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Atishi’s rise to power and AAP’s political playbook

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Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest and subsequent resignation were followed by claims of “wanting the court of the people to decide his return.” Atishi Marlena’s appointment as the Chief Minister poses a significant shift in the party dynamics. How will this potentially impact the 2025 Vidhan Sabha Elections in Delhi?

On March 21, 2024, Arvind Kejriwal was arrested due to his alleged involvement in corruption during the now-expired Delhi liquor excise policy. He was granted bail on 18th September 2024, after which he suddenly announced his resignation from the post of Delhi’s Chief Minister. Atishi was unanimously elected in his place. Known for her academic prowess, with a Rhodes Scholarship and degrees from Oxford University and St. Stephen’s College, Atishi’s rise to the post of Chief Minister is crucial since AAP has always balanced theatrics with governance. This strategy of emotionally appealing to the masses is a significant strategy that has helped it dominate Delhi’s diverse political landscape. 

Under Kejriwal’s leadership and even before, it heavily relied on grabbing attention through theatrics. From Kejriwal’s dharnas to his direct confrontations with the centre, he has helped solidify AAP’s identity as a party that serves the people. In the 2014 dharna outside the Rail Bhawan, for instance, he demanded control over the Delhi Police. He famously declared himself an “anarchist,” framing himself as the defender of the identity of the common man against the central authority—a saviour from the masses who will fight against the disruptive political status of the country. In 2019, his indefinite hunger strike demanding full statehood for Delhi further added to his political image. Such theatrical tactics have been a central strategy to keep the party relevant, and Atishi also seems to have adopted the same. 

Since the last few parliamentary elections, AAP has been known for its unique blend of populism and occasionally successful administrative situations. As a result, although Atishi is well-known for her contributions to policy and education from her time serving as an advisor to the Delhi Government, her rise to the position of Chief Minister is simply another move in the AAP’s political playbook and not a reflection of her ability. Even if Atishi deviates from the conventional political narrative thanks to her image as a serious policymaker, she will not be able to avoid the dramatic flair that the AAP loves. Additionally, all her attempts to “clean up politics” and combat corruption are frequently followed by symbolic actions, such as sobbing, passing out, and ferocious speeches, in an attempt to connect with the public on an emotional level.

Another recurring theme in AAP’s political playbook is the idea of reluctant leaders, people entering politics and leadership out of a sense of public duty rather than mere ambition. Atishi can also be framed into this very mould, and her intellectual prowess, paired with her people-pleasing performances, only adds to her public appeal. 

“It almost feels like the party is partaking in a TV show of their own, in the hopes of swaying people and distracting them from real, more relevant issues, and unfortunately, they seem to be succeeding.”

– A second-year student from Delhi University

As Delhi’s Water Minister, Atishi famously went on strike, demanding the BJP-ruled state of Haryana to release water. Consequently, she was hospitalised and, according to claims made by AAP officials, lost 2 kg of weight. A video message was posted on her official X account, where she declared that she would continue the fast no matter how much her body suffers, until the people of Delhi receive justice. Following Manish Sisodia’s arrest, Atishi broke down into tears, claiming that this arrest was a part of a larger political vendetta against her party. Moreover, in her very first speech as the Chief Minister, she emotionally declared that they only have to do one work now, which is to make Arvind Kejriwal the chief minister again. 

While her rise is indicative of AAP’s calculated use of populism to preserve its public appeal, given that Atishi’s focus very evidently seems to be bringing Kejriwal back to power, her term may be more about upholding the Kejriwal legacy than establishing her own. The February elections will determine whether Delhi’s voters continue to be swayed by these spectacles or choose to focus on more substantial points.

 

Read Also: Education, Not Religious Agitataion: AAP and BJP in the Delhi Elections

Sakshi Singh 

[email protected] 

Featured Image Credits: Telegraph India

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Legal education and the cost of dreams

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Each year, thousands and thousands of students work hard and appear for CLAT (Common Law Admission Test), aspiring to crack into top law colleges. These students enter the campuses with big dreams and expectations, but in light of the recent suicide cases, are these premier institutes ready to facilitate integrated law programs or should they resort to the conventional three-year law programs?

Since the inception of the 5-year integrated programs in law in 1986, India has set global standards in the field of legal education. While many other countries like Australia, the U.K, the Philippines also offer five to six year courses in law, in India, after the establishment of NLUs (National Law Universities), programs like BA-LLB (Bachelors in Arts + Legislative Law), BBA-LLB (Bachelors in Business Administration + Legislative Law), BSC-LLB (Bachelors in Science + Legislative Law), BCOM-LLB (Bachelors in Commerce + Legislative Law), and BSW-LLB (Bachelors in Social Work + Legislative Law), have taken prominence. While courses like MBBS are often socially regarded as rigorous courses, the recognition in the case of 5-year law courses is not the same from the academic institutions. As a result, several students have taken their own lives.

In light of the recent events, mental stress, especially amongst law students, has become a burgeoning issue. When premier law schools like NLU-Delhi and RMLNLU (NLU-Lucknow) report suicide cases, wherein the administration is silent and people ask about ‘why’ and ‘how’ the incident occurred, it illustrates the urgency of the aforementioned issue. People often overlook the academic rigour, which is a prerequisite in these integrated programs. These people often act as the vice-chancellors and professors in these institutions, and are willing to undertake batches of 200 students, but do they have the required apparatus to facilitate them? 

Typically, these 5-year integrated programs involve 6 subjects in a semester, all of which are considered the core subjects (this may be subjected to some variation in some institutions). Three of these subjects are usually of your dual degree while the rest three are legal subjects. This format is followed till the end of 2nd year and majorly from 3rd year onwards, only law subjects are covered. The underlying problem that arises here is, that the current private and government universities have an inclination towards starting these integrated courses, but at the same time these courses demand experienced professors who hold expertise in the associated dual degree, with which the student is combining it’s LLB. Ad-hoc appointments of professors is not a new issue and has been faced by students from all universities under all disciplines, but the cases of such hurried appointments increase when we look at government institutions.

