JNU will Resist ABVP's Attempt to Steal Students’ Union Elections: AISA

Condemning the attempts to manipulate and steal JNU students' union elections, by the RSS backed ABVP, the AISA JNU unit in a statement on March 13 said that JNU community will give a befitting reply to anti-student organisation.

JNUSU elections are going to take place after a gap of more than four years, with the last union elected in 2019. This was a result of a long struggle by AISA and students’ organisations, forcing the JNU administration to issue notifications for the elections.

Since the beginning, the ABVP, with the aim of spreading RSS's divisive and communal agenda on the campus, had tried several times to delay and steal the democratic election process. On March 1, the ABVP also unleashed violence during the SLS General Body Meeting, injuring several students.

In an attempt to vilify the steadfast history of the campus standing with democratic movements and aspirations, the ABVP also screened vulgar propaganda movies like ‘Bastar’ on campus, which openly calls for the killing of JNU students.

Despite all its nefarious plans, the JNU students unitedly fought for their democratic right and clinched the election notification. The JNU administration, in its notification, fixed the poll date as March 22.

Having failed to stop the democratic process, on March 13, ABVP approached the Delhi High Court and challenged the election process by claiming that the election was taking place in violation of the Lyngdoh Committee Recommendations. It sought to quash the election notification authorising outgoing JNUSU members to conduct the GBMs and the formation of the Election Commission.

AISA in the statement said that ABVP seems to be following the line of their masters – the BJP – who also topples elected governments where the opposition parties are in power. They unleash ED, IT, CID, etc., on sitting legislators in an attempt to blackmail them, or buy the leaders through Operation Kamal. Be it the BJP or the ABVP, time and again, they fail to recognise the mandate of the people who elect their representatives.

Over time, JNUSU has resisted fee hikes in our University and fought to ensure that the gates of JNU are open to the students from marginalised sections, where affirmative action for women students and those from marginalised communities was ensured.

ABVP was not only missing in these struggles, but in cahoots with the administration, the organisation attempted to vilify and silence the movement. “If the JNUSU body is not elected, then these basic demands and rights of students cannot be protected. This is precisely why the ABVP does not want the elections to take place,” the statement added.