SFI in JNU and the future of the Left student movement
The Left movement and SFI have been undergoing a major churning in JNU over the last few days. Pragoti has already carried some of the debates within JNU SFI. A crucial question at this juncture that needs to be delved into is the future pathway of the left, democratic students’ movement in JNU. In that context, here are some more insights into various issues, including that of the Presidential Election, from a group of SFI activists and sympathizers.
Where the leaders of “SFI-JNU” Erred - I
11.07.2012
The Delhi State Committee of the Students Federation of India dissolved the JNU unit of SFI yesterday (10 July 2012), following the adoption of a wrong and divisive line at a thinly attended GBM of SFI’s JNU unit and the circulation of two pamphlets (dated 7 July and 9 July 2012) that betray, among other things, an appalling lack of class bias. In this context, we the undersigned would like to make the following political points.
Erroneous political line of the “SFI-JNU” leadership
The “SFI-JNU” pamphlet dated 7 July laments, “the developments since 2007 have made the SFI vulnerable to attacks of “double-speak” by the ultra Left”. We would like to make it clear that this is reflective of the spectacular failure of the leadership of “SFI-JNU” to understand the perceptible shift in the political line of the AISA since 2004 (since the time of UPA-I), when it began subscribing to the ruling class line of relentlessly attacking the organised left in an attempt to garner right-reactionary votes in the campus. This is nothing new when compared to earlier AISA lines, from ‘SFI over-estimating the danger of communal fascism’ in the post-Chandrashekhar Prasad murder UGBM in 1997 to a meek subservience during the NDA rule, marked by the formulation “fascism in power is less dangerous than fascism out of power”. This has been in evidence in the 2012 JNUSU elections, when the right-wing votes in the campus neatly disappeared into the AISA kitty, manifested in their majority this year. The vacuousness of the political line of the leaders of “SFI-JNU” has been exposed by their willingness to fall into the trap laid by AISA in setting the terms of the debate, thus letting down the sincere activists and sympathisers of SFI.
What happened in the SFI GBM?
The “SFI-JNU” pamphlet dated 10 July 2012 claims, “The political position against CPI(M) support to Pranab Mukherjee was adopted in a transparent and democratic manner, after convening EC meeting and a GBM, which is the highest decision making body of the unit.”
We would like to point out that taking a political stand that goes contrary to the position adopted by the national leadership of the left movement SFI is partisan towards is not a trivial matter. Why didn’t the leadership engage in wider consultations, by, for instance, calling activists’ meetings and convening GBMs at all hostels, in keeping with the past traditions of SFI? Look at the GBM itself. According to the Political-Organizational Report adopted at the Unit Conference of the JNU unit of SFI, the total membership of the organisation in JNU is 560. But the number of members who voted at the GBM on 5 July was a mere 46. In other words, not even 10% of the total membership of SFI’s JNU unit voted at the meeting, and yet, the “SFI-JNU” leaders misled activists and members, and unilaterally pushed their wrong and divisive line. So much for the pompous preaching on democracy by the “SFI-JNU” leadership. It is rank opportunism and shameless double-speak when a leadership which did not hold a unit conference for two and a half years indulges in tall-talk about democratic functioning.
Several SFI members who attended the GBM pointed out that many serious issues have arisen in the past few years on which a contribution to the debate within the left, particularly within the CPI(M), would have been a valuable help that the JNU unit of SFI could have provided to the left movement in this country. Such issues were far more serious than the election to a post with mostly de jure powers. The Left parties in India, after all, have adopted positions that are tactical in practically every Presidential election since 1992, when they decided to support the candidature of Shankar Dayal Sharma. It has been conveniently ignored by the “SFI-JNU” leadership that the prime concern this time as well was to have a secular candidate, given the concrete danger of a candidate of the TMC earning the support of the NDA as well, and taking the groundswell of support from conservative sections of the middle class to bolster his chances of victory.
The shocking irony here is that while the leaders of “SFI-JNU” wax eloquent on “Left unity”, they found it acceptable to disrupt the unity of their very own (now erstwhile) organisation. Thus what started supposedly as a genuine debate within the Left has transformed itself into a shameless, factionalist bourgeois tendency, the praxis of which has been confirmed by the actions of the “SFI-JNU” leadership. This is exemplified in the fact that the whole brouhaha associated with the rabble-rousing by the “SFI-JNU” leadership has played out in the bourgeois media of Bengal as a TMC-sponsored drama, and in Kerala as a UDF-sponsored stage show.
On the irrationality of the new formation calling themselves “SFI-JNU”:
Given how stunning the servile allegiance of the leaders of “SFI-JNU” towards their political overlord and their tailing of AISA is, it is better for them to call themselves by the name AISA(B) – either to indicate their degenerating as the B Team of AISA, or sticking to the time-tested bourgeois tradition of naming the faction in the overlord’s name (Bose). This bourgeois factional tendency has absolutely no right to tarnish the fighting, progressive class partisan traditions of the SFI in JNU by using the name it is currently using.
Sd/-
T. Lakshmi Narayana, Manu M R, Rajeev Kumar, Siddik Rabiyath, Subin Dennis.
The PDF file is also attached
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Where SFI-JNU Erred - I, Pamphlet.pdf | 90.24 KB |
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Comments
Sectarian and paranoid
http://pd.cpim.org/2012/0722_pd/07222012_12.html
The SFI CEC letter carried in PD is a real gem.
In JNU, the official SFI says ultra left defeated AISA in JNU by miraculously channelling right wing votes. And now the SFI CEC sees the rebellion of its JNU unit as a manifestation of an AISA conspiracy!
