In the Left bastion of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) the right to freedom of speech and expression seems to have selective parlance based on majoritarian view as seen during its presidential debate when no sooner did the right wing candidate took to dais and greeted with “Vande-Mataram” it evoked a massive outcry among the audience to oppose it.
As a consequence the presidential speech of ABVP candidate Lalit Pandey was stopped for around 20 minutes, only to be resumed after the intervention of election committee after a considerable gap.
There was nothing much in the speeches of the presidential candidate of different student wings as almost all of them unequivocally targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the higher education policies of the Central Government in their bid to garner votes. The JNU's vice-chancellor Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar also remained in their target.
Among the presidential candidates, Jayant Jigyasu, of the Chhatra RJD, outshined others in his speech. Jayant who was earlier a member of All India Students' Federation (AISF) severed his connection from the party alleging Kanahiya Kumar of promoting caste based politics.
“In the digital India 'atta' is costlier than data”, he said. Reiterating the words of RJD leader Lalu Yadav he said we do not need smart cities but rather smart villages for nation's development.
In his speech Jayant took on Modi-led Central Government for refusing to accept foreign aid-in-grant for the Kerala floods, massive seat cut through UGC gazette notification etc. He also advocated the policy of women reservation based on caste. He said that that the reservation is the best solution for the upliftment of marginalized, backwards and the poor class. He targeted both the left wing and the ABVP for the alleged disappearance of JNU student Najeeb Ahmad. He said that the left leaders are “hypocrites” while the right wing ABVP is “shameless”.
Raking the issue of “seat-cut” he said that the students who are in their masters will face difficulty in getting admission in Ph.D.
“We have chosen the field of academics over that of medical and engineering after much thought and fight with our parents not because after doing our masters we will have to move to Galgotias Univesity for research. We have to fight against this,” said Jayant. He also slammed Government over 13-point roster for appointments in universities saying that it will keep out the reserved categories from getting jobs. “In the government imagination there are no Scheduled tribes,” he said.
While Lalit Pandey, tried to evoke nationalism and alleged that N.Sai Balaji , the presidential candidate of Left Unity was present and raised “anti-national” slogans on 9 February, 2016 . He also accused left of terming the Indian Army “rapist” while praising the martyrs. He slammed AISA and SFI of contesting the JNUSU elections in alliance while saying that such alliance is formed by them in Delhi University (DU). He said that a sense of fear is created among the common students by the left parties, saying that if they would not vote for them than ABVP will come in the Union.
The left student organisation of JNU are contesting the election in alliance against the RSS-affiliated ABVP while few individuals and candidates from parties like NSUI and BAPSA are also in fray. The voting is on Friday between 9 am to 5:30 pm.