Justice Hanged : A take on Afzal Guru's execution

On 9th February 2013, at about 8 o’ clock in the morning in Delhi’s Tihar jail complex, India’s Criminal Justice system was hanged and buried.

Afzal Guru’s case is the typical example of how mighty concepts like ‘justice’ and the ‘rule of the law’ do not apply in cases where powerful interests find them inconvenient. While being tried for conspiracy against the state – one of the most serious crimes in any country – Afzal Guru had no real legal representation, the State had no witnesses that could directly implicate him in the crime and all evidence against him was purely circumstantial and based on flimsy grounds. The limit of irregularities was such that there were two different versions presented by the State even regarding his arrest, but none of these were questioned in court.

On these grounds, no court in a civilised nation could have held him guilty, let alone sentence him to death. Even the Supreme Court, while confirming his death sentence, remarked that there wasn’t enough evidence to convict him, but “collective conscience” demands that he be hanged.

It was truly disheartening to see the guardian of our constitution give to demands of the mob and ignore the law. What was even more sickening was the fact that his death was met with jubilation and followed by celebration in large parts of the country.

Don’t get us wrong. We are not inciting anyone against the State, we do not want to be anti-India. But what are we supposed to understand from all this? That anyone can be hanged to cover up for the State’s incompetence? That the law is going to be guided by cheap politics? That anyone from us could be made the next Afzal Guru?

The only one who terrorizes us today is the State, not some fictitious “Terrorist” outfit. We can be arrested anytime, detained for any period of time, and convicted of any crime at the whim and mercy of the State. To many who are thus oppressed by the state, be it a suspected “Jihadi” or an alleged “Naxalite”, the real National Security Threat is the State.

We know this is an emotional outburst, but we are feeling emotional. We are hurt and angry and distressed and afraid for we are oppressed by the very forces which are made to protect us.

We remain citizens of this country, we shall continue to call on the institutions made to protect us, we shall continue to struggle with all the just means and tools, but in times like this se are forced to ask: Is it worth it?

- By Fawaz Shaheen (B.A.LLB)

Of Elections without Ideas— Neo-Liberalism and the Culture of Apathy

             Students’ Politics is conceived as an art of channelizing the energy of the youth and preparing them for the task of nation-building. It also seeks to sensitise them on the pertinent socio-political issues of the times. However, over the past few decades students’ politics has become synonymous with flagrant exercise of money and muscle power, nepotism and debauchery. In short, an ethical vacuum has resulted in the derailing of students’ politics from its purpose.

           Many fail to perceive the root of the problem - a lack ideas and a clear-eyed vision among the youth of this country. A case in point is the recently concluded Students’ Union elections of the Aligarh Muslim University Students’ Union.  As of now whatever ideas you would seek among the AMUSU elections candidates the following were the ones you would get (tick the box):-

a) Please vote, support and dua                                          

b)  Tempo high hai

c)   Jeetega bhai jeetega.

          Over the past few years, this terrible drought of ideas have turned a coveted Institution like the AMU Students’ Union into a licence for running riot into the day to day activities of the campus. A pool of students’ leaders have come onto the centre stage who are oblivious of the contemporary challenges being faced by the largest minority community of this country (ironically whose interests they claim to    represent). This has led to an incessant shrinkage of AMU’s role in the task of nation-building and turned it into a thing of the yester years.  In their desperation in showing themselves to be concerned about the common students whose corollary is being antagonistic to the University administration, they have repetitively maligned the Vice- Chancellor of the University ( at times in language that crossed the levels of decency) pressed for illegal demands, and stretched out of the jurisdiction of the Students’ Union. The consequence of all the above acts has been vitiating of the peaceful atmosphere of the campus, and a pretext for the University administration to state that Students’ Union Elections leads to problems of law and order and thereby suspension of the Students ‘Union and denial of the democratic rights of the students.

         However, it would be unfair to presume that the above mentioned problems are exclusively those of the Aligarh Muslim University. A cursory look into the students’ politics of the entire country would reveal that most of the campuses (even those which are known for its academic excellence) today suffer from a leadership vacuum. The neo-liberal policies that have been ushered in this country over the past two decades have resulted in the constant need of a workforce that would feed onto the market. Thus, the Universities have turned into degree vending factories manufacturing ready-made graduates. In such a scenario it is obvious that the political status quo would be antagonistic to the idea of campus democracy and students’ mobilisation as they have repeatedly proved to be threats to the ruling class in the past. Thus, what goes on is a farce in most of the campuses in the name of students’ politics. The thinking youth is tactfully kept out of the entire political process through the middle class squeamishness “politics is bad”. What is currently going on at the Aligarh Muslim University is actually a microcosm of the situation in the entire country.

         The panacea to the above problems lays in active participation of the students in the political process. They have to rise above this culture of apathy in order to secure a better future for themselves. Coming back to AMU, it is essential that we reclaim our politics from the clutches of lobbyism that has eroded the essence of our Students’ Union. There is a need for more political sensitisation among the common students. The onus lies on each and every student who is a stake holder of the prestige of this great seat of learning. The task is difficult, but not an impossible one. With our joint and sustained efforts we can surely salvage our fading glory.

An Optimist's Analysis of AMUSU Elections 2012-13

AMU is a very unique world in itself. Just as when we start assuming that we are well versed with every aspect of this university, it offers new phenomenon to leave us baffled & in utter surprise. Aligarh Muslim University’s Students Union (AMUSU) Elections of 2012-13 is the latest event that has again proven that there are some newly seen patterns which demand in-depth reflections from all interested parties. These recently emerging patterns offer many positives which should be capitalized by those who are genuinely interested in the welfare of AMU.