The SFI CEC preaches that SFI should concern itself only with student issues and not bother its little head with matters of national/international import. A right-wing sentiment indeed - one that Lyngdoh committee too recommends.
And the SFI CEC told its units and unions not to participate in the Convention against Lyngdoh recommendations organised by JNUSU, fearing that it was a conspiracy by AISA to address SFI's leaders from non-JNU units! 'Children play in the park, don't go to the street or the big bad AISA might eat you! Remember that's what happens to little children who meddle in big eople's business' Such bogeymaking - only to try and protect its ranks from the political questions about CPIM's conduct! Well SFI CEC comrades - ideas do not have borders. Those questions that you fear are now not in AISA's domain alone - they are raising themselves in the heads of your own rank and file, and who knows, maybe in your own heads too, one day...
Not the fault of JNU unit
Though I was never associated with JNU or its politics, the present incidents have driven me to try to understand the situation with my limited political knowledge. SFI’s JNU unit has taken a stand criticising CPI(M)’s decision to support Pranab Mukherjee’s presidential candidature. My 1st question is that- Can it be a burning issue of student’s movement, whom a political party(who is not associated with JNU) supports for a very non-trivial post like President of India ? And by the time the JNU campus opens full fledgedly, the issue of presidential election will disappear from political corners. And there must arise other trivial issues, affecting directly the student community or broadly the common people. So what made the JNU unit think that, the issue of CPI(M)’s role in presidential election, if not dealt in unit would be devastating for the organisation in the campus ? Did they fear AISA could initiate this non-trivial issue to resurface in midst of other important issues ? In a single word, the answer is- NO.. Then what is the reason that the JNU unit had no other way than taking such stand ? Yes, it’s the Prasenjit Bose incident. After Prasenjit Bose, (the father figure of SFI’s JNU unit) wish to resign from the party over Pranab-issue, it became prominent that even if nowhere, that issue will affect SFI in JNU campus. Prasenjit himself brought the SFI unit in that crossroad. Did he not know, how much his media-hyped resignation issue can affect the JNU unit ? Or did he want the whole unit to rebel ? (as after Bose’s resignation, the issue has taken a trivial shape for JNU campus and the unit had to take a stand though it is not entitled to take decision on national issues. The members of the students’ branch there might have resigned from the party as it was not possible for them to champion the Party’s decision in the GBM ). So it’s clear that eventually Prasen’s resignation lead to other party members’ resignation from the Party. I don’t know whether that was pre-planned or it’s the result of Prasen’s lack of political far sight. I understand that every person (specially they with leadership quality) need a group of followers. But if anyone leads his/her individual rebellion to the shape of a massive one affecting the Party badly in some sectors, his political credibility and devotion come under the scanner. I am not accusing Prasen for attempting a open rebellion in the ranks of the Party, but he knowingly (or I wish foolishly) lead that event. At the end, I will request to the All-India leadership of SFI to give up all the egos and be more sympathetic towards JNU unit. The unit may not be entitled to take stand on Presidential election. But Prasen’s activity left no option to them and for the sake of the organisation inside the campus, the unit had to take such stand. And as the CEC of SFI has not taken any stand on Presidential election, the JNU unit’s stand is not in contradiction with CEC. The decision to dissolve the JNU unit has sparked debates(or should I say- ANGER) among the members of SFI throughout the country. And still CEC can resolve the issue by reconsidering and reversing the decision of the Delhi state committee to dissolve the unit and expel some of its leaders. Otherwise the organisation will lose not only a ‘asset’-like unit but also its credibility and respect nationwide.
The debate on this issue has
The debate on this issue has spanned out in two directions:
1) One view is that support to pranab mukherjee is wrong.
2) Other view is to underplay and argue that support to pranab mukherjee may be wrong, but is essentially a non-issue and may not be worth the political dissent.
But if you recall, 'underplaying' mistakes is the main approach of the Party since Singur, nandigram, etc.
How long can this denial go on, which is misleading the ranks and file of the party? So, t.p. chandrasekharan is a non-issue but has backfired on the party only because Com. VS raised the issue. Or, Singur-Nandigram became a big issues only because of 'conspiracies' against us. Or, support to pranab mukherjee has become controversial only because of prasenjit's resignation. Please stop this rubbish.
Politics and ideology are the main thing. Thanks for opposing the dissolution of the JNU-SFI unit, but take upfront political positions. Is support to pranab mukherjee right or wrong?
This spark can alter the future course of the left politics
Anyone from JNU, who is aware of the identity and activism of the signatories of this gross pamphlet, can tell that these individuals were unhappy over the JNU unit SFI's stand on Comrade Chandrasekharan's assassination that condemned the act and called for inquiry. And it was much before this whole issue of supporting pranab mukherjee, Congress candidate for presidential election. This bunch also defended the statement of Mani, a notorious cpm leader who openly called for killings of political opponents. They also gave certificate of innocence to Ragesh, former all-India SFI president and an alleged conspirator in the murder of Com Chandrasekharan. One among the signatories had refused to take cpi-m membership because of his religious beliefs. Some retaining their loyalties to the ultra right wing degradation of the party are going around in JNU and telling supporters of JNU-SFI that opposing cpi-m may affect their chances in getting jobs in Delhi Universities and elsewhere where cpi-m has significant presence among teachers.