This illustrates the urgency to scrutinise the present administration in NLUs (National Law Universities) and other government-aided universities. The amount of rigour that is demanded in the aforementioned courses is often underscored. There is burgeoning pressure on students to get their papers published in renowned journals that are UGC-Care listed or have ISSN and ISBN numbers. Typically, universities often direct students to write two to three research papers per semester for every subject. In some subjects, students may be required to come up with group presentations, for example, students pursuing BBA-LLB often immerse themselves with business case studies in their initial years, but writing research papers for the law subjects remains a constant. These publications act as a non-negotiable asset for students who wish to apply to foreign universities for their LLM. Adding to this, moot courts and ADR (Alternate Dispute Resolution) competitions, become a quintessential aspect for resume building as companies nowadays prefer hiring students who are well versed with practical experiences in these events. Given all these prerequisites, when students are not supplemented with proper aid from their universities, it adds a heavy mental pressure on them. 

To add more on this, these events often require hefty registration fees. I myself, being a law student, at the ILC (Integrated Law Center), Faculty of law, University of Delhi, participated in an International Negotiation Competition, which was hosted by NMIMS Mumbai. The accommodation charges for the event amounted to 10,000 rupees + 18% GST, apart from this, the registration fees additionally were 5000 rupees + 18% GST. Even after qualifying for the advanced rounds, our university did not spare a single penny for us. I’m privileged enough to come from a well-to-do background, which helped me in financing my competition, but the same is not the case for other students. Moreover, non-NLU students have an added pressure of finding internships due to an existing bias of companies favouring students from National Law Universities.

I feel stressed. There is a constant fear that everyone will be in a better place in the future, and I’ll still be here just figuring out life. What if I’ll not succeed? What if all this is not for me? The moots, projects, 9-4 classes, and the pressure of doing more in the meantime is too much. The unsaid expectations that I have for myself are too much to handle. Having no one to talk to, yes, there are people who are there for me and will listen to me, but still not wanting to tell anyone and fighting alone. It feels like it’s all gonna be worth it at some point in life but when?”

                     – Riya Singh (a 2nd year law student at ILC, Faculty of Law, University of Delhi)

The recent suicide cases being reported from premier universities like NLU-Delhi, shed light on this. Within a month, the university has reported 3 suicide cases, and still there are almost no signs of student anecdotes and testimonials from the students, on any social media platform, which raises a lot of suspicion on the administration of the university. The first suicide of a 20 year old, third-year student, has brought forth shocking details. Amrutavarshiny Senthil Kumar reportedly came from a social minority group and has worked her way up to NLU-Delhi by garnering prestigious scholarships; her case, upon further investigation, has showcased harrowing details of caste-based discrimination, mental stress and harassment. The halls again echoed with similar concerns when, Shah Khushil Vishal, a first-year student at the university committed suicide in the same month. The students have received extremely strict guidelines from senior authorities, wherein students are not allowed to discuss such matters as it may lead to ‘unnecessary unrest amongst students’.

We were directed by our professors not to discuss about these incidents, especially on social media platforms as it can cause significant reputational damage and can prove to be detrimental for the university”

                                                                 – Anonymous (a 2nd  year student at NLU-Delhi) 

Although the university has now initiated many programs catering towards the mental health of the students, the question here is, if premier institutions like NLU-Delhi are handling their batches like this, what should we expect from others? 

Cracking a double-digit rank in CLAT (Common Law Admission Test) and getting into NLSIU Bangalore is a dream of lakhs and lakhs of law aspirants. Imagine being a rank holder and then making the decision to end your life in your first year itself. So was the case of Dhruv Jatin Thakkar, who was a first-year student at NLSIU Bangalore. Although further investigations have revealed that Dhruv was previously suffering from depression and was on medication and counselling sessions for the same, we say that our universities act as a ‘home away from home,’ but are they really well equipped to do so? 

Such incidents show us the credibility of NIRF rankings which should be heavily scrutinised. If the universities are not well-equipped to facilitate integrated programs for their students, then they should not move forward with it. As far as these premier institutions are concerned, much focus should be given on revitalising age-old norms and establishing a proper feedback mechanism wherein if students feel that a certain professor is not helping them, they should have the freedom to report the same with their anonymity.

Be it litigation or corporate law, be it a first-generation lawyer or a student with an established law background, every student aspires to achieve up to the best of their capabilities. As a first-generation law student myself, our visions and dreams should not suffer at the cost of administrative negligence and poor facilities of ‘ironic’ premier universities.

 

Read also: DSW: The Unresolved Crisis of Financial Aid at DU

Samvardhan Tiwari

[email protected]

Featured image credits: iPleaders

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Arts & Culture

Coldplay, Concerts, and Cash Cows

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The uproar surrounding the upcoming Coldplay concert sheds light on a bigger problem in the music industry. This article delves into the implications of such events on ticketing practices, fan experiences, and the evolving landscape of live entertainment in a digital age.

With the announcement of Coldplay performing in Mumbai in 2025, a frenzy gripped the Indian audience. Advertisements popped up on social media, influencers made reels hyping it up, and news channels made it their headlines. It came to be known as THE event of 2025 and became THE topic of conversation of current times.

Coldplay, being a band that Gen Z and Millennials grew up listening to, thus holds a special place in the lives of many. Their songs strike the strings of nostalgia in the hearts of people. The music video of their song “Hymn For The Weekend” being shot in India has further cemented their connection with the country.

People eagerly counted down the days for when the tickets would be sold. They had set up their devices, waiting for the clock to chime twelve when the tickets would go live. The excitement had been palpable as fans anticipated this crucial moment, fully invested in securing their chance to see the beloved band live. However, that enthusiasm was short-lived and soon gave way to disappointment and frustration.

The BookMyShow site crashed even before the tickets went live. People were stuck in long queues lasting hours; queues that did not seem to be moving in any particular order. People who managed to make it through the queue and select the seats had their site crash during payment. Tickets sold out within minutes. Almost immediately they were found being sold for increased prices at reselling sites. 

