institutions had intensified in the last one year. From IIT Madras to HCU, FTII, Allahabad University, AMU and BHU – the university autonomy and democratic spaces have been prime targets under this regime. Saffronisation along with rabid commercialisation and privatisation has defined the education policy of this government. Massive fund cuts in higher education over the two budgets presented by Arun Jaitley are directly affecting the universities. In this entire picture, JNU emerged as one of the prime targets of the Hindutva forces. The post-February 9 (a programme organised in campus on the death anniversary of Afzal Guru saw some anti-India slogans raised, which was used as a pretext to attack the entire university) led to an orchestrated attack on JNU by the RSS, BJP, ABVP and a section of media. BJP ran a one week campaign across the country against JNU, which was painted as a hub of anti-national activities. #ShutDownJNU campaign was run on social media to target JNU – one of the premier central universities, whose admission policy and fee structure makes it possible for the students from the deprived socio-economic backgrounds to study and complete their higher education. Sedition cases were filed on student activists and arbitrary fines and punishments were announced through a completely undemocratic High Level Enquiry Committee.

In this battle against #ShutDownJNU, students and teachers of JNU have unitedly asserted #StandWithJNU. The fight successfully challenged the ABVP-BJP-RSS game-plan. Yet, these machinations continue even now. Every single day we battle newer attempts to destroy everything that JNU stood for, every cherished value of democracy, inclusion, debate and dissent. Under the instructions of the party in power, the JNU administration is imposing policies which are an anathema to the spirit of JNU. Now teachers who spoke out against the attack on JNU are being targeted, threatened and victimised. There are constant assaults on JNU’s inclusive policies, on reservations and deprivation points. To ensure complete loyalty to the office of the VC, every possible norm of university functioning is sought to be changed. All spaces are being subjected to intense surveillance, and the JNU administration (aided and abetted by the ABVP) wants a surveillance raj. While JNUSU and other organisations are being harassed and not allowed to conduct their programmes in peace, the Sangh-affiliated groups are given the space to campaign and university resources. Common students are facing continuous harassment from the administration, whether it is in the matter of hostel allotments, fellowship disbursal or library facilities.  
SFI was clear that giving a decisive mandate against RSS-ABVP and the forces which wanted to shut down JNU will be the topmost priority for the organisation. In order to do so, the unity between all the Left organisations was the most desired option in front of us. The alliance talks went on till the day of withdrawals and finally AISA and SFI were able to give a united Left panel. The alliance of the two strongest Left organisations in the campus was essential for any form of Left unity and as the final results show, this understanding stands vindicated. We are aware that the immediate task in front of us will be to further deepen and expand the Left unity, given the fact that the attacks from RSS-BJP will continue in myriad forms.

The newly elected JNUSU faces four important tasks at the present juncture. First and foremost, the task of building a steadfast resistance against the commercialiSation and saffronisation of education aggressively pushed forth by Narendra Modi’s fund cut sarkar. Secondly, the task of taking forward the agenda of social justice in the campus by working to clinch the demands of ending discrimination in viva-voce, the institution of deprivation points for backward minorities in JNU entrance examinations, constitution of a minority cell in the campus while making efforts to build a national movement to pressurise the Indian parliament to enact Rohith Act to end discrimination in campuses across the country. Thirdly, the task of building sincere and militant struggles to clinch core student demands of building new hostels, providing better dormitory facilities, increased MCM fellowships etc. Fourthly and finally, the newly elected JNUSU faces the task of powerfully rebuffing the ‘rulings’ of the HLEC ( High Level Enquiry Committee) formed in the wake of the February 9th incident and other authoritative diktats of the Sangh Parivar captive administration of JNU.  We are confident that the newly elected JNUSU takes up these issues in a surefooted fashion and acts as a bulwark of resistance against the anti-student mechanisations of both the government and the university administration.

The results of the recently concluded JNUSU elections saw Amal PP and Satarupa Chakraborty (both belonging to the SFI) win the posts of vice-president and general secretary respectively, while Mohit Pandey of the All India Students’ Association (AISA) was elected president and Tabrez Hasan, also of the AISA, was elected joint secretary, as part of the United Left alliance.
While in the past three elections, the SFI has been making steady gains in the JNUSU, the results of this election marks the strong revival of the SFI within four years of the most serious organisational disruption that we had to ever contend with in the past. This revival is a clear vindication of the principled politics that SFI has stood for and fought for.