However, the party leadership and SFI's leadership must be ashamed to see the text and tone of this pamphlet that is full of hatred and filth. They must accept that it is only because of their training and culture. They must look within. I request to the admin of this site to send this pamphlet to these people as I do not have their mail ids: 1. Prakash Karat 2. G P Deshpande 3. Irfan Habib and Prabhat Patnaik. They must read it and hang their head in shame. It is also a question mark to their intellectual and ideological guidance to these wards of India's best university and member of a historic organization.
I want to appeal to SFI-JNU that their brave and correct stand must not lose its shine because of their own hangover of the violent training of cpi-m and SFI. Their voice may look small but this spark can alter the future course of the left politics in India. They must recognize their responsibility and march on. Many many students, youths and people from other walks of life will join them.
Actually the misery I see is,
Actually the misery I see is, one whole bunch of JNU recruited SFI leaders in Delhi can flock like schemers, responding to one person's expulsion, and arrive at bizarre formulations. The timing of this sudden break with the political line of CPM (political line is a matter of public discourse and such spectacular break with the legacy of SFI is perhaps one that must evolve through wider discussions!) makes one very cynical of the intentions of break-away sections. The only benefit that JNU-SFI could have availed to the left movement in the country by its principled opposition (at least they expect us to believe that it is a principled opposition in its nature!) to Pranab's candidature, is by making that debate possible within the ranks of SFI. Unless JNU SFI (now dissolved sadly!) believed that it would produce a mass uprising and sudden regeneration of class politics in the country, the haste in which the episode occurred poses serious doubts about political commitment of the leadership. We are under some kind of pressure to believe that the political sensibilities of a university campus, in the capital of the country, must somehow be considered sharper than anyone else. The arguments of 'level of debate', 'legacy of JNU SFI', 'voting based on political questions' are devastatingly hilarious. They just didn't use 'higher consciousness' - but very clearly that is what they meant. The pathology of your political association is a problem of not knowing the horizon - politics on the ground in universities across the country are shredded in physical violence, aggressive caste and communal solidarity and a daily struggle of poorest of poor students in the country to just keep afloat. If there is any reference to SFI that I make, it is to this level of its functioning. That is the only real level of political engagement. Far from being sympathetic to such arenas of functioning, the smug of JNU comrades in declaring their small existence as a reason enough to make such terrible noise- is disheartening. It is degenerated behavior of a certain class nature. It is representative of the changing class natures of students who make it to JNU these days. I believe that SFI's decline in JNU is a result of that changing composition - middle class, pretending at the blink of an eye, adventurist (the adventure is much like an adventure sport here) and fashion oriented. The politics of AISA found hit with the campus may be for the same reason. While we no longer have stories to tell new students about the legacy of SFI in JNU, its high time that SFI-JNU be not treated as a placement agency into politics.
How far from Reality
"It is representative of the changing class natures of students who make it to JNU these days....The politics of AISA found hit with the campus may be for the same reason. "
Wonderful insight comrade. Only a gifted CPI-M supporter, whose general secretary has no other credential but being SFI leader and President of JNUSU, can make such incisive observation. Which legacy of SFI are you mentioning--
1. the legacy of abstaining from a Pro reservation resolution in 1989 and defeating it because the president and other office bearers of that union were not from SFI,
2. or supporting the multinational outlet of NESTLE in campus by subverting the progressive shop-allotment policy of JNU (SFI president Rohit Azad was the signatory of the CDC meeting that passed the proposal of opening the Nestle outlet.)
3. or, Disassociating from the Workers movement at the height of administrative repression, when several activists were rusticated, and siding with the administration in demanding punishment for student activists. The argument that was given by the then SFI leadership, some of whom are probably rethinking their previous stand now, echoes the SFI -CEC in today's context-- "we are a students union, not a trade union". And how was it treated by the JNU students. When the SFI leadership came for a mess campaign in the good faith that the students are simply students and they have nothing to do with mess workers the students threw them out of the mess hurling abuse for misusing the JNUSU posts. The immediate result was seen in the next UGBM and the JNUSU elections. (after that UGBM it has become a "bubka norm" in JNU-- whether AISA can break the previous margin of defeating SFI, after several defeats the spirit has been dampened by the brilliant tactical move of SFI leadership where they unite with all the other organization in the campus to defeat AISA, which they did once when they did not pass their own UGBM resolution but supported PSU resolution -- which had 3 supporters in the campus then-- by supporting it when a lot of AISA supporters had just complacently left the UGBM venue believing there was little opposition to their position. )
4. or by derailing the whole movement to implement OBC reservation with the bogey of seat cut when the real reason was the inappropriate and discriminatory cut off criteria used by the administration. SFI did not budge from the bogey though the whole campus was convinced about the factual authenticity of the AISA position which was vindicated by a huge margin of students in a rainy UGBM where the SFI could only stand with a rainbow alliance of NSUI, ABVP, DSU-- (from RSS to MAOIST, and I cannot recount how many times this unsuccessful drama has been reenacted in JNU, as AISA activists we have now come to believe SFI's ant-AISA UGBM positions to be unsolicited Election propaganda for AISA about AISA's popular invincibility. ) It carried on with the bogey till the Delhi High court and the Supreme Court of INDIA not only vindicated the AISA position but also charted it as the guideline for fulfilling OBC seats in all central universities. SFI was so shocked that for two days it could not even publish a parcha or a poster to welcome this decision. and when it did it never mentioned seat cut for nearly 1.5 years only referring to it mildly during the election campaign in 2011. And i hope you are aware of the remarkable popular impact it had on SFI prospects in the 2011 ELection.
