posters Archives - DU Beat - Delhi University's Independent Student Newspaper

ABVP-led DUSU slams the Left for 5 January JNU violence and anti-CAA protests with hoardings all over North Campus. ABVP and NSUI exchange words regarding no official meetings, securing permission and wasting union budget.

University’s North Campus has been covered with hoardings put by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (ABVP) led Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) blaming the Left for the January 5 violence inflicted at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). They have also blamed the Left for protesting against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

Akshit Dahiya, President, Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) has accepted that the provocative hoardings have been installed by the ABVP. “They (the Left) are speaking about breaking India and slogans and banners seeking freedom for Kashmir have sprung up at their protests. There are attempts to project students’ protest in a negative way,” said Dahiya.

The DUSU sits on an unbalanced note as three of the members are affiliated to ABVP while the post of Secretary comes from a rather different ideology; led by the Congress-led- National Students’ Union of India (NSUI). Dahiya added that three hoardings have been put up near Law Faculty after attaining the required permission from authorities. The hoardings have messages such as “CAA ke naam par desh jalana bandh karo” (stop burning the country in the name of CAA) and “Left attacks JNU,” carrying pictures of ABVP members injured in the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) January 5 violence and those injured due to anti-CAA protests all over the country. One of the hoardings also shows mob pelting stones.

However, the National Students’ Union of India slammed the rather cheap move by ABVP. Ashish Lamba, Secretary of the DUSU questioned the ABVP’s decision to put up such posters as there was no official DUSU meeting regarding the same. Dahiya countered the claim by stating that DUSU Executive Council which comprised 15 members, including the four DUSU office-bearers who came to the conclusion with the consensus of 10 members.

The Delhi President of NSUI, Akshay Lakra, criticised the wastage caused by ABVP-led DUSU of the Union’s budget. Accusing the ABVP in indulging in dirty left-right politics in free university spaces, Lakra continues, “Despite being exposed many times by media and JNU students, ABVP still hasn’t accepted its defeat in its own propaganda. The NSUI strongly condemns any sort of hate campaign run by political parties on university campuses. It’s high time that we restore peace and harmony on campuses,” he said. To counter this claim, Akshit Dahiya, DUSU President, denied using the budget for putting up the hoarding rather the Executive Council contributes 200 INR per member.

January 5, 2020, went down quite unfortunate on JNU as masked men and women barged into the campus with weapons, vandalising and injuring people as the Delhi Police observed in silence. Media debated and conspired to blame the Left for inflicting violence on the left, thus perpetuating the idea of ‘Left Terror’. However, within a few days, Pinky Chaudhary of Hindu Raksha Dal took to video to claim responsibility for the merciless attack on unarmed students. In the video, Chaudhary says, “For several years, JNU has been a bastion of communists and we will not tolerate it. Hindu Raksha Dal, Bhupendra Tomar, Pinky Chaudhury take the responsibility of what has happened in JNU…all of them were our volunteers. Those who cannot do such work for Mother India don’t have the right to live in this country.” The violence instigated on students was deadly as over 30 injured students and professors were admitted to AIIMS Trauma Centre on the night of 6th January.

Featured Image Credits: Jaishree Kumar

Anandi Sen
[email protected]

Keep Reading

Politics never seizes to amaze me. Like art, at a different age, you decipher the riddles of various politically active figures and their vote banks in a different way. I always knew that a large part of it requires a lot of money and support, but that was all that I knew before I decided to contest myself. Throughout my second year, I had strived hard and made a ‘name’ for myself. I had started two societies, and being a university journalist added brownie points to my already sparkling repertoire in the college. I had a really nice chance of winning, or so I thought.

A month before the elections I stepped into the limelight, letting my friends know about my intention to contest for the elections. The response however took me by surprise – “You are not election material” and “you have achieved so much, why do you have to do this?” These responses made me more eager to prove my mettle. So I buckled up for the adventurous days that were deemed to come.
Here’s what I learnt while I was campaigning –

1) Your post is never decided until the last week – This is because people who handle your election portfolio need to constantly negotiate with the opposite party for the post of each other’s liking. At the same time, there is always a risk of you not getting nominated because of some discrepancies in the filing process.

2) Endless death-threats – Your opposition is always ready to either make fun of you or discourage you. And if the preceding acts leave no mark on your morale, then the obvious next action is an obscene amount of death threats either on your face or on the phone.

3) You have to organize a good unofficial fresher’s party – Wooing the fresher’s and securing a strong competent vote-bank never seemed more important.

4) Wastage of paper reaches a record high in the election month – From posters on walls, to handed cards and even chits thrown on the floor, this menace never stops. Walls, eventually start losing colors because of these.
I ended up not contesting because of discrepancies in the form, but I have truly learned a lot from the experience of campaigning.

Image Credits- youthkiawaaz.com

Ishaan Sengupta
[email protected]

Keep Reading