When a flame is about to wither, it flickers to its fullest, it tries to absorb all the oil that is left in the diya and eventually breaths its last. The flame is all red, similar to the colour of the setting sun, but this flame could never rise again since the cotton base on which it lightens is all ashes by now. Similar seems the fate of another Red present here. The elections of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union elections reflected upon the same. The All India Students’ Association (AISA), Students’ Federation of India (SFI), Democratic Students’ Federation (DSF) and All India Students’ Federation (AISF) all came together to contest the elections of Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU), trying to absorb all what is left for the left. The main force against which all these associations united under the banner of ‘Left Unity’ was Akhil Bharatiye Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).
The contest was to elect the students’ union of the university, but the debate was on the issues pertaining to the Central government. The ruling association in the university was constantly targeting the emerging power of ABVP by accusing the Central government. The intelligible differentia between the object of this election with the propaganda of these associations was unimaginably non-pragmatic. The ‘left unity’ might be correct on their part, since they have the final onus to save the ‘left’ from drying away from the Indian mainland, but what they failed to realize was that the issues they were raising have no direct effect on a university student, in capacity of a student, who is there to study, learn and grow. The rhetoric and narrative they played may have provided a moral support to their patriarchs, but will the issues like ‘whether demonetization was correct or not’ would provide a JNUite with better infrastructure, or will the argument on lynching help a research scholar to get his JRF fund released, this question is for us, the students to answer.
The results, which was released only after a high-voltage parody, showed that the ABVP got 883 votes while the four fronts coming together bagged 1.8k votes to retain the post of President. The similar positions were observed on the other seats as well. Although, the single largest party was the ABVP, but the Left which got united for this particular motive was able to bag all the seats. The AISA, SFI, DSF and AISF, which are in no terms with each other, came up as ‘united’ left , allied for this election and won the seats, but would this farrago of associations be able to serve the local issues of a common JNUite, only the time can satisfy this inquisitiveness.
The red flame flickers, by winning all the seats, to its vigour but is it breathing its last? Is it that ABVP succumbed a death of Abhimanyu? And if analogy is to be made, then whether the patriarchs of this Abhimanyu be able to win a larger battle of Mahabharata? These all speculations find their validity in the womb of future.