In a recent conversation with DU Beat, a diverse group of individuals stepped forward to share their personal experiences, 

“I had reached my turn and even though tickets were shown to be available, there was no option to choose from. Whether it was a glitch or scalping, it was really disheartening since I had been planning and saving up for the concert.”Said Diya.

“I logged in from two devices at the same time but both had the queues moving at different paces. My brother logged in from his device much later than me but was placed ahead in the queue. A friend of mine logged in and instead of being placed in the queue, was immediately taken to the payment window.” Said Navya.

“We were given four minutes to book the tickets. I had chosen the tickets, entered all the details and clicked to confirm payment when it showed that no more tickets were available.” Said Siddharth.

“I started the queue at around 73000 and around 61000 the entire stadium was sold out. This is mathematically impossible, even if each person had bought the maximum allowed four tickets.” Said Aadya.

The Economic Offences Wing of Mumbai Police has issued summons to BookMyShow’s CEO Ashish Hemrajani and its technical head. This comes after advocate Amit Vyas filed a case of fraud against BookMyShow.

BookMyShow has released a statement addressing the sale of unauthorised tickets, 

“BookMyShow has no association with any ticket selling/reselling platforms such as Viagogo and Gigsberg or third-party individuals to resell Coldplay’s Music Of The Spheres World Tour 2025 in India. Scalping is strictly condemned and punishable by law in India. We have filed a complaint with the police authorities and will provide complete support to them in the investigation of this matter. We urge you to not fall victim to these scams. Any tickets bought from unauthorised sources will be at the risk of the consumer, and can turn out to be fake tickets. Beware of such scammers.”

These reselling sites have often been in legal disputes over not supplying tickets, supplying counterfeit tickets, and selling the same ticket to multiple people. They have also received legal notices and heavy criticism over selling charity tickets for profit.

The discourse surrounding Coldplay’s concert provides a concerning commentary. In a hyper-capitalist world, concerts no longer remain a cherished experience between fans and their idol, or a joyful gathering for people to enjoy. Instead, they turn into cash cows, highly commercialised and commodified events driven by profit maximisation. Concerts have shifted from music to market, becoming the centre of a growing money-making landscape, many of the practices ranging from unethical to illegal. What was once a celebration of music has now transformed into a spectacle of consumerism.

It would be incorrect to say that concerts never had a commercial aspect to them, after all, it is a service, and the artists and organisers deserve to be paid fairly for providing it. What has changed, however, is the shift from compensation to exploitation. Ticket prices aren’t just high enough to cover costs, they are inflated for maximum profit. The focus is no longer on providing an experience for the fans, the very people responsible for putting the artist on the stage, but on creating more and more ways to extract money from them. With even basic amenities like drinking water and access to bathrooms being monetized, something that can lead to health problems for the attendees, concerts are increasingly viewing fans as mere wallets to tap into.

Even when tickets start at an affordable price, like at the Coldplay concert, they are immediately bought by resellers and scalpers and sold at exorbitantly inflated prices. The tickets ranging from ₹2,500 to ₹35,000 are being resold for more than 10 lakhs, representing a more than 2000% increase from the original price.

The chaos surrounding the Coldplay concert indicates a larger, troubling trend in the music industry, casting doubt upon the spirit of live music in the future. Can concerts remain shared celebrations of art and music, or will they be transformed into purely commodified events and exploitative enterprises?

Read also: Global Citizen Festival: Highlights

Samriddhi

[email protected]

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Mohanchand to Mahatma: haunting ghosts of Gandhi

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Gandhi is introduced as a messiah of morals to a child. Stories of the three monkeys turning the other cheek and the celebratory personhood of ‘the father of the nation’ have cast him away from ideologies appreciated critically to a domain of morality concerning only the judgement of an immediate right or wrong; this domain is scary for it appeals widely but negates a deeper philosophical intervention or understanding of the figure, what he stood as, and why he appeals still.

The modern Indian liberal attitude of tolerance and non-violence draws heavily on the principles of the Mahatma—a politically potent image inflated with the task of disseminating a high moral cause. Gandhi advocated for a legitimacy of authority to be found in the conscience of man, extending to include a moral regeneration of the people. This emphasis on ‘regeneration’ comes from the idea of the moral decadence of Indian people that resulted in colonial enslavement, thus allowing British rule. His path to freedom is that of an enlightened anarchy.

This rejection of constitutionalism and parliamentary democracy for Gandhi doesn’t come from a Marxist critique of democracy, which nonetheless repulsed him for being anchored in violence and the denial of God. The British parliament to Gandhi is a ‘sterile woman’ for not having ‘done a single good thing’ and a ‘prostitute’ because ‘it is under the control of a minister who changes from time to time.’ Why then is this non-democratic father of the biggest democracy still revered and set as a principle?

This essay is not an attempt to demystify Gandhi or dissect his ideological perspectives, considering the mixed bag his thoughts were and the considerable changes they underwent. Neither does this discredit his contribution to the freedom struggle. It rather tries to frame Gandhi’s relevance in a post-colonial world.

In a country that prides itself on elevating demigods with cult followings seasonally who influence entire elections, run scandals, encroach on lands, are crime apologists, and turn tides over with their bhakts, the occurrence of the image of an academic Mahatma shouldn’t then feel very alien. This nation of ours produces ‘godmen’ that talk of the culture taught by the Vedas, the Upanishads, and the Gita and always desperately want to “go back to” and restore the lost. Their appeal to reason involves the acting on a soul force which carves out an existence replicating some past, further nudging us towards living a more perfect life in embodying this now realised historical truth. As ahistorical and pathetic as it sounds, it works when nationalism taints it and it appeals to a nation fraught with poverty, patriarchy, corruption, casteism, and obviously, the aftertaste of centuries of imperialist-colonialism.

The appeal for religion that comes strictly from the Hindu tradition and charms the upper caste consciousness, parading as spiritualism and distinguishing between good and bad Hinduism is a peak Mahatma move from Gandhi. For Gandhi, the acme of Hinduism is to be found in the Ramrajya. The rule of Ramrajya was a central element of his political philosophy and social vision for India; it stood as the manifestation of a philosophical anarchy that his ideas professed. The memory of that Ramrajya reverberates strongly today as one would see in the right-wing fundamentalist ruling state wanting to capitalise on vote banks using a similar analogy. Now, one doesn’t need to venture into the fraudulent concept of the Ramrajya and what it entails for minorities living in India. Such imagination of an ahistorical lofty state is in essence anti-equality, and attempts to extract the good from the fundamentally bad are attempts of deception. While there are Gandhian politicians/academicians who excessively differentiate Gandhi’s conception of an ideal state from the current trends, it only means that this idealism is confusing and largely interpretative while also being highly remunerative to talk about for the appeal it holds still after 77 years of independence.

This ascetic image of Gandhi is carried by the tokenistic ‘Mahatma.’ The deification of Gandhi, where he is seen as a saint who fasts, meditates, prays, abstains, and lives in an ashram while also providing a stage for people to opine regarding the role of women in public life, capitalism in a developing country, caste relations, the importance of import substitution, the significance of village life of family relationships and tradition, in general, work best in the Indian context. Our modernity isn’t too modern or radically progressive and always finds a place back to the religious to validate any step forward; all that is now scientific predates to a past where it has been discovered but apparently lost.

Gandhian philosophy is of spiritual passive resistance, which is a method of securing rights by personal suffering; it is the reverse of resistance by arms. It requires the use of soul-force over body-force. While the ambit of spirituality can be all encompassing (since it has no specific criteria of inclusion) and helpful, it detaches an individual from the product of a society and historical events. Injury to the self in resistance to the state still forms a criterion of recognizing a protest as valid and non-retaliatory. The figure of Gandhi emerges in resistance to the police while one defends and keeps defending their nature to be non-violent and peaceful. Violent attacks on the state, on the other hand, are deemed consequential and thus not acceptable, deserving a public trial of punishment. 

While it is certainly true that the celebrityhood of Gandhi has been withering, his ideas and philosophies still haunt us. So long as we remain a nation obsessed with religion forming our politics and us conceiving moral Mahatmas in every sphere, the ghosts of Gandhi will long endure.

 

Read Also : Spinning Selfhood : The Story of Gandhi Bhawan, Delhi University

 

Image credits: Pinterest

 

Bhavana Bhaskar

[email protected]

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DUB interviews SFI-AISA candidate for DUSU secretary

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We spoke to Sneha Aggarwal, a recent graduate from Ramjas College, who is currently a student at Law Faculty, DU. Aggarwal is the candidate of the left-wing alliance between AISA and SFI. She is an SFI member. 

 

Interview took place on September 18, 2024

 

Question: What motivated you to run for the position, knowing the degree of  money-muscle politics?

 

Sneha Aggarwal: Everyone has to face this, those who have any ideological bearings. Money and muscle power have always been a part of student politics but as DU deteriorates and students don’t have any alternatives other than ABVP and NSUI – it shows the need for someone to step up. Being a part of SFI has shown me that you need to be present. 

 

Question: How do you plan on keeping students informed about the union, and taking feedback?

 

Sneha Aggarwal: SFI has always managed to do so with its mass presence and membership with units across 20 colleges. We also don’t use ideology as a filter for members. Our social media presence, and GBMs or general boarding meetings across colleges is how we communicate. 

 

Question: What is the biggest challenge students are facing?

 

Sneha Aggarwal: There are several: fee hike, [lack of] hostel facilities, women’s safety – Union is not representing students’ issues. DU is a central university and a public school, it must continue to  financially alleviate those who cannot afford to do so themselves, DU cannot just be for day-scholar students and the financially privileged 

 

Question: How will you measure the success of your manifesto’s initiatives, if elected? 

 

Sneha Aggarwal: If elected, we have a formal platform to put pressure on and communicate with the administration as seen from JNU where we got hostels made and metro paths created

 

Question: Why did you decide to create an alliance [with AISA] this time?

 

Sneha Aggarwal: We saw a similar model of left unity being followed in JNU as well, given the need to contest the right-wing influence. The same process is underway in DU – the ABVP has risen because members of the Sangh have entered the administration due to the government’s favour, even the faculty has been affected –  SFI and AISA have lean to the left, we have a shared ideology, shared goals, and more importantly – a need to counter muscle and money. 

 

Question: NSUI also has a parent national party, the Congress which recently formed the INDIA alliance. Why was the national model of alliance-making not enacted at the  university-level? 

 

Sneha Aggarwal: NSUI is already in the union so it has already had an opportunity to represent, which has been inadequate. The use of caste politics or muscle power isn’t just limited to the ABVP, NSUI too is becoming similar. We cannot ally with someone simply on the basis of their national party. 

 

Question: How do you strive to ensure that the students’ demands for hostels are fulfilled without conflict?

 

Sneha Aggarwal: Being in the Union gives formal channels of communication as well as the ability to put pressure [granted student legitimacy]. We intend on pointing out that there is space for expensive student centres and Nescafe kiosks but not for hostels. There is a need to better utilise space and resources. Like the promise of university special buses is only mentioned during elections, citing that there was an unused COVID fund, misuse of money should not happen, there should be a common student union fund. 

 

Question: How does SFI plan to make campus more inclusive for all marginalised groups? 

 

Sneha Aggarwal: There are already many SC/ST cells, WDC, queer cells in DU but the issue is functioning. In my alma mater itself, the SC/ST cells were headed by professors who’d make distinctions according to class. Only Miranda’s [College] queer cell is officially recognised. The Union must get these cells recognised and function effectively. Even with the functioning of CASH committees and ICC, they’re responsible for more than just complaints and cases but also effective sensitisation of the student body towards the issue. 

 

Question: Why is your stance anti-FYUP and what alternatives do you propose? 

