JNU presidential debate sets the tone for a three-cornered fight

Amid chants of “Jai Bheem”, “Lal Salaam”, and “Bharat Mata Ki Jai” by different students’ outfits, candidates presented their politics and promises in 15-minute speeches, in an attempt to woo around 8,500 voters. JNU students will vote to elect their new students’ union on Friday.

From the clampdown in Kashmir to the NRC in Assam; from Left violence in Bengal and Kerala to the farmers’ march in Maharashtra; from Bhima Koregaon to Gauri Lankesh; from Amazon forests to Bastar; from Karl Marx to Faiz—the presidential debate at Jawaharlal Nehru University’s (JNU) Jhelum lawn on Wednesday night echoed with fiery speeches by the six candidates ahead of the students’ union elections on September 6.

Students cheer during a JNU presidential debate for the students’ union election, at JNU Campus, in New Delhi on Thursday.(Sanjeev Verma/HT PHOTO)

Amid chants of “Jai Bheem”, “Lal Salaam”, and “Bharat Mata Ki Jai” by different students’ outfits, candidates presented their politics and promises in 15-minute speeches, in an attempt to woo around 8,500 voters. JNU students will vote to elect their new students’ union on Friday.

The RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad’s (ABVP) candidate Manish Jangid started the iconic presidential debate this time. In his address, Jangid demanded restoration of deprivation points for women in JNU and criticised the incumbent Left-led students’ union for opposing online entrance exam mode. “By raising questions on the mode of entrance examinations, the Leftists insulted the new students even before they came to JNU. The aspirants were called rote-learners and incompetent,” he said.

The candidate of Congress’ National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) Prashant Kumar accused the former Left-led students’ union of not doing anything concrete. He also raised various issues such as high fees for MBA students, problems faced by science students and said his outfit would be an alternative “between right-wing violence and Left hypocrisy”.

Aishe Ghosh, the candidate of Left unity — All India Students Association (AISA), All India Students’ Federation (AISF), Students Federation of India (SFI) and Democratic Students’ Federation (DSF) — raised the issue of jobs, economy, privatisation of higher education, human rights violations in Kashmir and Assam, and diluting the RTI Act and Transgender Rights Bill in her speech. The Left unity had won all the four JNUSU central panel posts last year.

Both the Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students’ Association (BAPSA) candidate Jitendra Suna and students’ wing of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Priyanka Bharti attacked Left politics on the campus. “How will they get rid of the V-C if they couldn’t get rid of bed bugs on campus,” Bharti said. BAPSA has emerged as the third alternative in JNU in the last three years after the Left unity and the ABVP.

Independent candidate Raghavendra Mishra, who approached the Delhi High Court after his candidature was cancelled following a campus brawl, said he was being tortured. “These people talk about inequality and I was ostracised for my beliefs.”