People from your party often refer to CPI-ML and AISA as left adventurists , as living examples of infantile disorder. But if you see the painstaking process of party reorganization that CPI-ML liberation went through, there will be little doubt about the CPI-ML's consistent struggle to revive the radical mass essence of Naxalbari peasant struggle by fighting the wrong tendencies of the 70s. But it has not degenerated itself into a party of revisionists and liquidationists. In that legacy AISA contributes by making students realize their potential as a socially responsible radical force. The struggles for the partial demands are fought not to confine the students into the limited scope of economism but to train them in handling the larger political questions which are inextricable from the partial demands. And therefore we don't say that worker's not getting minimum wage are not the head ache of the students or the students union. We don't say that these are issues that reflect a petty bourgeois mentality or NGO mentality because in consistently fighting for these issues and engaing with the larger legal- political- material questions associated with these issues, in realizing our limitations and overcoming them with other means we have been witness to the transformation of students who began as petty bourgeois sentimental beings but became activists in the process. THe post 2000 AISA experiment in JNU has accomplished this task of occupying all the spheres of influence, imparting a marxist form and content, that post modernists, NGOs and petty bourgeois occupies in campuses like JNU.
And this process is not different from what the cadres of communist party did in the early phase of Indian communist movement. They did everything along with organizing workers and peasants which is grinned at by the SFI leaders and arm chair revolutionaries like you. You guys are the most harmful elements for the communist movement. YOu use all kinds of radical phrases as a pretext of parasitically enjoying the benefits that a large communist part brings while gnawing at the core of the communist movement and the party by completely disarming it of the weapons of mass politics. and therefore you can so easily blame the defeat of SFI to the petty bourgeois nature JNU students. (Only a fool can be blind to the change in composition that the implementation of deprivation points previously and OBC reservation presently has accomplished-- the change is so evident that an SFI activist from SSS had mentioned in public that AISA cadres SL se bhed bakri Uthake le ate hain-- which is an admission of the fact that the so called "petty bourgeois adventurist politics" of AISA is being a hit with the so called cattle class.
Good that you have read Lenin's Left wing Communism... but what must also be said that had lenin seen the KINDS of CPI_M then hewould have coined another term--- i hope you know what it is- "SENILE DISORDER"
So JNU's changing composition
So JNU's changing composition is responsible for SFI's loss and AISA's victory? Well, Brecht would offer a good solution - dissolve the students and elect a new student composition for the campus!
Students are Left as long as they vote for SFI - but are branded as elite and right-wing if they vote for AISA.
Anyone who critiques CPIM is 'ultra Left'.
Good going.
if you are so convinced that
if you are so convinced that the position arrived upon by JNU-SFI is middle class, adventurist and fashion oriented, let it die its own death. the only haste shown in this entire matter was the response of the All India SFI in dissolving the entire unit. Was it because they found no takers within the EC and ranks of the SFI in JNU and are desperately trying to resurrect those who have long become inactive?
on the political point
What is the great political you are making anyway? That Pranab Mukherjee is a Bad Person? Well, you see!
Ram Jethmalani recently leveled a nine-point charge-sheet against Pranab, in which he listed (more eloquently than JNU students) some very plausible shortcomings in the moral character of Pranab Mukherjee which renders him unsuitable for the position. If you believed that CPIM did not know of any other such dis-qualifiers, its naive. However, any political party has to take decisions that will tactfully further their relative strength. Not doing so is against its very survival. Given the size that CPM has been reduced to in the last general election, there is no scope for consequential action in this matter. That it has supported congress earlier is a fact that we know - not just in the presidential election. The left supported a congress led coalition after 2004, and has had electoral alliances with it - where it has actively endorsed a congress candidate. Weather such tactics will be considered as hypocrisy is for the people to decide - and for the party to assess. In some cases, like 2004 elections for assembly in Andhra Prasesh, CPMs strength has increased by a bounce when it contested in direct alliance with congress. Whatever may have been the disastrous outcomes of congress rule in the state (it would have been worse if TDP won again with its aggressive neo-liberal agenda!! ), with the increased representation in constitutive assembly CPM waged a prolonged land struggle. It was the highest amplitude of CPM's political visibility in the previous decade. Such tactical adjustments are must - fairly speaking we are in a political party. We are neither individual crusaders like Arundhati Roy, nor are we like Anna Hazare who is averse to politics. If the party believed that it must use tactical sensibility, there is no reason to be apologetic about it. It is at the cost of saving over three decades of party building in Bengal. To appease JNU-like audience is several packs behind saving the party and its activists in West Bengal where a systematic and violent wreck against it is planned by the new government. If the tactics will work or not is secondary, that the party has a legitimate responsibility to save its cadre is more important.
CPM has taken a principled stand on the issue of Telangana in spite of widespread public isolation. So has it on the Indo-US nuclear deal - which has culminated in withdrawal of support to UPA-1. It is seriously not in need of any tutorial lessons to be taught on taking principled positions. The All India Conference has taken cognizance of the boundaries of using tactical adjustments - and has deliberated on the limits to using it. Concrete experiences of state parties have been taken into consideration. It has resolved that CPM must focus on increasing and consolidating its own independent strength by waging struggles that involve everyday situations of masses. This however does not mean that it must choke itself on the tactical front. The allegation that support to a congress presidential candidate is in contradiction with All India Conference resolution is misleading. It is a partial exploration. The good point in what JNU SFI is saying, is that CPM must maintain a semblance of neutrality in the eyes of the people. While this is plausible, neutrality of political position cannot be simply reduced to a symbolic state. Symbolism is for the media, not for the people. People will receive and uphold a political line based on very organic factors that evolve from the real activity of organizing. It would be certainly not possible to doubt their ability to decipher. The reaction from JNU-SFI on a tactical line adopted by CPM does not fit into proportion with the outrage it seems to have caused among activists there. If there was any context for such outrage, it should have been when the Nandigram and Singur events were unfolding. What led the great conscience keep quiet then? The Kerala issue that has been tailed with Presidential election, appears to be stitch work, to back up empty rhetoric. It is a matter of common sense that no matter who the president is, and who the prime-minister is, the regime is singular and working on its own dynamics. Did we buy it when they told us that Manmohan Singh is an honest and genuine person? Failure as finance minister is no argument - ministers don't pass or fail - they just further a ruling class agenda. If a political party has a right to be tactical (tactics is at the cost of saving lives, property and liberty of comrades), then we must correctly assess the hostile political situation which faces us without attaching shame to symbolic considerations and fear to attack from our opponents.
Thank You. This clarified few
Thank You. This clarified few if not all questions in my mind.
srujana.
While I strongly condemn the
While I strongly condemn the 'JNU-SFI' actions and I am confused at the understanding that supporting Pranab Mukherjee's candidature is going to somehow help in saving the lives and reduce the brutal repression brought on CPIM cadre. If it is the really the case, I would like to think that CPIM has taken the right decision. If we can in some way protect the lives of our comrades working on the ground by supporting Mr. Mukherjee's candidature instead of abstaining, I consider it a small price to pay.
Since I do not know the situation in Bengal, except for what I get to know through media I would be vastly grateful if somebody enlightens me about the situation on the ground. Would this decision help our cadre even in a small way? If so, I would think the safety of our cadre is worth hundred times more than those individuals who have resigned following party's decision.
But, sitting where I am now, in Hyderabad, and not knowing the ground realities of Bengal villages I find it difficult to think that supporting Mr. Mukherjee in some way would help our cadre in Bengal.
I would like it, if someone with better knowledge would explain.
Then again, if supporting Mr. Mukherjee for president in the hopes of providing some breathing space for our cadre, which rather sounds like a shot in the dark to me, turns out to be based on the wrong assessment of ground reality, I still would not like to come to the premature conclusion of some right wing revisionism gaining upper hand within the party.
I think the West Bengal party leadership was taken by surprise at the way the lost elections, which they should have been prepared for. This showed a lack of touch with ground reality. Only when a multitude of organizational mistakes are rectified and changes are undertaken, would the party be in a position to understand the true situation on the ground (information from the ground is important for the leadership assess the situation). I hope I am not naive enough to think that all the organizational problems will be solved once the mistakes are identified. I think, a protracted struggle is ahead and there is room for mistakes.
May be party’s assessment of the situation in Bengal is right. As I requested before, I would like to hear comments from people who have better knowledge. So far I haven’t come across observations, from both the sides, that indicate a better knowledge. I suppose most of the commentary comes from those of us who sit in Delhi and other big cities and form their opinions based on information that passed too many hands (I have nothing against it as we do not have much choice in that matter)
srujana
A Wonderful response
Hopefully the "JNU SFI" understands your exposition on symbolism. Anyways, it appears as if the "SFI JNU" has taken a very amateurish stand by giving more importance to the political struggle inside the campus rather than the political struggle between the classes. Their call for left unity is basically a call to the AISA - an explosive petit-bourgeois entity- to stop harrowing them for political decisions of the CPI (M). The SFI, in my view, should refuse to be bogged down by such exasperating elements. If the SFI unit, as long as it remains affiliated to the CPM, is unable to convince itself about the political tactical line of the party, in extreme cases should tender their resignations from the SFI citing personal differences of opinion with the parent organisation over the political line that is being followed. That is the correct protocol. Passing a resolution in the name of the SFI, without even 10% of the members present ( I assume that the original post was correct on this count), against the parent organisation is a step which will always portray the people involved in a bad light. It reeks of opportunism and is more akin to what the CPM Punjab (Pasla group) did. Trying to gain a political advantage to nurse personal political ambitions. As for Pasla and his allies please read http://www.cpiml.org/liberation/year_2002/april/article%20left%20camp.htm Is the "SFI JNU" going that way? Looks like it.
I read that link re Pasla and
I read that link re Pasla and the Punjab comrades. I am mystified - what did you think tht link proved? Pasla seems to have remained consistent to Left principles, and I think that in Punjab at least his party is probably doing better even electorally than CPIM. What's wrong with that?
you are dogmatist trying to
you are dogmatist trying to fit something which has opened up new possibilities into set and familiar modals. judge the SFI-JNU unit for what they do. you cannot impose your lack of imagination on them.
so called SFI-JNU in isolation
To me so called SFI-JNU conception is impractical, totally unrealistic. No person or forum can function in isolation. The so called SFI-JNU may become a sentimental gathering, but can't emerge as an alternate platform of left movement in the country, as it is going to take birth in isolation. Each and every person has the right to possess alternate views, but if he/she be a member of an organisation he/she has to abide by its's constitution and should express the said views within and not in public. Form and Content should operate simultaneously. At times firm and even logical content goes abegging and becomes insignificant, as well, for violating the form.This is not an advice, but my belief is that there is no shortcut to inner organisation struggle and there should neither be any compromise regarding ideological issues, also.
a response
What has opened up new possibilities and where? Except the middle class left sympathizers I know not of anyone who is aware of any "new" possibility. I am not imposing my lack of imagination; that is how bad it looks from outside.
