There’s one word to describe the mood at Jawaharlal Nehru University now, with students’ union (JNUSU) elections round the corner: unease. The voting will happen on Friday, but it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that what happens on September 9 can be traced back to February 9, 2016.

The big issue this year are the debates around sedition that were sparked off by the arrest of JNU students earlier this year, which led to the campus being branded by the Right as a hub of “anti-nationals”. Arch rivals All India Students’ Association (AISA) and Student Federation of India (SFI) have come together to combat the rising influence and popularity of Akhil Bharatya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).

ABVP has promised that, if elected to power, it will keep a check on “anti-national” activities on campus. Presidential candidate Janhawi, who has dropped her Brahmin surname, told Newslaundry that ABVP wanted to expose what lay behind the sloganeering on February 9 (that led to the arrests). Mohit Kumar Pandey is AISA-SFI’s presidential candidate, also harked back to the sedition cases and said that these elections will reflect where the country’s education policy is headed.
The fight, for now, is between the two of them. National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), like its parent party (Congress), has so far failed to attract voters. Not that this has stopped their presidential candidate Sunny Dhiman from saying he’s hopeful of defeating the “fascist forces”.”

In contrast to these old-timers, a new organisation is leaving everyone else jittery: the two-year-old Birsa-Ambedkar-Phule Student Association (BAPSA) has targeted the marginalised and they’re not afraid to take stands that will leave savarnas feeling nervous.Unfortunately, even though BAPSA’s presidential candidate Sonpimple Rahul Puneram had agreed to join this debate, Puneram cancelled at the last minute. Listen up to what the others have to say.