JNU Politics, an insider's view..

JNU is recognised as the last of leftist bastions amongst Indian Universities.. In fact at one point of time, it looks like the leftist had lost it.. but they came back with a bang!
I have heard a lot of comments on politics in JNU ..even in unlikely places.. from people who would not even know what J stands for in JNU! Many people with even small connections to education in delhi would have heard about JNU.. the rest i m not sure. When i got into JNU after all the toil and tests, my of my relatives and acquaintances asked me if Bangalore University did not offer the course that i had opted in JNU! I felt so sick answering them. Man look up at the sky it is so wide.. why don't you ever compare Bangalore University to JNU. Later i grew to realise that this set of people could never come to know what it means to get into JNU.. May be if Ekta Kapoor gets this idea of a hero in some serial doing a course or having completed a course in JNU, this particular set of people might even get to know what JNU could be.. This set of people is endemic to South India where BA and BScs are looked down upon.. cos if you cant get a seat in the pathetic of engineering colleges and you are the dumbest in whole generations to come only then you go to BAs and BScs...
Never mind.. let me not dwell to much on this its got enough content for an entire blog. So let me concentrate on the JNU politics..
Then there is another class of people with a stereo typical perception of JNU.. mostly in the Hindi heartland.. who regard JNU as the stepping stone to civil service.. When ever i meet this sort of people they did just be interested to know how many times i managed to clear the prelims! and mains and of course any chance of making it to the interview and subsequently to mussorie..Yes there have been a lot of civil servants from JNU.. i myself have seen tens of them.. but not all of us are potential civil servants.. and JNU is not a tutorial centre for IAS aspirants..

Apart from these two classes is the one that has seen JNU a bit more closely than the other two classes..Mostly delhities.. how have lived here for long enough to know JNU's existence, and of course people who studied in Delhi.. would obviously exposed to JNU and its culture.. Many of them in fact take JNU to be the most happening place after dark.. and there were cases where youngsters came to JNU to 'have fun' of course they can no longer take the security of our campus for granted and indulge in activities like ewe teasing! its not acceptable in JNU.. prompt action and they will be in trouble.. In fact FIR was filed against a few men who passed lewd comments against a women last week or so.. so got to be a law abiding citizen in JNU.. even if not else where in India.

So the last mention class of people know quite a lot about JNU.. i have heard them say how bad politics in JNU is.. It is dirty.. so on..
But hey look.. no where in India is an election centred around a debate? For rest of the indians "presidential Debate" is an alien terms. something that happens in american elections...But for us its a reality. we participate in it. We listen to what the contestants have to say. Raise questions! corner them too. We then vote according to our choice... And unlike Delhi University elections we have no DJs, we have no dance parties, we have no vehicles for campaigning, no glossy posters of candidates.. many a times i have voted for just names.. i would not have even their faces! All we have is hand written posters, and of course pamphlets...

Of course JNU politics assumes the nasty shape when it comes to party bickering's.. can there ever be multiple parties in bonhomie? i doubt! These party bickering can get very dirty at times.. populism, accusation, everything that's common to politics prevails in the campus.. but then it is politics.. the last game of a scoundrel. At least we do in an intelligent fashion. There is active pamphletering .. we as students get our messages across.. we are not kept in dark about any development. Its again a game in politics, nevertheless it is beneficial to us.. This feature connects our campus politics to the national politics.. probably and thankfully the only feature that's common. I noticed today that one of the parties have a blog space to further their activities in the campus. .that's a nice development for the party who apparently fought for the rights of farmers and downtrodden? pretty impressive.. the party of the have nots too has gone digital.
Then there is the left is right and right is not syndrome. Pity the right! After Sandeep Mahapatra there was virtually no one who could stand up on his own in the presidential debate. The centrists are the worst of them all. they do not even provide the comic relief that some candidates of smaller parties.. Wonder how they manage to put such candidates. Poor thing the centrists do not even have a colour of their own! the leftists have their RED, the right its SAFFRON.. the centrists are left without any colours or brains.. all they do is host a real big iftar party during Ramzan festival.. I remembering going to one such party .. just to eat and enjoy and i happened to sit right in front of Shiela Dixit... never knew she would have come.. i smelt vote bank politics.. Well they do organise such a big festival for diwali!! why iftar! ours is a supposedly secular campus. Anyways.. i really enjoyed the food.. looks like they are money bags right now.. let them spend who ever cared.. the pakodas were tasty, so was the jalebi, samosa.. and the fruit chat.. its been a long time so i don't remember the entire list...Free food we will all be there.. one more feature of JNU.. In seminars where food is served, the attendance is higher... you will definitely find me as well!