"The ultra-left is asking the SFI in JNU to take a stand...so on and so forth..." Pray tell me what may one infer from this? As I d mentioned earlier, if they are forced to take a stand, they must do so after dissociating themselves from the SFI first and not as SFI. THe JNU SFI has acted as if it is a parallel polit buro. They have only succeeded in spoiling the name of the party. The SFI is not about winning student union elections, they are a channel between the party and the students and that is the end of it. They must understand that. If CPIMs politics is unpopular in JNU, it is due largely to the middle-class atmosphere there. They need to understand why Lenin instituted Democratic Centralism as a central tenet in party organisation. Then they will not make such flimsy mistakes.
a riposte
your understanding of the relationship between a party and a mass organisation as well as winning/losing elections is warped and outdated. If the SFI is to be a channel between the party and the JNU students, the water in that channel should not flow only in one direction: i.e. from the party to the students. when JNU students voice their concerns through election mandates, the party should also listen. when the party stops listening to election verdicts and starts abusing the voters as "middle class", "petty bourgeois" etc. it only reflects political bankruptcy. that is what has happened in west bengal too.
if SFI in JNU is middle class, what are two former JNUSU Presidents from the SFI JNU doing in the Polit Bureau of the working class party?? there is nothing wrong in being a student from the middle class who consciously adopts a working class outlook. the problem really is with dull party hacks like you who waste their time posting sectarian comments in this website against the JNU students on behalf of the CPIM, thus alienating them further away from the party. don't you have anything better to do??
So according to you, entire
So according to you, entire JNU shows a "middle class" atmosphere?? Such arguments show how little you know of JNU, its political culture and the level of debates. And please continue saying that SFI and CPI(M)'s popularity is dipping because of the prevalance of middle class culture. Such arrogance and refusal to see facts will no doubt do the party a whole lot of good.
with the positive step of 27%
with the positive step of 27% OBC reservations, now over 50% of the students in JNU come from SC/ST/OBC backgrounds and among the remaining there are many who come from physically challenged rural, regionally backward and other backgrounds. Most are also young women. students come from all over india. please do not blame the students by calling them 'middle class'. for over forty years the students of JNU have had a relationship with the SFI and the CPM. They are giving a political message.
the people of west bengal are also giving us a political message through electoral verdicts.
we should not end up blaming students or the people.
Let us all introspect, and genuinely try to rectify our mistakes, rather than remaining stubborn.
why doesn't the SFI All India
why doesn't the SFI All India leadership understand this? And why doesn't the party understand that the SFI is a channel between the party and students, but also between students and the party?
please make sure that your response is atleast logical
"If CPIMs politics is unpopular in JNU, it is due largely to the middle-class atmosphere there" ....so by this logic If CPIMs politics is unpopular in anywhere (now that it has also lost in West Bengal), it is due largely to the middle-class atmosphere there (anywhere- what a logic sir ji). Again, you do not seem to know the real character of JNU where deprivation points coupled with reservation policy (though there are grievances -and protest by Left organization there- on it being not fulfilled at faculty level) and other progressive policies has always made overwhelming number of students of JNU to have a pro people orientation and politics. Hence, CPIM politics was popular there (when it had not gone wrong- meaning rightist deviations) till now. So please make sure that it is atleast logical whatever you are saying before you 'respond' or else introspect like all CPIM members should.
Saving the lives, property
Saving the lives, property and liberty of comrades who are facing attacks in West Bengal and now in Kerala is very important. Please read the SFI-JNU's position on this issue in their pamphlet after their GBM in response to the sectarian AISA at their blog http://sfijnuweb.wordpress.com/2012/07/09/unite-to-strengthen-left-unity...
But please also introspect as to which political turn of events have triggered the recent spate of attacks and whether rectification of the wrong political-tactical line is also required to prevent attacks on party and mass organization members.
there is no virtue in celebrating isolation from the people per se. we are a party that has witnessed the 1962 repression and the semi-fascist terror courageously for the sake of our principles. but those principled stands must not be mistaken to conclude that isolation from the people on these issues was the evidence of our correctness. for decades we have celebrated our popularity in west bengal as evidence of our correct line and combated the ultra-left ideologically and also by citing their lack of support among the people. please think. the last thing we should do is to believe that the more unpopular we become the more correct we are? that would be a liquidationist line. If we are isolated because we are wrong we must rectify, and we must not fear to take correct stands for the fear of unpopularity. the crucial thing in both these conditions is the correctness of our principled stand, not its popularity or unpopularity.
Change the name
This is the worst pamphlet that i have ever read. You could have cut and pasted the article of com. Karat that would have saved you this onerous task of inventing new arguments for support to pranab. By the way, yesterday in the television studio the gen secy of all india sfi was saying that sfi has nothing to do with cpim and it is not bound by the decisions of cpim, then why did you have to take upon yourself the task to defend the decision of the party? Also, i would like to know, have the sfi cec formally taken this position? If yes, when. Otherwise, you are also committing the same 'mistake' for which the sfi jnu unit was dissolved. Lastly, please check your facts first before writing any pamphlet. A mere googling would have given you the data to show that even without the support of cpim/left parties upa candidate would sail through and here the assumption is that tmc would vote against the upa candidate. You people have mixed up the sequence of events also. When did cpm decided to vote for pranab? 21 june, correct. And when was pranab delared as candidate by upa? 15 june. By 21 june, sp, bsp, lalu, etc have already pledged their support. THERE WAS NO NEED OF CPM'S VOTE to defeat 'tmc-nda' candidate. My suggestion would be stick to the party line and try to defend the indefensible, do not act clever by half and try to cook up new arguments. I forgot one thing, you should have mentioned about vv giri. Your leader the great Budha has already done that. He most probably assumes that everybody is a fool. I will not write the arguements against the vv giri line of argument, find out yourself or ask your leaders.