 

Sneha Aggarwal: There are many issues with the implementation of NEP and the four-year programme – they’re imposing the American which only caters to a few who can afford higher education abroad so why four years? Eventually, they’re trying to make it almost compulsory[B.A. programme requirement to qualify for an Honours degree] yet there are multiple entry and exit –  this is simply education commercialised. UGC scrapped education loans and moved towards privatisation as seen with Hindu’s College, where hostels have been leased out to private contractors. We suggest a survey across the country and especially DU, to see which students are dropping out the most and then implement, in order to encourage these communities to finish their degrees. There is also the  SFI policy of NEP 2.0. 

 

Question: Parties like ASA and Fraternity all support identity politics yet they do it as a means of representation and criticise left for fielding mostly upper class candidates, how do we make a choice? 

 

Sneha Aggarwal: Many of our left leaders themselves are from marginalised groups – this time there’s many women on the panel from varying backgrounds. But on the matter of identity, there are many such who do contest. Left believes in overall emancipation, not just that of a singular identity. 

 

Question: Was there an attempt to ally with these parties like in JNU? 

 

Sneha Aggarwal: We don’t believe in this, this is not our politics. In JNU,  there was a need for the SFI-BAPSA alliance given the right-wing turn. 

 

Question: Is the alliance anti-ABVP or ideologically driven? 

 

Sneha Aggarwal: We are driven by our goals — for the students’ needs to be fulfilled, that is our common ground. Our functioning remains different. 

 

Question: The Left is criticised for themselves being hypocritical with their stances, particularly when it comes to internal misogyny? How will you fight these forces? 

 

Sneha Aggarwal: Simply being a communist doesn’t erase patriarchy, given the way society functions and shapes us. This is reality, simply to “de-class” oneself isn’t enough  but must also sensitise oneself. If we make it to the Union, we can only try to self-correct through [constructive] measures but not by boycotting or “cancelling”. The aim is to support growth. 

 

Read Also: Interview with Dr. Abha Dev Habib

 

Image credits: DUB Archive

 

Interviewed by Bhavana and Vedant 

[email protected]

[email protected]

 

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DUB interviews DISHA candidate for DUSU president

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We spoke to Shivam Maurya, a first-year B.Com (Hons.) student at Hindu College, contesting for the post of president from DISHA Students’ Organization, ahead of the DUSU elections scheduled for September 27, 2024. 

 

Question: What in your individual capacity motivated you to contest for election?

Shivam: We come from very far-off to the nation’s biggest university, it is however not how people say it is. We are not being provided with hostels. Looking at fees, you think it’s low but when you have to pay it. My own fee is  Rs. 26,870; it’s too much for a middle-class student.

Question: What do you see as the biggest challenge that students face today?

Shivam: The biggest challenge is anti-student policies. Policies like NEP, FYUP teach students skill-based knowledge so they can do some fixed work for fixed industries. These are designed in a way that disallows lower-class people from coming forward. Seen this way, the most-backward can never make it to the front.

Question: You talk of “merging the student-youth movement with the struggle of the working masses” in your manifesto. How do you interpret this? 

Shivam: Like we have students and working-class individuals, this statement is not for the elite.

Question: Also, what is a ‘common minimum programme’?

Shivam: Common minimum programme reflects common interests and problems of students like fee hikes, hostel accommodation, and (un)employment.

Question: Your manifesto repeatedly refers to the ‘common student’. What is this common student in your understanding? Is every student in DU a common student?

Shivam: At a basic level, every student is a common student. Several students, however, take admission [in DU] to spread propaganda for selfish purposes. Those are in no way common.

Question: The image of Bhagat Singh is your ideological representative, ABVP uses that too. How is it different?

Shivam: For us, Bhagat Singh’s ideology is that of equal education, opportunity, and [equal] treatment of everyone. But as you say ABVP uses Bhagat Singh’s iconography as well but – in a false manner and they throw their pamphlets over roads and use Bhagat Singh to save themselves[for their own political benefit].

Question: How does not being aligned to any party help you during elections? One can see this as a weak ideological position but, how is it a strength? 

Shivam: We have to understand the difference between a political party and a student organisation. If you are aligned to a political party then you represent the party rather than students, like ABVP and NSUI do. Whereas, DISHA represents only students and you think of it as a weakness but it is not a weakness.

Question: SFI and AISA have come into an alliance for left-unity, DISHA can also be ideologically interpreted as a left party. Did you approach them for an alliance?

Shivam: We do not feel it should be ideologically-run as every student who aligns themselves with our common minimum programme is welcome to join DISHA. If we only take someone from a fixed ideology then students of different ideologies are excluded. 

Question: But the way you claim that ABVP-NSUI have a politics of money and muscle, but even their politics come from ideas that are accepted by the masses who elect them to power. Your manifesto claims DISHA has no ideology. Isn’t it a weakness that you don’t have an ideology? 

Shivam: No, it does not mean that we’ll let anyone join the organisation. If someone promotes casteism or hooliganism, we won’t keep them in the organisation as they are violating our common minimum programme. 

Question: Several members of DISHA have often been seen indulging in online debates using heavy terms that might not be accessible to marginalized students who are not familiar with Marxist discourse. This is contrary to your manifesto that states you don’t have an ideology. How far do you think these debates can be stretched in order for them to not reduce to in-fighting?

Shivam: What members of DISHA do, is their own matter. The organisation is isolated from this. 

Question: So, your members’ actions are separate from the organisation?

Shivam: We are concerned as to what they do at the level of the organisation. We can’t interfere in their personal lives.

Question: How does your organisation plan to include students from gender, religious, and caste minorities, LGBTQIIA+ students, and students from economically weaker sections? 

Shivam: We see them all equally. We oppose their oppression but we do not oppress them. They all can come with us and fight and we are with them too.

Question: Systems of power oppress them. For instance, the recent Delhi HC directive about ensuring 50 per cent representation of women in DUSU counters gender oppression. Is DISHA doing anything to ensure this representation and inclusivity?

