7/31/2019 SFI-JNUs Continual Stereotyping Of The North-Easterners And Non-Apologetic Support To The Sanghi Lumpens Of

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SFI-JNUs Continual Stereotyping Of The North-Easterners And

Non-Apologetic Support To The Sanghi Lumpens Of The Campus !

Demand Public Apology From SFI-JNU And Its Activist For

Making Communally And Racially Discriminating Comments

On JNUSU Office-Bearers !!It is extremely unfortunate that while we are trying to lead a determined struggle to uphold the secular,democratic credentials of the university and defend the legacy of a JNUSU which has fought for aninclusive and affordable campus for the deprived sections of the society against every possible right-wing offensive, on one hand we have received no support from the JNUSU leadership elected fromSFI-JNU, further, an activist from the same organization has now indulged in the worst form ofstereotyping and slander against us in a facebook discussion on the same issue. Commenting on apost regarding JNUSU Presidents continued refusal to take a firm position against the ABVPlumpenism, a well-known activist from SFI-JNU has written- matlab this z the height of votepolitics, shakeel hain to minority hain agar minakshi hoti to st hoti (If it is Shakeel, then it isminority and if it was Minakshi, it would have been ST). This comment while on the one handexposes the complete political bankruptcy of the organization and its activists, but is also extremelyinsulting to us as it seeks to comment not only on our individual person hoods but the communities towhich we belong.

We find it deeply insulting that the organization started a personalized slander against usbased on a stereotypical understanding of our identities. Those present on the day of the election,would be well aware that Shakeel Anjum was roughed up by ABVP lumpens for asking them to refrainfrom raising slogans such as ek mauka aur do, in response to jhabua ke rapiston ko, pointing atwomen activists! We know who are the women who were raped in these places and when ABVP says,give us another chance, who do they mean to threaten yet again!!

Rather than finding this open communal and gendered threat objectionable and condemnable,

she has joined the bandwagon of the ABVP lumpens in raising unsubstantiated allegationsagainst the one who resisted and then was subsequently targeted for the same on the basis ofhis identity!

Her comments on the current JNUSU Vice President- Minakshi Buragohain, while completely uncalledfor, again exposes the shallow understanding this organization's activists have regarding the NorthEast. It shows how the organization and its activists believe that all North Easterners are tribesthereby denying all pluralities that abound in this region. It is not about whether the individualconcerned is from a tribe or not, but the fact that this is how North Easterners are targeted andcommented upon, without even bothering to know that different linguistic, ethnic and religious identitieslive in the North East.

More dangerously, she refers tauntingly to minorities' and adivasis' struggles againstcommunal/feudal targeting as 'height of vote politics'. Besides, is it not a reality today that theMuslims, tribals, Dalits and women in this country are under increasing assault, primarilybecause they are Minorities, tribals, Dalits and women? Can it be denied that the increasingincidents of minority witch hunting, social oppression, and gender violence are indeed basedon the social identities of the victims!! The right-wing communalists and casteists regularlybrand struggles against such witch-hunting and violence as 'vote politics' (as though theHindutva politics of targeting these identities is not vote politics!) But should organisationsbearing the name of Left also do the same?

WE BELIEVE THIS IS NOT ONLY A PERSONAL ATTACK TAKING OUR NAMES, BUT APOLITICAL COMMENT GIVEN THE CONTEXT OF THE PRESENT DEBATE. WE FEEL DEEPLY

HURT AND DEMAND THAT THE SFI-JNU TAKES RESPONSIBILITY FOR SUCH A COMMENT BYTHEIR ACTIVIST. WE ALSO DEMAND AN UNCONDITIONAL PUBLIC APOLOGY FROM THEORGANIZATION AND THE ACTIVIST.

Sd/- Minakshi Buragohain, Shakeel Anjum

7/31/2019 SFI-JNUs Continual Stereotyping Of The North-Easterners And Non-Apologetic Support To The Sanghi Lumpens Of

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The original comments posted on the facebook: