Professor Santishree D Pandit, Vice-Chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) stated that the Left has become weaker due to the emergence of competing political parties and is compelled to work together as it finds it difficult to win elections on its own.
Pandit, a former JNU student, claimed that she used to compete against the Left as a member of the Free Thinkers organisation, a "neutral" student body unaffiliated with any political party.
NOTA in JNUSU
Nearly 1,500 NOTA votes were cast in the most recent JNU Students' Union elections, according to Pandit, who spoke with PTI’s editors at the agency's headquarters in New Delhi. This indicates that students are not interested in either the Left or the Right.
In March, the United Left panel, which included the All India Students Association (AISA), Democratic Students' Federation (DSF), Students' Federation of India (SFI), and the All India Students' Federation (AISF), won the JNUSU election alongside Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students' Association (BAPSA), which won for the first time in the university's history, defeating its nearest rival, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).
The Left fought the elections united and had to back the BAPSA candidate at the last minute to prevent the ABVP from gaining power.
"There is a weakening of the Left on campus. Earlier SFI and AISF stood independently. They didn't need any alliance to win elections. They could defeat any grouping. I was a Free Thinker at that time. We didn't have both ABVP and National Students' Union of India (NSUI) on campus. Now their presence, including RJD's (Rashtriya Janata Dal), has come up and the Left needs to have unity of 10-12 groups to win," Pandit said.
"The general secretary in the JNUSU was not a Left candidate. She was from BAPSA. The left supported her to stop ABVP from coming into power. She doesn't listen to them, she says they supported me out of their own interest. This shows there is weakening of the Left on campus," she said.
Representation of the South?
The number of students represented from different states in JNU has also significantly changed and those coming from the South have considerably gone down, Pandit noted.
"Although the number of students has gone up, we were only 3,000 at that time, now we are 10,000. Earlier all states were better represented. Now the highest comes from Bihar, followed by Odisha and UP. Students from Rajasthan and Haryana have also increased. However, the number of students from the South has gone down considerably," she said.
"Sanghi VC"
When asked if it is difficult to remain fair in the Left-dominated campus given her RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) affiliation, Pandit stated that she has better leftist credentials than those on campus.
"I think everybody can have personal leanings and we can agree to disagree. That's the beauty of India. Also, that way if you see I was born in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg). I think I have a better DNA than the left. My godparents were CPI stalwarts," she said.
When asked if she is liked and accepted as a "Sanghi VC" in the Left bastion, Pandit retorted, "Yes, because they think people like me can also be there in the Sangh who have a broader, more flexible and inclusive view."
“I think the Left likes you when you are honest. I have never hidden my affiliation with the RSS. I am a proud Sanghi VC who brought the highest QS rankings to JNU," she added.
Decline in the democratic culture?
Pandit denied there has been any decline in the democratic culture of the university since she took over.
"I don't agree that there's a decline in freedom on campus. If that was so I wouldn't have conducted elections. We even held teachers' union elections. I think the ecosystem (Left dominance) that was there earlier is being contested by other arrangements (presence of new political outfits) on campus now," she said.
When asked why the university thought adopting strict regulations to curb protests on campus was necessary, Pandit explained that the decision was intended to maintain discipline on campus.
"When you are studying on the taxpayers' money, the taxpayers are going to question what type of products I am bringing out. So students have to be critical but factually critical. You can just brand and bring down anybody. We have set the areas of discipline. They can still protest on the Sabarmati lawns," she said.
Pandit recalled her student days and said, "During my period the top Left leaders were nationalists. We are just telling students to be responsible. You can't say anything and everything. JNU creates two illusions – that everything is free and talk whatever you want and there is no consequence – both of which do not exist outside the gate of JNU."
Pandit, who came to JNU for the first time with "two plaits and a ribbon" confessed that the campus was nothing like she had seen before.
"It was an eye-opener for me just like many others who haven't seen urban spaces in their life. The government should fund more universities like JNU at the state level," she said.
Almost since the campus's inception in 1969, the Left has held power at JNU.
Despite a few electoral victories, the ABVP, which is now the single largest opposition student group on campus, has long been a minor player. Its popularity grew in 2015, when the ABVP won a seat on the JNUSU central panel, a year after the Modi administration took power.
