Recent Incidents at my alma mater and some recollections

We entered Jadavpur University in 1987. At that time, the engineering student union was run by a party called DSF, if I remember correctly the name of the party. Nevertheless, I shall mention the party as DSF -- it might have been a slightly differently name at that time.

It was run by a few super senior students or ex-students who were quite popular -- Ujjwal da, Shibu da, and another didi whose name I cannot recollect at this time. DSF probably stood for Democratic Students Forum or something. The student wing of the CPI(M) party which was in power in West Bengal for 10 years already by that time, the SFI - did not get votes in the engineering faculty student union elections and I will come to that in a moment. The Arts and Science faculty student unions were run by the SFI. 

These characters -- Ujjwal Da, Shibu da and a few others were there for a while because they were super seniors -- most probably they got a lot of 'back's in exams and overstayed their usual 4 years of undergraduate life. They became popular as they used to speak populist vocabulary. They used to talk about poverty, absence of social safety net, growing inequality and they used to speak against some western countries and their imperialism. More recent political demagoguery in India, or Donald Trump reminds me of them. They used to come to our classrooms and speak about these issues. We were seduced to think that they were the underdogs -- oppressed by the ruling dispensation. It was well known that they were affiliated to some Naxalite parties -- apparently the Naxalite parties that believed in electoral democracy. A student from our batch also won union election on their ticket and got the junior most post in the union. They all spoke well and could excite the naive students into believing in causes that were noble but not necessarily related to the issues germane to the university's functioning.

Since the was considered an underdog in the larger context, even though they were the majority within the engineering faculty, the SFI was seen as a party affiliated to the government of the day -- and hence not subversive enough to excite the students.

I guess students from the Arts and Sciences were more matured than us and they rejected the DSF in all the student body elections, because they were probably exposed to political ideologies, sociology, and philosophical discourses. Whatever be the reason, the DSF did not make much dent in those parts of the campus.

There used to be rumors that Ujjwal da or the other members of the DSF are sacrificing their lucrative engineering career to work for the larger society and they are staying back among the students by failing their exams just to ensure that their politics spreads among the students. This obviously made some students impressed.

However, looking back, I realize that the DSF was more like a cult than a political party. They really did not have an effect on the politics in the larger society -- nor did the people who voted for them believed in anything those leaders used to preach. The majority of the students were interested in building their own careers, look for placements or plan for higher studies. Only a handful used to stay back for a few more years to engage in the DSF politics on campus. Engineering students, having dedicated their formative years in preparing for engineering entrance exams, probably lost an opportunity to achieve much maturity of mind and they were easily influenced by such cult leaders. 

There was a time, when 50 or so students failed in their second chance in the final exam, and the consequence was that they had to wait for a year to catch up with the junior batch of students. So, the DSF first initiated a gherao of the executive council members including the vice chancellor which went on for 30-40 hours and then called for strike -- class boycott etc. The SFI was part of the initial gherao but when it came to indefinite strike they opposed, and we decided that their party leaders in the Alimuddin Street probably pushed them into separating themselves from a larger strike. 

The strike initially started off with relay hunger strike in which even I participated --being excited to be part of something larger than our own ends, but that did not work to sway the administration to give the students a 3rd chance. Then about 20 students including some of my own departmental mates started fast unto death. At that point, I realized that the DSF was taking the students for a ride. There is not real philosophy behind their politics -- it was just to maintain their popularity among students that they were creating all these dramas and inducing unsuspecting students to fast unto death for no good reason. 

If their politics was to bring about social change, then trying reverse the failing of 50 students surely was not the way to achieve that. So, I protested, and at that, some of my own batch mates from civil engineering attacked me -- thankfully not physically but tried to harass, nevertheless. The Vice Chancellor at that time, who was also a good scholar, Prof. Sankar Sen decided to not budge but he did engage in dialogues with the students as well as with JUTA -- the teachers association. Finally, when the fasting students started going to hospitals -- it was called off -- but nothing was really achieved out of this.

However, for the DSF it was an achievement because they could create a stir among students, they could mobilize students to engage in something larger than themselves - albeit for nothing -- and that ensured that even in the next student body election in the engineering faculty -- they can easily win. 

On the other side of the campus, the SFI was the party that continued to win elections, and I believe their leaders used to graduate on time, and new sets of leaders used to take over in regular order. My students who were involved in the SFI activities were more matured than us -- which I realized as a hindsight. In the engineering faculty, those who were SFI activists, were actually courageous as they could go against the tide -- as the trend in engineering faculty was to support the DSF without applying our minds. 

Eventually, one of our DSF office bearers wasted a part of his youth in drugs. I do not know what happened to Ujjwal da or Shibu da -- I think they also probably passed out from JU -- or maybe they eventually joined the state Naxalite parties -- and most of the supporters of the DSF are now corporate bosses, or in the US or Europe, and it is doubtful that anyone is really following through the idealism that they thought was the driving force of the DSF. How naive were we!

The reason I am remembering all these, is because I am now reading about the recent ragging related death of a first-year student in the main hostel of JU, and how the hostel situation has devolved over the years. It seems even though the DSF is no longer there -- but some parties --so called independents are the surrogates of the DSF on campus and as usual, the engineering faculty students seem to be attracted to such politically and philosophically void cults -- and these cults have become so powerful that they call the shots in hostels and other places such that the administration yields to them in all decisive matters. This is a travesty of student politics because cultism is not politics. It is just a mirage of politics -- but behind the scenes it is a self-fulfilling ignorant mentality that has hijacked the opportunity for generations of brilliant students of JU to actually contribute to the social and political discourse of the state and the country. I also hear that these independent cults are often supported by the right-wing political parties because these cults keep the left front student unions away from taking root in the university -- so these cults become puppets of right-wing reactionary forces.

I read yesterday that our CM has blamed the left political parties for the incident in JU and also named a party that really does not have any influence there -- instead of naming the cult culprits who have been responsible for the devolution of the campus environment. I guess it is not surprising as it is clear that behind these cults, the incitements come from her party and other right-wing parties. It is really sad to see that being in a responsible position of the CM, she can be so ignorant or knowingly lying about the situation in the face of such a tragedy.