The row triggered by some ‘anti-India’ sloganeering on the campus has died down but the JNU is already plunged in yet another controversy. This time it is over the disappearance of a student called Najeeb Ahmed
Is the Najeeb Ahmed episode marring the image of the Jawaharlal Nehru University, which had barely recovered from a row over the February 9 event against the hanging of a terror convict? Many students and professors think so.
Not just the opposition student groups, ordinary students and teachers are now questioning how the JNU Students Union (JNUSU) has handled the case of Najeeb Ahmed, now missing for nearly a month.
Many critcise the manner in which the case has been approached as a Hindu-Muslim conflict. At the heart of the matter there seems to be a fight in Najeeb’s hostel room on the night of October 14 – after which he went missing. There are many versions of the brawl. But the most widely reported one is that Najeeb slapped one of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad members campaigning for a councillor’s post, triggering the brawl.
But JNUSU general secretary Satarupa Chakraborty argues that it was more than a brawl. “Never has a tussle taken place in the campus because of someone’s identity. Najeeb was brutally attacked by an ABVP mob because he was a Muslim. The next day on a desk in Mahi Mandavi hostel, it was written that Muslims are terrorists,” says Chakraborty.
She claims it was members of the Bharatiya Janata Party-affiliated ABVP who first gave the case a communal tone. “They said that Najeeb hit one of the ABVP boys because he was wearing a kalava (a sacred thread). But no one saw that and Najeeb is not here to present his statement,” says the leader of the Left union. And everyone saw how badly Najeeb was beaten by a mob, she says.
Eyewitnesses from both Hindu and Muslim communities say they heard communal abuses being hurled at Najeeb. “We will send you to your 72 virgins in heaven,” was one of them, according to Shahid, who says he was there.But Shahid says some on the campus won’t believe him because he is Muslim and they feel that is why he is speaking for Najeeb.
The height of politics around Najeeb’s disappearance was reached on November 2, when Delhi Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal and other opposition leaders came to the JNU campus and spoke against the Centre for not doing enough in the case.
Prakash Karat, leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) – the parent organisation of All India Students Association which dominates JNUSU – did not speak of Najeeb as much as he spoke of “an undeclared Emergency” in which Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi was detained by Delhi Police when he joined a protest over the suicide of an army veteran.
"When CPM leaders, who are blamed for causing atrocities many a times, but are speaking for their students, it reflects badly on the students’ union. In a matter which concerns a student of the university, why should political leaders use it to their benefit,” says JNU professor Avijit Pathak. It is a bad time for JNU, he says.
Rahul Punaram, a presidential candidate in the 2016 election for JNUSU from Ambedkarite group BAPSA, says one does not have to invite political party leaders and organise such a meeting to bring back Najeeb. Political leaders should volunteer themselves for any student issue in the country.
According to ABVP’s Saurabh Sharma, it was a move which AISA’s parent party had decided upon. The miscommunication between the JNUSU and many ordinary students is leading to chaos on the campus, claims Pathak. The campus is always politically charged, there is nothing new in that, he says. That is the beauty of the place, according to him.
“When we were in college we were also part of many political parties, starkly divided as Marxist, leftist, centrist and rightist, but we always had a dialogue with each other. Every problem was sorted out after seeking one another’s opinion,” he said.
But now there is no communication now amongst students about issues of the nation and critiquing the JNUSU is taken as an anathema, he says.
“Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers Association (JNUTA) has been supporting JNUSU’s cause from the beginning in Najeeb’s case. But when they gheraoed their VC Jagadesh Kumar along with the proctor and the rector, we were not happy,” he says.
He says this kind of ‘political drama’ is detrimental to the image of the institution."The February 9 incident has already left an impression that this university is not functioning as an academic institution, whereas it has one of India’s best social sciences community," he says.
When on February 9, students raised slogans for Afzal Guru, who was convicted in the Parliament attack case, they spoke of definition of democracy, nationalism and freedom of speech, according to many students.
But on the protests over Najeeb’s disppearance, many ordinary students accuse the JNUSU of not even informing them of their plans and inviting their supporters from other universities to make up the crowd.
One such event took place on October 20, when dissenting students, some from other student outfits like Democratic Students Federation and Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students’ Association, charged that the JNUSU was politicising the Najeeb issue.
Ordinary students clashed with JNUSU that day and mediapersons were threatened not to shoot the scene. A woman photographer was threatened that her camera would be damaged.
The JNUSU representatives did not attend the recent Academic Council meeting which was to address other campus issues such as the dropout rates and accommodation for students. This was not in the students’ interest, said a student.
Now when anyone criticises the JNUSU they are called ABVP supporters or right-wingers, says Pathak. Many others agree that the issue has become “undeniably politicised”.
But the JNUSU disagrees, saying it is politics for a specific purpose. “Politics has been used (in an effort) to bring back Najeeb but it has also made the case lose its humanness,” says Pathak.
ABVP’s Sharma says that JNUSU has been interested only in getting ABVP members sacked and arrested, whereas Najeeb also slapped one of their members. But when he was called `accused’ in a press statement by the VC instead of `victim’, they protested, says Sharma..
JNUSU’s Chakraborty claims they did not use politics at all. “We have approached the ministries at the Centre that we do not endorse ideologically at all, to seek their support. And we will continue to do so.”
Police claim their investigation remains unaffected by the continuous protests and internal politics of the students. Najeeb’s family members say the protests have only increased the chances of finding Najeeb.