SFI cracks whip, dissolves JNU unit

Varsity party said no to Pranab for Prez

Delhi state committee of the Student Federation of India on Tuesday dissolved its Jawaharlal Nehru University unit for criticising Communist Party of India (Marxist)’s decision to support Pranab Mukherjee’s bid for the President’s post .

Four members of SFI’s Delhi state unit were also expelled.

The move came days after SFI-JNU passed a resolution slamming parent party, CPI(M)’s decision to support UPA candidate Pranab Mukherjee in the Presidential election.

“The state committee meeting has passed a resolution by a margin of eight votes to four, expelling the four state committee members from JNU – Roshan Kishore (President, Delhi SFI), P K Anand and Zico Dasgupta (vice-presidents, Delhi SFI) and V Lenin Kumar (state committee member) and dissolving the SFI-JNU unit,” said a statement from the unit.

 “It is to be noted that three Delhi state committee members of the SFI, including the secretary of the Delhi state committee, are out of station and were not present in the meeting,” the statement added.

According to the SFI-JNU statement, members of the JNU unit had tried to explain the rationale behind the political position adopted by them.

“Unfortunately, there was no effort on the part of the All-India leadership to provide any political explanation or arguments. Instead a tirade was launched against the SFI-JNU unit. The state committee members from DU and Jamia Millia Islamia, who argued for a political resolution on the matter, were coerced into submission,” it said.

SFI’s JNU unit had criticised CPM openly for backing Pranab Mukherjee candidature for the President’s post.

“Mukherjee, who held important positions in the UPA Government, has played key role in implementing neo-liberal policies and cementing India’s strategic alliance with US imperialism, both of which are detrimental to the interest of the Indian people.

Pranab Mukherjee’s record as Finance Minister is mired with failures to check inflation and unemployment alongside shameless defence of high-level corruption,” SFI-JNU’s earlier statement had said.

The left-wing students’ party dubbed the decision to dissolve its unit as mockery of the democratic process, and a grave assault on the independent and progressive character of a student organisation like the SFI.