Shivam: It’s nothing like that. It’s not necessary that only women can understand women’s issues or only Dalits can understand Dalit students’ issues. From time to time, our organisation protests or engages in struggles whenever necessary. As students see us and recognise our struggles, they’ll try to join us.

Question: The DUSU candidates of DISHA are not as publicly visible as other candidates are. This makes mobilization of students difficult as candidates are the face of any organisation. Why so? 

Shivam: We are trying our best but we are unable to gather such a large outreach. 

 

Image Credits: Devesh for DU Beat

 

Read Also: Interview with Dr. Abha Dev Habib

 

Interviewed by Bhavana and Vedant 

[email protected]

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Pelicot or Abhaya: What’s in a name?

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Indian law prevents the revelation or use thereof of the name of the victim of a sexual offence(s) without the explicit consent of the victim, and none else. To what, then, does one direct justice?

 

France has not been spared the wild and purposed rioting towards a cause of sexual and social injustice pursuant to the recent developments of the rape case of Gisèle Pelicot. I shall recount the details of the case and the brutality involved in order for the reader to make sense of the argument that I shall proceed to posit later in the article. 

 

Trigger warning: Mention of rape 

 

Gisèle’s husband of 50 years, Dominique Pelicot, has been accused of inviting strangers—the numbers of whom have been calculated from video evidence to be around 83, out of which 50 have been identified—to rape his drugged wife over the course of almost a decade, from 2011 to 2020. In 2020, Dominique’s laptop was searched after he was caught by a security guard filming videos up the skirts of women in a supermarket near the couple’s residence. A folder labelled ‘abuses’ was discovered there, containing more than 20,000 photos and videos of the act. Gisèle, who was completely unaware of what was happening to her, later recalled instances where she would experience complete blackouts in memory where she could not remember having gotten into bed or watching a movie before falling asleep, given that Dominique would usually drug her around evening.

 

Gisèle, who had only recently mustered the courage to view the videos, confessed to being treated like a ‘ragdoll’, ‘sacrificed at the altar of vice’. She recalls being apprehensive that she had Alzheimer’s on account of the repeated instances of memory loss, out of the fear of which she had decided to stop driving; she remembers having lost weight and hair, alongside several other health complications, including gynaecological problems that no doctor could properly explain to her. 

 

Drawing parallels with the case of R.G. Kar, we cannot deny numerous, almost uncanny similarities, the two most prominent of which are the abject failure of the healthcare system to protect them and the sheer brutality of the assault. The primal, most striking difference is but one. Pelicot, despite the protection offered to her identity by France’s legal system, chose to make the case and most of its details public. In explanation, her lawyer disclosed that she refused to have private proceedings, for that is “what her attackers would have wanted.” Surely enough, the accused, with the exemption of her husband, have chosen to remain unnamed. She herself declared that the choice was so made so that she might be the voice for all the other women who have been raped, drugged or both.

 

Whenever they experience blackouts, they may remember the testimony of Ms. Pelicot,” she said. 

 

On the other hand, with R.G. Kar, during the first stages of the protest and legal developments, streets were strewn with irate bodies, ferociously chanting, “SAY HER NAME. Remember her.” Following the corrective and thereby preemptive action taken by Kolkata police against those that were the first to reveal her name to the public, in violation of the law, the citizens promptly switched to, what I must say, thoughtless abstractions in an attempt to immortalise her name. But they did not immortalise her name.

 

‘Tilottoma’, ‘Abhaya’, and the worst of them all, ‘Nirbhaya 2.0’, served to further mutilate her identity, one that was generously trampled upon by all the slighting politicians in their specious and fairly nonsensical speeches. The argument that many took to, in order to defend their turns, was essentially this: that the consent and participation of the victim are of critical importance and that using their name hurts their dignity. While to the first proposition, I may concede, to the second, I could not, and urge the reader to understand the following. The naming of the victim in an event where they are unavailable to consider their position in the order of incidence is certainly wrong; it should not have been done in the first place. 

 

*Please note that the following argument stands only in the event that a name has already been revealed to the public. It is interested in discussing the aftermath and not in passing a value judgement on the morality of the violation itself. 

 

All protests are fuelled by a cause, and essentially, a core, physical object that is the realisation of said cause. The ideology or the cause of a protest is merely an abstraction. Such an abstraction cannot be realised in the absence of a physical conduit through which it shall manifest. Similarly for all abstractions, a physicality must be invoked. For instance, the word ‘chair’ has no meaning in itself. It is given meaning by our experience with and knowledge of a particular physical object that looks a particular way. My object is, then, to communicate the idea that all protests converge not in an idea but in a real, physical manifestation that happens to embody that idea. In this case, the name of the victim serves the purpose. 

 

When we immortalise their stories through names taken from legends, we find ourselves grasping at air. The importance is effectively shifted from the lives of the victims, their concrete stories, to the idea or the cause that could extend to infinite examples. Without a point of concentration, the surge of the protest weakens. The identity of the victim once again stands erased. When we say her name, we recall the blood, the bones, and the torture.

 

We recall the apathy of the state and the plight of the devastated families. In a way, the name becomes dignity personified, as has been the case with Pelicot. She has become the face of a long broiling unrest in France with regard to the mass attitude towards assault. All the world’s rage concentrates in her name and in her face. If instead it were a faceless caricature, it would become emblematic of not the victim, but victimhood, subsuming countless names and countless cases; but the truth is that we could not give them justice, and we will not be able to compensate now. Therefore, it is important to remember them, but they could no longer drive the fight with the grit that a name so fresh in our memories can.

 

When we say Abhaya, or Tilottoma, the force is dispelled, the cause falters. There is no Kolkata’s Nirbhaya; there has only been one Nirbhaya, and it shall remain so. It is important to acknowledge their individual identities and their stories, lest they become statistics in a survey. In an attempt to immortalise them, we negate their physical suffering and their tangible reality. We exalt the victim, fossilise them at the pinnacle of history, but what purpose does that serve? Protests do not happen in the realm of ideas; the conception does. An act of protest itself is a physical one. Therefore, its focus must be immediate and real. If not the name, such pale substitutes certainly do not serve their intended purpose. I invite the reader to reflect.

