Rahul Ghandi Night In JNU

It was really a Rahul Gandhi night in JNU on Tuesday, 29^th September. He came and showed he is a pragmatic politician, has changed a lot, and that the youth can think their future will be comparatively better in the hands of leaders like him.

I salute his boldness to come and have an open interaction with the students of JNU, the intellectual repository of India and the so-called left bastion, from where even acclaimed leaders and academics keep themselves away fearing direct ideological grilling by students.

But Rahul, possibly the future leader of India, came in, had a dinner at my old Jhelum hostel, arrived in the programme venue in time, mixed with students, obliged for autographs, and making a very short speech boldly opened the venue for questions. A few students raised black flags, but he was gracious in dealing with them, ordering the security not to obstruct them and even asking them ‘why you don’t start the interaction with a question’.

The Left friends may be trying to downplay the impact of his date with JNU and may be eager to describe his failure to answer them, but Rahul has really waged and won a polite war of practical politics.

Each and every question was coming from a hostile terrain, and the strong leaders of the opposite political outfits were up with difficult questions - SFI leader Roshan, AISA leader Sujetha, PSU’s Vibha Iyer and DSU’ Samar Pande, of course all of them are most difficult ideological challengers to deal with. Even then Rahul was insisting to keep the mic in the hands of the same questioner, allowing them to make follow up questions. During my seven years of experience in JNU, I have seen even Left leaders like Prakash Karat and Sitharam Yechuri evading such follow-up questions, and always their student leaders would wind up sessions with limited questions, blaming the time.

What I cannot understand is why the tones of all questions, especially from opposite student leaders, were high-tempered and not cool, while Rahul himself was showing his cool. The other thing is that these people are good at asking questions and raising problems always, but bad to find answers and to get practical solutions. They pose Himalayan questions and have the habit of not listening even to the answers of their own questions. A month ago one of the same student leader was there in the programme of Shashi Tharoor posing a difficult question on India’s arms deal with Israel, and while the former UN official was responding with arguably the best available answer with the UPA on the issue, he had to request the questioner twice to have at least a ear to the answer. The same thing happened with Rahul also, as he was requesting the questioners to show a will to listen.

The questions touched all difficult issues from tax exemption for corporates, to dynasty politics, Sachar committee report, right to education and his stay in Dalit villages.

To Samar Pande’s sarcastic comments and question over dynasty politics of Congress at the mercy of which Rahul got to the power, he said that it is clear and undeniable that we are already in a system where this habit exists, and he has only three options in his hands. First is to go home and it is a cowardice, the second is to propagate this system and he doesn’t want to do it, and the third is to change the system, and he claimed that he is doing the same.

Though not fully successful to answer questions on UPA’s education policies and tax evasion for corporate, he succeeded in tearing apart the Left rhetoric on distribution. He repeatedly asked the SFI leader and others to appraise him that according to Left ideology where the money comes from in a state to spend.

Everybody, even Rahul Gandhi, agrees that the Left raises some genuine issues in the politics. But what is the benefit if you are a good debater and ideologue, but you completely fail to deliver in practical sphere. While coming to the reality, the Left has always failed to do justice to its ideologies. Take any example from any of communism-based countries. And in India, we have Bengal and Kerala. One of the biggest ideologue of Left in Kerala is now sitting at the helm of power realizing that practical ruling and governance is not easy without dealing with the reality.

In JNU, I know many of the left leaders for last many years. After leading ideological slogans in high pitch for long and speaking against imperialist governments and MNCs throughout their studentship, they silently disappear to practical world to earn a job in MNCs or Western-funded NGOs, or even relocating themselves to the same US or other capitalist countries they were fighting ideological battle against.

Some JNUites who got addicted with the slogans raised by theses leaders becomes desperate and get embarrassed seeing the great gap between their ideologies and the real world, despite having excellent academic credentials. We have many of such people inside JNU and just outside in the so-called ‘JNU Street of Budha Vihar’. One of such fellow showed himself during the Rahul Night. He complained that he is desperate that government fails to give him a job, but he himself acknowledged that he has done his education in French and Francophone studies, with which it is sure that he can earn a well-paid job at global level. However, he is disillusioned with his ideology.

Finally, though Rahul won in igniting a new debate I wonder whether his student wing NSUI can cash in out of that debate. The problem with NSUI and the Congress especially is that they have only leaders even at the grassroots level, and no hard-working and committed activists, who are ready to understand others problems and sufferings. (I exclude brother Simmy from this category, I think his sincere activities are behind some kind of their show-up in JNU) They have a good lesson in left parties in this regard, but I am sure they will never learn and they cannot work, other than just showing they are leaders wearing the crisp wrinkless Kurta. It was obvious recently during Malayalees’ Onam cultural celebration in the campus that was unfortunately politicized for the first time in my experience. And more unfortunate was the fact that the SFI gang kept away from the celebrations en messe, and the NUSI indirectly took over. To utter disappointment of the apolitical people like me, it was the showing of Neta character by its activists and supervising the things without actively participating in the chorus like supplying the food. Rahul will have to work hard to change this mentality, and only then his party can do something in this campus, and of course for the benefit of the entire country.