JNU elections: ABVP is wielding Kanhaiya and nationalism (but not #ShutdownJNU) to win votes

With 15 minutes to go for their campaign rally at the Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University campus on Monday, a group of students were stuffing cotton into earthen pots to make torches, or mashaals. The students hurriedly handed over a few unlit mashaals to their comrades, all members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidya Parishad right-wing student group so that they could begin a campaign march ahead of Friday's student union elections at the university.

A few metres away, a student chants, “9 ka badla 9 ko lenge.” We will take revenge for 9 on the 9th. The others take up the cry: “9 ko lenge, 9 ko lenge.”

Janhawi Ojha, the presidential candidate for the ABVP, which is affiliated to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, explained the slogan: “On September 9 [Friday], the day of the students’ union election in JNU, we shall avenge what had happened on February 9.”

There is little doubt that the events of seven months ago, which spiraled into a debate on free speech and nationalism across the country, will take centre-stage in this year’s contest at JNU – and make this one of the most keenly watched student union elections in the country.

JNU shot into the headlines shortly after February 9, when a group of students organised an event around the situation in Kashmir. It included a re-examination of the execution in 2013 of Afzal Guru, convicted for his role in the 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament. ABVP members alleged that anti-Indian slogans were shouted at the event, while the university administration claimed that permission had not been given for the event.

What followed was a sedition case, with police entering the campus to arrest student union president Kanhaiya Kumar on February 12. This triggered a nationwide discussion on free speech and allegedly anti-national activities. Two other students, Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, were later arrested.

The majority of students of JNU, meanwhile, closed ranks to protest the arrests, preventing the police from coming back to the campus. A month-long lecture series on nationalism was launched.

Patriotism pitch

Watching all along from the sidelines were members of the ABVP. The student group is now attempting to use the events of February 9 to galvanise support for itself in Friday’s election.

The presidential candidates for the election are Ojha of the ABVP; Sonpimple Rahul Punaram of the Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students’ Association; Mohit K Pandey, All India Students’ Association-Students’ Federation Of India; Sunny Dhiman of National Students’ Union Of India; and Dileep Kumar, Students’ Front For Swaraj.

An ABVP member and undergraduate student in the Russian studies course, who asked to remain unidentified, said the group is trying to build its appeal among younger students.

“After the February 9 event, many had joined hands with ABVP, both as members and as supporters,” the student said. “We have been campaigning for the group for the past few weeks. We went door-to-door in the hostels with a copy of [Justice] Pratibha Rani’s order on Kanhaiya’s bail and cited certain points to establish that the wrongdoers have not been given a clean chit yet.”

While granting Kumar bail in March, Justice Rani of the Delhi High Court, in a much-discussed order, quoted patriotic Bollywood songs and spoke about amputating JNU's "infection".

An ABVP member from the School of Languages, referring to Khalid, said: “During the door-to-door campaigns, we even had to discuss the political background of the father of one of the students arrested in connection with the February 9 event and extremist links of that group to which he was affiliated to.” Khalid’s father had said that he was involved with the Students Islamic Movement of India or SIMI, before it was banned in 2001. “We also tried to convince other students that even the Bolshevik revolutionaries [of Russia] were nationalists." The ABVP hopes that this will help left-leaning students identify with their brand of nationalism.

#ShutdownJNU fallout?

While the nationalist argument has helped the ABVP draw freshers into its ranks, it has also prompted demands from right-wing groups at large demanding a shutdown of JNU – something the ABVP fear may work against them in the elections.

“With this, the debate on nationalism transformed into a cross-campaign: Shut Down JNU versus Stand With JNU, which the Left parties cleverly propagated, taking advantage of the situation," said Abhijeet, an office bearer of ABVP. “When we interacted with students while campaigning, we had to put in a lot of effort to convince them that ABVP does not support any of those voices that have so far demanded shut down of JNU.”

Last year, while All India Students Federation's Kumar won the post of president, ABVP won one of the four central panel seats after a 14-year gap in the student union elections at JNU – considered home to left-wing politics. The student's group is hoping to capitalise on last year's gains and is working to draw the support of freshers.

“Most of them are apolitical, for which they are approachable,” Ojha said. “The university has around 1,000 freshers in the undergraduate courses and 700 in various postgraduate courses, M Phil and PhD programmes put together. We are convinced that around 75% of them will vote for us.”

The group's attempt is to ensure a good voter turnout among freshers, which can be a challenge as most of them live off campus. “Efforts are on to make them aware of the role they play in the political dynamics inside the campus and ensure they come and vote on election day,” Ojha said.