‘We reject JNU administration’s attempt to commercialise education,’ says student leader Satish Chandra Yadav

The JNU Students’ Union general secretary claims the vice chancellor is seeking to raise fees and is dragging his feet on building a new hostel.

WrittenBy:Chahak Gupta
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In the last few years, India’s university campuses have become political battlegrounds. None more so than Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, which has been arrayed against the government since a student demonstration in February 2016 led to a police crackdown. Leading the students is the JNU Students’ Union.  

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This month, the student body elected a new general secretary, Satish Chandra Yadav of the leftist All India Students’ Association. Yadav, a PhD candidate in the Centre for the Study of Regional Development, says he’s getting ready to confront the administration over fees and hostel facilities. He is also determined to ensure JNU remains an enabling space for debate and dissent.   

Excerpts from an interview:

Since 2016, the Left has been sweeping the JNU students’ union polls. What happened in 2016 that caused this shift?

Since the BJP came to power in 2014, education has been under attack. From cutting funds to suppressing voices of dissent, whether at Allahabad University, Banaras Hindu University, or JNU, they started attacking education from all directions. It was therefore important for students to unite and resist these attacks. This government is anti-student, anti-feminist, and anti-minority. Our unity is a stand against all this. 

An article published by Firstpost earlier this month accused the Left of being “Brahminical” in its ideology, citing as evidence the emergence and popularity in JNU of the Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students’ Association, which seeks to represent Dalits and Muslims. How do you respond?

I ask those who are accusing us of being Brahminical: “Who does the Left politics support inside and outside campus?” Our politics is for the labourers, Adivasis, students, women. A lot of people from these backgrounds join us. If you look at our slate, we have a woman, a Muslim and a Dalit. You cannot control the caste you are born into but what matters is the kind of politics you choose. By their logic, a man cannot be a feminist. So, those who are saying that just because a candidate comes from a Savarna caste they have a Brahminical ideology need to understand their own politics. 

The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad won far more votes than each constituent of the Left. In this context, would it be right to say that without forming a coalition, the Left would have lost the election?

The ABVP, BJP, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh play the cards of propaganda from time to time. Our coalition is not just Left Unity, it represents student unity. Our opponent here is not just ABVP, but also the JNU administration and the vice chancellor, who was sent by the BJP to destroy the university. To save JNU, the student community is standing with us. So the people who are questioning Left groups, I ask them: who do you stand with? The people who shout the slogan, “Shut down JNU?”

How do you plan to negotiate your demands with the vice chancellor in the coming year?

The administration is against the union. The biggest threat to this campus is the conspiracy to demolish the union. The vice chancellor and the ABVP are involved in this scheme. To save our democratic space and the voices of dissent is a challenge and we are taking it head on. Then we come to the issues on campus. After the introduction of the quota for the Economically Weaker Sections among the upper castes, there was a 20% increase in the total number of seats. We have been demanding the construction of a new hostel since. The funds have been lying with the administration since 2014 and the current vice chancellor has inaugurated the site twice but until now they haven’t laid its foundation. It is a challenge for us to ensure that the sustainable residential model of JNU remains intact. 

We also want the government to open a JNU campus in every state so that students who are unable to come here get this environment there. But this government is bent on destroying education and educational institutions. 

We also reject the administration’s attempt to commercialise education and attack JNU’s sustainable model of Rs 283 (current student fees for all courses except BTech and MBA). 

The vice chancellor is taking out a loan of Rs 515 crore. The University Grants Commission had granted funds to universities but the government says the grants will be withdrawn and universities will have to apply for loans. How will these loans be repaid? By either increasing the student fee or renting out college space. It’s an attempt to exclude the marginalised classes from accessing university spaces. JNU has always promoted the principle of education for all. This government wants to turn education into a privilege and we oppose that.

In sections of the mainstream media today, JNU is often used synonymously with “anti-national”. What do you make of this?

This narrative has been woven by the sold-out media and the government. This is because the government knows the students of JNU are aware. They are not going to give in to their Tughlaqi farmaan (absurd decrees). I believe this is an attempt to delegitimise our voices. It was a planned attack on the voices of dissent because if they are able to defame those, they will be successful in suppressing everything that goes against them. They are misleading the people through the mainstream media. We will stand tall against such attacks. 

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