Lastly, comrades, it is always better to avoid name calling in politics and specially so in jnu. Counter the arguments of other organisations politically, you are all students, leave the vilifiication campaign for your party leaders. They are capable enough to do that. The flip side of name calling is from tomorrow, people might start calling you sfi(budhadeb). Some of your leaders like ritobrata might like it but most of you will not.
So, study and struggle. Whichever sfi is correct will win the battle.
Rajeev.
P. S. please ask your pamphlet writers to write better than this.
Sad
That pragoti has chosen to upload this article shows its magnanimity.
This is the filthiest piece of writing published in the name of JNU-SFI that I have come across in the last 14 years. Totally unimaginative, and below the belt personal attacks.
Check your facts first
Check your facts first comrades. The All India SFI has adopted absolutely no position of the Presidential Elections, or on the murder of T.P. Chadrasekharan because they believe that these issues do not concern the SFI. They are refusing to adopt a position on national issues. The SFI-JNU unit has officially not been dissolved for taking any political decision that violates the SFI official line because their is no official SFI line. The official expulsion order invokes only organizational issues, but your pamphlet claims that the SFI-JNU unit has been dissolved for "adoption of a wrong and divisive line ...that betray, among other things, an appalling lack of class bias." Very interesting!
And wasn't more consultation required on part of the SFI All India leadership before 'dissolving' the unit and expelling 4 leaders? At least the State Secretary of the SFI should have been consulted, who has now resigned in protest.
You are right, this decisions has been taken at the behest of the Party leadership. The All Inida SFI should come out clearly with the stand that all SFI units have to agree cent-percent with the CPI(M). If they don't, even on some issues, they will be dissolved and the mass organization programme and constitutions tossed into the dustbin.
There are huge differences between the official expulsion order reproduced below and your pamphlet. Wonder if there is some double-speak again!
“10.07.2012 Press Release
Delhi State Committee of Students’ Federation of India today decided to dissolve the JNU unit and expel four state committee members for indulging in anti-organizational activities and violating the rules under the constitution of SFI. The JNU unit had called a GBM on 5th of July and passed resolution taking a decision on an issue that is outside the purview of a unit committee and grossly violated the constitution of SFI.
The Rule 4 (a) of the SFI constitution states that: “The unit committee will have the absolute right to take decisions concerning issues at the institution level or its defined area of work, provided such decisions do not have implications which go beyond the confines of the institution or the unit’s area of work”.
Also, the Rule 4 (f) states that “The CEC will have the absolute right to take decisions on all issues of national and international concern”.
Roshan Kishore, P K Anand, Zico Dasgupta and V Lenin Kumar have been expelled from the primary membership of SFI for violating the norms and the fora, as well actively pursuing an anti organizational agenda.
Sd/- Sd/-
Kopal Sumeet Tanwar
Acting State Secretary Acting State President”
Mr.Anonymous
Why anonymity ? Post comments by your name. Then we can debate. Why our JNU Comrades distributed pamphlet after the GBM ? They are talking about Democratic rights, I will pose simple question--- What about the democratic rights of those students who were kept out of the committee and secretariat by JNU Leadership by not holding Unit conference for last two and half years. I can understand your compulsion comrade.
Zikrullah Khan
University of Hyderabad.
You are wrong comrade. The
You are wrong comrade. The JNU SFI Unit conference was just held on 31st March-1st April 2012 and has a newly elected EC. The All India SFI leadership attended the Conference and heard the debates. If counter versions regarding debates in the Conference are brought out through such malicious pamphlets, they would fail to carry any credibility within JNU because over a 100 delegates participated in the Unit Conference and are well aware of the political-organizational debates.Do not take the democratic consciousness of SFI ranks in JNU for granted.
Yes such pamphlets can try to vilify the SFI-JNU unit outside JNU. Hope that does not happen and better sense prevails.
As far as the delay is concerned, in exceptional circumstances even the Party Congress is delayed if all comrades agree to do so in a democratic manner.
SFI sympathizer from outside JNU and Delhi
It is sad that Pragoti team has chosen to upload (without cross checking easily accessible facts) a phamphlet (supporting the right deviations) which tries to grossly mislead larger student (affiliated to sfi or others) community by misrepresenting the facts (assuming that writers of above pamphlet are not post modernists). it is well known fact that In the month of July JNU (being residential campus with 95 % students from outside Delhi) being closed even a strength of 46 in GBM is good enough - most of the sfi members (and even jnu students) are back home. Even there there the resolution was passed with following votes In Favour: 37 Opposition: 2 Abstention: 7 (look at the percentage in favour) which makes it clear on whose side JNU SFI members stand. In this event ,most of the students not present in their hostel, it does not make any sense to hold hostel GBM can be grasped by even outsiders like me. Even supporters of authoritarian should learn to make logical and sensible points atleast when they are arguing and shooting the messengers. And SFI JNU has explained in their pamphlets the necessity of holding such GBM in event of continuous attack from ultra left (and rightist in their very unit itself having similar views like above authors). please read that below.
"Why GBM Now?
