SFI-JNUs Continual Stereotyping Of The North-Easterners And Non-Apologetic Support To The Sanghi Lumpens Of The Campus !

Demand Public Apology From SFI-JNU And Its Activist For Making Communally And Racially Discriminating Comments On JNUSU Office-Bearers !!
It is extremely unfortunate that while we are trying to lead a determined struggle to uphold the secular, democratic credentials of the university and defend the legacy of a JNUSU which has fought for an inclusive and affordable campus for the deprived sections of the society against every possible rightwing offensive, on one hand we have received no support from the JNUSU leadership elected from SFI-JNU, further, an activist from the same organization has now indulged in the worst form of stereotyping and slander against us in a facebook discussion on the same issue. Commenting on a post regarding JNUSU Presidents continued refusal to take a firm position against the ABVP lumpenism, a well-known activist from SFI-JNU has written- matlab this z the height of vote politics, shakeel hain to minority hain agar minakshi hoti to st hoti (If it is Shakeel, then it is minority and if it was Minakshi, it would have been ST). This comment while on the one hand exposes the complete political bankruptcy of the organization and its activists, but is also extremely insulting to us as it seeks to comment not only on our individual person hoods but the communities to which we belong. We find it deeply insulting that the organization started a personalized slander against us based on a stereotypical understanding of our identities. Those present on the day of the election, would be well aware that Shakeel Anjum was roughed up by ABVP lumpens for asking them to refrain from raising slogans such as ek mauka aur do, in response to jhabua ke rapiston ko, pointing at women activists! We know who are the women who were raped in these places and when ABVP says, give us another chance, who do they mean to threaten yet again!! Rather than finding this open communal and gendered threat objectionable and condemnable, she has joined the bandwagon of the ABVP lumpens in raising unsubstantiated allegations against the one who resisted and then was subsequently targeted for the same on the basis of his identity! Her comments on the current JNUSU Vice President- Minakshi Buragohain, while completely uncalled for, again exposes the shallow understanding this organization's activists have regarding the North East. It shows how the organization and its activists believe that all North Easterners are tribes thereby denying all pluralities that abound in this region. It is not about whether the individual concerned is from a tribe or not, but the fact that this is how North Easterners are targeted and commented upon, without even bothering to know that different linguistic, ethnic and religious identities live in the North East. More dangerously, she refers tauntingly to minorities' and adivasis' struggles against communal/feudal targeting as 'height of vote politics'. Besides, is it not a reality today that the Muslims, tribals, Dalits and women in this country are under increasing assault, primarily because they are Minorities, tribals, Dalits and women? Can it be denied that the increasing incidents of minority witch hunting, social oppression, and gender violence are indeed based on the social identities of the victims!! The right-wing communalists and casteists regularly brand struggles against such witch-hunting and violence as 'vote politics' (as though the Hindutva politics of targeting these identities is not vote politics!) But should organisations bearing the name of Left also do the same? WE BELIEVE THIS IS NOT ONLY A PERSONAL ATTACK TAKING OUR NAMES, BUT A POLITICAL COMMENT GIVEN THE CONTEXT OF THE PRESENT DEBATE. WE FEEL DEEPLY HURT AND DEMAND THAT THE SFI-JNU TAKES RESPONSIBILITY FOR SUCH A COMMENT BY THEIR ACTIVIST. WE ALSO DEMAND AN UNCONDITIONAL PUBLIC APOLOGY FROM THE ORGANIZATION AND THE ACTIVIST.

Sd/-

Minakshi Buragohain, Shakeel Anjum

The original comments posted on the facebook: