The institution which boasts of upholding highest standards of democratic values witnessed the lynching of the same democratic values at the hands of Left party and its other alliance partners. The Student Union Election in JNU this year was held on 14th September 2018. Like every year since 2014, this year’s election too, was hyped up. Mainstream Media took special cognizance of the JNUSU election.
Staying true to its biased attitude, media did not cover a few important things. ABVP Presidential candidate Lalit Pandey, during his speech in Presidential debate, was continuously interrupted by the Left candidates. Their political masters in parliament and assemblies have taught them well, of course. Left, sensing the increasing support for ABVP in the campus resorted to cheap tricks and published posters in ABVP’s name with mala fide intentions. Since ABVP did not back out despite these strong-arm tactics, Left goons in the campus showed their true colour (read as red).
After voting concluded in the evening of 14th September, counting process started around 10:30 pm in School of Languages (SLL). Before the counting starts, Election Commission is supposed to make minimum 3 calls to polling agents of the candidate. According to the Rule 5 (b) of Part 3 of Appendix 1 of JNUSU Constitution, no vote should be counted without the presence of counting agents of candidates. All ballot papers, while being counted, should be displayed to the candidates or a person authorized by the candidates. This rule was highly disregarded by the EC.
We believe that transparency of the electoral process has been compromised. Rule 5(b) of Part 3 of Appendix 1 of JNUSU Constitution is violated by the EC. EC broke seal of ballot box & started counting Central Panel votes without presence of counting agents or candidates of ABVP.
— ABVP (@ABVPVoice) September 15, 2018
The announcement was made only twice. ABVP representative reached the vote counting centre after the second announcement was made. In spite of this, the authorized ABVP representatives were not let inside the counting centre so that the Left gets a free hand to manipulate the polled votes in the absence of ABVP representatives. For 40 minutes, ABVP representatives kept pleading with the guards to allow them entry into the counting centre. Even after the guards conveyed this to EC, the EC remained adamant about continuing with the counting process in the absence of ABVP representatives.
This resulted in ‘booth capturing’ by the left so as to manipulate the already casted votes.
Communist workers from Jadavpur giving death threats to the students supporting #ABVP after capture of the counting booth by left-unity & illegal counting of votes in the absence of the polling agents of all the candidates. Shameful drama at #JNU. Time administration steps in.
— Abhinav Prakash (@Abhina_Prakash) September 15, 2018
This may take some of the older (most of them) leftists in the campus down the memory lane when they would do the same in West Bengal, Kerala, and other parts in India. The ‘booth capture’ is not surprising at all because leftists’ fear of losing elections to ABVP could be sensed from the fact that they added another alliance partner. To add to their agony, the voter turnout in SL and SLS, which are strongholds of ABVP, was higher than expected.
While everyone was aware of 4 alliance partners, the 5th one came to the fore on the day of counting — the Election Commission!
ABVP expresses deep concerns over the way counting is conducted in JNUSU election. We have a strong suspicion that the Election Committee formed for JNUSU Election 2018-19 is involved in rigging election in favour of the Left organizations.
— ABVP (@ABVPVoice) September 15, 2018
Sensing the bias with which the vote counting was being dealt with, ABVP started its protest with the demand to allow their representatives in the vote counting centre. Despite their continuous protests, demands of recounting of the already counted votes fell on deaf ears of the EC. Looking at the support ABVP garnered for their protest, rattled Left parties listened to their basic instinct which would have made their late chairman Mao proud, and launched a brutal physical attack on protesting activists of ABVP. SFI and AISA goons were on the forefront of attacking ABVP activists.
3. AISA’s goons Vikas Kaushikraj (Dept of Spanish), Nitish (Brahmaputra), Bala S. (Jhelum), Shravani, Pavan Meena (Periyar), Delhi SFI State President Prashant Mukherjee and others resorted to hooliganism within the campus.
— ABVP (@ABVPVoice) September 15, 2018
In this attack, many ABVP activists, including were severely injured.
JNU में कम्यूनिस्टों ने @ABVPVoice के ओंकार श्रीवास्तव को अपनी हिंसा का शिकार बनाकर ओंकार का पैर तोड़ दिया है। एक कार्यकर्ता का हाथ भी तोड़ डाला है। #CommunistsTerrorInJNU pic.twitter.com/7Vyd0a9KTq
— Nidhi Tripathi JNU (@nidhitripathi92) September 15, 2018
Some of the protesting activists, including National Secretary of ABVP Nidhi Tripathi, had to be admitted in Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital
1. Satrupa & Gitakumari of AISA tore the clothes of ABVP activist Niharika.
2. ABVP activists Sujal Yadav, Shruti Agnihotri, Janhavi Ojha, Omkar Srivastava, Nidhi Tripathi, Priyadarshini Rathore are admitted to Safdarjung Hospital after severe physical assault by Leftist goons.
— ABVP (@ABVPVoice) September 15, 2018
Left, disregarding any gender considerations, tore clothes of a protesting girl.
FAKE FEMINISM of JNU Leftists – Clothes of Girls were torn & ABPV Activists BRUTALLY beaten #JNUSUElection2018 #JNUSU #JNUSUresults pic.twitter.com/T0dJ2Ur4we
— Rosy (@rose_k01) September 15, 2018
When Sujal Yadav, an ABVP activist tried to stop Left goons from beating ABVP girl activists, Leftist beat him and broke his hand.
The AISA-SFI goons broke the hand of a student who tried to stop them from beating #ABVP girls. This is what happened today. And to cover it up, comrades are spreading fake news of assault by ‘masked men’ and ‘outsiders’. Shameless people…#JNU #JNUSUElection2018 pic.twitter.com/5B8gb0lQcl
— Abhinav Prakash (@Abhina_Prakash) September 15, 2018
So much for Freedom of Expression and Right to Dissent which the Left keeps preaching about! What they preach and what they practice in reality have nothing to do with each other.
The irony, which has died several deaths at the hands of leftist goons in JNU, died once more today, when the left goons, after bashing up protesting students still claimed that they stand for democracy. It is the travesty of International Democracy Day that in the capital of world’s largest democracy, utter disregard was shown to its core principles of dissent, dialogue and due process. In this manner, democracy in JNU was laid to rest. But what the Left did not realize is what they were burying was not a dead body, but the seeds of democracy which will grow again and thrive.
(This article has been authored by Varada Marathe)