 

Read Also: To politicise, or not to politicise?

 

Featured Image Credits: World Pulse

 

Aayudh Pramanik

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Curfew to the rescue?

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The 8 PM curfew at the KG Hostel, IPCW, not only restricts the students’ basic freedoms, but also shrinks their lives.

 

College hai ya cage?” – anonymous 

 

The curfew time of the girls hostel at Indraprastha College for Women has always been 8 PM. But the ever-so-generous college administration allowed students to walk within the college campus till 11 PM. Only recently, this provision was revoked. Now, students living in the hostel cannot venture into the college premises after 8 PM. The explanation granted was that some students had been seen loitering around the campus past 11 PM, which was outrageous, of course. For fear of this piece turning into yet another personal rant on why I am aggressively opposed to curfews, I spoke to students at IPCW to know how they’ve been faring with this change. 

 

When asked what they feel about the curfew timings, one of the students, Shruti*, said,  

 

Earlier, I didn’t really mind the curfew at 8 PM. I enjoyed going out for walks on the college premises after dinner. My friends and I would buy ice cream from the vendors at the gates. But now that we aren’t even allowed out of the hostel gates after 8, I feel suffocated. It’s an outright brutal move. I feel like I am held captive, caged. It feels like I am back home with the restrictions that my parents imposed.”

 

The curfew grossly hinders students’ academic opportunities. Riya* shared, 

 

Classes end around 5 PM; if I pursue any extracurricular endeavour or offline internship, it gets very difficult for me to be back to the hostel in time. My friend couldn’t take evening coaching classes because the duration between the end of daily classes and curfew wasn’t enough for her to make the journey back and forth.”

 

Aradhya* shared that she harbours no hope from the hostel administration for any change. 

 

You know, we have tried to be radical; we questioned why there needs to be a curfew at all in the first place. We signed a letter demanding a change in timings. All we got in response was a meeting with the warden in which we were told that the curfew could not be done away with as it was for our ‘own good’. It is the same old template of response. I am exhausted. So, now I have come to make peace with it. It would be better if special provisions could be made so curfew can be delayed when a student is pursuing an internship or part-time job.”

 

Shruti* also commented, 

 

I understand that the hostel administration is responsible for our safety, and hence, they feel that curfew is the perfect solution for ensuring that nothing ‘untoward’ happens. But, at least the curfew could be delayed till 10:30 PM every day. I know well enough that it’s wishful thinking. I am thinking of moving out of the hostel in my 3rd year.”

 

In the year 2018-19, within the ambit of the Pinjra Tod movement, students at Miranda House had successfully protested to end the stringent curfew restrictions. Today, the students I spoke to displayed no such resolve. The presence of a stifling institutional mechanism (and a relentlessly indifferent principal) has ebbed their will to keep calling out to deaf ears. They don’t outright reject the curfew but rather request a delay in the curfew timings. Resignation and hopelessness for any change ring heavy in their voice. 

 

Shilpa Phadke writes in ‘Why Loiter’ that a woman’s presence in a public place is fraught with anxiety, an anxiety to prove their reason for being there. Women always act busy in public. It is a performance. A woman without a visible, obvious purpose is seen as soliciting.  While the men, of course, lounge around gawking at every passerby. Why is it that women cannot simply loiter? At a time when the whole of the country has come together in solidarity to demand safety for all, one wonders when women will be able to truly reclaim the night. When will the women loiter? 

 

*Names have been changed to maintain the anonymity of students. None of them were comfortable with their names being used in this piece. They did not want to get into ‘trouble’.

 

Featured image credits : TimesContent

 

Read Also : Mad Women in the Attic: The MH Hostel, A Take

 

Chetna Rani

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Navigating Neurodivergence in Academia

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Neurodivergence, as an impairment, unfolds to become a disability as social and educational institutions heavily lack in its recognition; resourcing for such students remains a dream.

 

Neurodivergence is an umbrella term that enlists to include people with atypical brains, which adds a difference to how they ecologically interact. It is inclusive of people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, obsessive-compulsive disorder(OCD), and others. 

There have been positive changes in terms of recognition and importance of mental health in India. However, all alerts and emphases on mental health leave out the back door when the shallowness of such a performance is exposed with the invisibility of neurodivergent students in academia. An understanding of “the mental” on educational campuses limits to only believing it as a wave of sadness and discomfort that needs counselling. This idea is reiterated with Delhi University’s Counselling Centre, which fails in its purpose to mention and include the experience of neurodivergence, even for namesake.

While the stigma and prejudice (along with other factors) around disorders limit accessibility to diagnosis, those already diagnosed have it no easier in navigating academic and university spaces. The confusion and strictness of college societies collude with a premodern educational setup to confound the sense of achievement and goodness that these spaces should be offering, very often becoming places of disinterest and hurt.

Recollecting her experience, Silvia Nath, a second-year student at Miranda House, who has been clinically diagnosed with ADHD, shares

In my first year, I completely detached myself from my department since my batchmates and teachers weren’t helpful and held stigmas around therapy and mental health. I was judged also for my food habits (as a non-vegetarian) along with my unwillingness to contribute to classes. This detachment caused a very low attendance, which again was a traumatic experience for me. Teachers have been harsh towards me and questioned my competence. Being happy should not be so normalised so that other spectrums of emotions are seen as unnatural and unhealthy.”

The general ignorance to this problem is reflected in the casual usage of medical terms amongst neurotypical people to express mood phases, which has inadvertently reduced the real symptoms to a bluff, non-serious setting of the mind—which can be auto-altered. Sharing rigid spaces like college societies with such groups that lack a reasonable understanding then becomes challenging.

In conversation with DU Beat, Debolina Bhattacharya, a graduate from Delhi University 2024 batch, shares,

I was working with a lot of neurotypical people, for sure, in my college society. Personally, it was not the best of times. It’s very hard to get along with people. I was told that I was overdoing things, talking too much, and other things that were singled out. Naturally, I prefer to do a lot of things together, which allows me to move from one thing to the next. But when you have to deal with people who don’t understand it and have very rigid ideas of how you’re supposed to behave, it becomes hard to curate your personality. I have reached a point, after college, to not hide who I am. But there was a demand to conform, to ‘fit in’ and it was made very clear that I wasn’t. The burnout was so severe that graduating college was what helped.”

(Debolina is a diagnosed neurodivergent person)

The range of exclusion and vulnerability expands when various markers of identity such as caste, class, gender, sexual identities, or geographical locations intersect. Students who are already disadvantaged are pushed deeper to the margins, where their potential is untapped, and their abilities are overlooked. 

Norzin, a Ladakhi student, currently preparing for her NEET examination, has been diagnosed with OCD and anxiety. 

Since I am currently preparing for NEET, I have faced challenges in staying organised due to the lack of a structured environment. I believe a college space with a more structured environment and access to resources and opportunities to interact with peers and professors would provide a more conducive environment for me to work and will help me to deal with my mental health issues more effectively.” – shares Norzin

Institutional reforms beginning from classroom recognition of neurodivergence and sensitisation towards it, are a good place to start when addressing the problem. Pedagogical methods that allow for behavioural support or interventions to promote communication in academic, social and everyday life skills should be used. Most essentially, kindness and empathy should be used to deal with and comprehend the nature of those around us, whether they are diagnosed or undiagnosed. It’s not a burden, but rather a responsibility. 

 

Read also: Mental health societies in DU

Featured Image Credits: Education Times

 

Bhavana Bhaskar

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Tiktok TradWifery: Revamping Anti-feminism from Scratch?

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The ‘TradWife’ trend romanticises traditional domestic roles and exploits choice feminism to mask its anti-feminist agenda. While presenting itself with an idealised view of financial independence, it obscures the realities of traditional gender roles.

Social media has time and again provided a sprouting landscape for the growth of different niche circles that act as catalysts for exploring different identities, opportunities, and aesthetics. However, it has turned us into commodities, constantly marketing ourselves to each other for the gain of larger corporations. It has also devised a pathway for sweeping in regressive ideologies wrapped up in harmless, glamorised visuals. The TradWife or ‘Traditional Wife’ social media trend is one such regressive, anti-feminist ideology that has been gaining prominence all over the internet. 

From “cooking from scratch” videos in their immaculate, expansive kitchens and elegant dresses to presenting idyllic farm life and taking care of their children and husbands, the ‘tradwife’ trend manifests itself in different forms. While what might seem as harmless content of women getting the choice to do what they want to and equally enjoying it, an overarching view needs to be put into perspective when consuming media that tends to romanticise and glorify ideas that for decades women have tried to fight against. 

The social media ‘tradwife’ influencers are far from what they are inevitably promoting through their content. It is very different from the average stay-at-home mom reality, where the women are financially dependent on their husbands while performing thankless, challenging labour to keep their homes running and their children fed. The ‘tradwife’ influencers are actually financially independent given the monetisation of their content while also having a lavish lifestyle. The ‘tradwife’ sidelines the harsher realities of what could go wrong if you’re financially dependent on someone. Most of the ‘tradwives’ are white women living in first-world countries built at the expense of the marginalised global south. Ironically they are financially stable enough to promote a disillusioned lifestyle to their followers.

Tradwife content is as much about what it is against as what it is for,

says Seyward Darby.

By projecting that a certain way of life is more fulfilling than the other, ‘tradwives’ create a dichotomy of what’s present in their lives and what is not present in the lives of their followers. It surfaces the idea among the followers that a desirable stay-at-home lifestyle while being financially and emotionally supported by a family is “missing” in their lives but is nevertheless attainable. These ideas, when internalised in the minds of young women, tend to create a false reality of a comfortable, more appealing traditional lifestyle.

While most ‘tradwife’ influencers might be subtle in expressing their allegiance to a particular political ideology, many members of the conservative ‘tradwives’ community are explicitly anti-feminist. This anti-feminist stance mostly stems from the false belief that feminism has forced women to surrender and overwork themselves for larger corporations while making barely enough for a decent lifestyle. Overworking, burnouts, and minimal wages, while in fact notable problems, are not caused by feminism but by late-stage capitalism and the hyper-capitalist society we are living in.

According to them, instead of serving and surrendering to a stranger, women should rather serve their husbands and children, who, in return, are going to “protect” them. Sitler-Elbel argues that the logic of some conservative tradwives is that “a woman not only stays home because she wants to be domestically focused, but because she, as a woman, must cater to and take care of her husband in these ways.” Thus, they reject the idea of women choosing to be who they want to be and perpetuate the extremist rhetoric that a nice “religious” woman must submit to these “natural roles” to “rebalance the natural order.” 

‘Housewifery’ or a stay-at-home lifestyle is not anti-feminist or oppressive to its core, as most people tend to believe. Feminism has given women the choice to choose their lifestyle. Choice feminism, as argued by Michael L. Ferguson, implies that,

We live in a post-feminist world where the women’s movement did all it needed to liberate women, and now women are totally free to make whatever choices they make without oppression.

However, one thing that goes unnoticed is that the final stage of choice feminism assumes that, due to the past victories of feminism, there is no choice that is oppressive and degrading to women.

One should be careful with how we view these positions and make sure to distinguish between the misery of being a housewife in general and the misery that stems from mistreatment and unappreciation that housewives may receive from their family or society,

states Livia Gershon.

However, feminism is supposed to question religion, laws, traditions, cultures, trends, and eventually anything that potentially subjugates women as a sexual class. It’s systematic thinking, not individual choice-focused. Thus, there is a need to question the harmful presentation of such extremist rhetoric as idyllic and choice-based.

 

Read also: https://dubeat.com/2020/03/08/the-bare-minimum-feminists-are-they-enough-barely/

Featured Image Credits: Sara Fang for The Michigan Daily

Reeba Khan

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