A wide debate has unfolded after the CPI (M)’s decision to support Pranab Mukherjee in the presidential elections. Despite the ongoing summer vacations, JNU has not been untouched by this debate. In the past few weeks the SFI came under severe attack from ultra-Left organizations like the AISA over this issue. Students were asking about SFI’s position and we could not afford to remain silent. Given the urgency of the situation and considering the interests of the organization in JNU, the SFI EC decided to initiate a debate involving all available SFI members and arrive at a common position. To do so, the highest democratic platform of the GBM has been utilized. In the given situation, this exercise could not have been delayed any further."
http://sfijnuweb.wordpress.com/2012/07/07/sfi-jnu-pamphlet-dated-7-july-...
Pragoti editorial should take proper care to carry all articles with facts and not some whims and fancies of some individuals backed by powerful rightist forces in the high command.
please see other SFI JNU phamphlets like
http://sfijnuweb.wordpress.com/2012/07/11/sfi-delhi-state-secretary-robe...
http://sfijnuweb.wordpress.com/2012/07/11/jnu-sfi-unit-statement-against...
http://sfijnuweb.wordpress.com/2012/07/09/unite-to-strengthen-left-unity...
http://sfijnuweb.wordpress.com/2012/07/06/resolution-passed/
to get the right perspective on this issue rather than misled by such right authoritarian views as expressed above.
In the name of debate and
In the name of debate and keeping the readers of this site informed, will you post anything that have words like cpm, sfi, bose etc? The language and logic of this post do not deserve any merit and it should be ignored.
"it is better for them to
"it is better for them to call themselves by the name AISA(B) – either to indicate their degenerating as the B Team of AISA, or sticking to the time-tested bourgeois tradition of naming the faction in the overlord’s name (Bose)"
This is factionalism! This is name calling. No pamphlet or position of SFI-JNU is based on individuals. This betrays the political vacuousness of this post in Pragoti.
All the 'quote-un-quote' above comments are by this person.
Sourindra Ghosh
Which Bose is this?
Could not understand which Bose this is? Subhash Chandra Bose or Satyendranath Bose (Boson)?
"It has been conveniently
"It has been conveniently ignored by the “SFI-JNU” leadership that the prime concern this time as well was to have a secular candidate, given the concrete danger of a candidate of the TMC earning the support of the NDA as well, and taking the groundswell of support from conservative sections of the middle class to bolster his chances of victory."
So, the TMC can change its stance but the CPIM cant? or the CPIM has had to take a stance based on speculative changed stance of TMC?
What is "middle class" doing into all these analyses? Oh supporting Pranab will gain "middle class" support for CPIM? That is some class analysis, 'comrades'!
"Why didn’t the leadership
"Why didn’t the leadership engage in wider consultations, by, for instance, calling activists’ meetings and convening GBMs at all hostels, in keeping with the past traditions of SFI?"
Did the "national SFI leadership" conducted "wider consultations" in the campus before their decision?
"We would like to point out
"We would like to point out that taking a political stand that goes contrary to the position adopted by the national leadership of the left movement SFI is partisan towards is not a trivial matter"
So, SFI is bound to tow the line of the CPIM? Which organisational document, of CPIM or SFI, says so?
"when the right-wing votes in
"when the right-wing votes in the campus neatly disappeared into the AISA kitty, manifested in their majority this year"
So this years mandate is a communal mandate? Go, tell the majority students of the campus, you are all right-wingers, we will teach you the correct politics this time. Well, mobilise your campaigners if you can.
Oh. They are now threatening
Oh. They are now threatening those who are challenging the expelled leadership and their 'bose'. Read the phrases: "we will teach you" and "mobilise your campaigners if you can".
sad misinterpretations!
sad misinterpretations! I only meant that the pamphlet authors are trying to say to the majority students of the campus that we will teach you correct politics this time (since the pamphlet terms the majority students as right-wingers). And yes, please mobilise your campaigners in the campus; or else how do you expect to take the politics of your pamphlet to the students of the JNU campus? Through All India SFI helicopter that dropped the "New JNU Unit-OC"?
we will teach you the correct politics this time
it is you who is twisting facts (for us readers it very clear) as that is what you rightist are good at... "we will teach you the correct politics this time" ..do you understand correct politics even if you do not understand what campaign is.... for you have never done mass based work..we know rightists don't do that.
Anonymous "reader"
First you misinterprated my line "we will teach you...etc". It is you who have tried to "teach" the majority students of the campus by terming them right wingers on their mandate for AISA. The opputunist ultra-left AISA, unfortunately, is flourishing on the left space, vacated by wrong stands of CPIM, and SFI-JNU so far compelled to defend that. I meant that. And ultra-left oppurtunists will flourish, if the main-stay Left CPIM takes such decision like supporting Pranab.
I do not even wish to "teach" you anything. Supporters of a neo-liberal stooge should not call themselves left. What mass based politics you are talking about when you are supporting one of the greatest agents Pranab and the party Congress who are out-right anti-people?
anonymous "reader" is in agreement with you
me... anonymous "reader" is in agreement with you.. my reply was (like yours) against the neo-liberal stooge who are supporting one of the greatest agents Pranab and the party Congress who are out-right anti-people... so please channelize your agitation constructively and thoughtfully into proper channels
Build left unity against neo-liberal policy and communalism
The stand taken by SFI-JNU is progressive . The killing of TP Chandrasekharan and supporting Pranab are Rightist politics . Day by day ,the UPA and NDA parties are getting exposed as the agents of hated globalisation policies . The left movement is emerging as the only alternative against globalisation . At such a historic juncture , CPM 's revisionist policies are like back-stabbing . Let us oppose those rightist policies from inside and outside . Let the SFI-JNU work for uniting all left forces against globalisation and fascism .
@"reader" (to avoid further confusion)
Oh, you are not the person who said the line "They are now threatening". Sorry for the mistake.