                    AMUSU elections are indeed an event of national importance. With Jamia Millia Islamia’s administration banning Students’ Union in their university, AMUSU is the only students’ organization that has some legitimacy of claiming to represent the Indian Muslims in general & Indian Muslim youth in particular. Therefore, whatever happens in these elections & whoever gets elected requires a thorough analysis. This current election was pretty much different from the earlier two elections that I have witnessed. First, no printed posters were allowed to be pasted & university buildings were not defaced as the authorities maintained strict vigil & even minor violations were quickly responded with show-cause notices to the candidates. Second, the minimum 75 % attendance rule was strictly enforced leaving many candidates’ nomination papers cancelled. Third, the students were less enthusiastic this time around in comparison to the last two elections owing to multiple factors such as late holding of elections, corruption & dismal performance of last Students’ Union, relatively less number of eligible candidates, etc.

                      The election days are one of the most exciting times in the whole academic session. Every candidate was seen bent & offering salaam making an angle of almost 90 degrees. Every Tom, Dick & Harryclaimed to have at least 100 to 200 voters under his command. The sales of Cigarettes, Petrol & Tea had skyrocketed. The engines of the bikes asked for mercy due to constant noise created by the accelerators of bikes. Since, there was a ban on printed   posters the volunteers of the candidates came up with more creative posters created with sketch-pens & in some cases, even by Aerosol sprays. Candidates by-passed the directions of no-posters on University walls by pasting their hand-made posters on virtually every tree (as trees can’t be considered a wall) of the campus. Sir Syed (North) Hall was made their “office” by most of the candidates while other halls were  almost silent spectators of the elections. It was also quite common to see promises being done, of betrayals being committed by one’s own trusted “friends”, pacts done by regional lobbyists & rhetorical promises of the candidates.

                One of the positives that can be drawn from this election is the seemingly declining influence of highest- level regional seniors-cum-University mafia on the general students. The reason is attributed to the  less frequent interaction of Seniors & Juniors nowadays compared to what have been the case a decade earlier. The fresher students have their own aspirations & circles leading to a lesser influence of the senior“vultures” of their respective regions on their voting behaviour. The other positive development was the showing of more political maturity by the Aligs this time when a candidate was alleged to be sponsored by the “Communists” - a term to denote the most devilish section of the AMU by some. I personally felt pretty glad to be told by many of my friends that this was a dirty conspiracy of the opponents to discredit the candidate. Earlier, this labeling was a very easy way to delegitimize anyone & the voters were very easily swayed by this propaganda. This incident shows that most of us have learnt from our earlier mistakes & will not be deceived so easily by mere allegations.

                Being a student of engineering, I am a close witness to the generally apathetic attitude of the majority of my  college-mates regarding student politics & AMUSU elections. It is unfortunate that the students of Engineering faculty which comprises of approximately one-fourth of the total registered voters don’t take much interests in politics. Most of the engineers cast their votes without much thought either on the request of their known ones or on some other petty criteria like region, department, personal relations, etc. But, it came as a pleasant surprise that on the polling day of this elections many of my college-mates were casting votes, especially for the post of President & Vice-President for a candidate they considered to be “deserving” based upon the candidates’ past activities & achievements.

                At last, I want to say that I personally see some promising developments in the usually dirty politics of Students’ Union elections which gives me hope to actively engage ourselves in materializing on these positives to restore AMUSU’s past glory. Efforts are also required to be directed to aware our fellow students regarding the importance of students’ politics & offering opposition to counter check the corrupt-practices of student leaders once they come in power. Let’s see if we can make some constructive contributions to our beloved  institution.

A Response to Students’ Union Elections, 2012-13

 Students of Political Science who are usually branded as “pessimists” will definitely agree with me if I say that politics exists because here the people always disagree. But, before jumping to conclusion that politics is all about disagreement, let me make it clear that politics also makes two strangers bed-partners. Hence, conflict and its resolution are the guiding principles of any political activity.

In the recent Students’ Union Election, I got a chance to observe how people are befooled by the leaders through electrifying slogans and false promises. In the beginning, I like many others, fell prey to political apathy and decided to remain at arm’s length from the election but the element of political pessimism which is present in the DNA of every Political Science student finally pushed or compelled me to open my tight lips. It is rightly said that “you may not be interested in politics but politics is interested in you.”

This time, the Union election was of course very unique and more political in nature because various political developments (Institutional and psychological level) took place. Here, elections are usually contested on the basis of regional lobbies Any leader having a strong base from any regional lobby is sure to win the elections. Lobbyism is very deeply rooted in the minds of AMU students, maybe because it is considered as the only tool of mobilising students. But, contrary to the previous election, some leaders have made personal appeals to the voters and hence have boosted the phenomenal of “spatial leadership”. However, it does not mean that lobbyism has been totally uprooted. Besides this the trend of black and grey propaganda against some leaders was also visible, but it seems very strange to me that destructive criticism against some leaders proved to be counter-productive. Some leaders were branded as ‘communists’ as it is the easiest way of maligning anyone in the campus. But, I am quite sure that those who earned a master’s degree in this activity do not even know the ‘c’ of Communism. When negative campaigning was at the peak, majority of the voters, in a display of political maturity, expressed their apathy against false propaganda and protested against it by casting votes in favour of the artificially tainted candidate.

Another sign of political maturity was the strong vow taken by students to cast their votes not in favour of those candidates who during campaigning showed their non-seriousness. Moreover, some candidates have focussed mainly on presentational factors such as personal appearance, hairstyles, dressing sense and so on. Sometimes these become more important in determining the political mandate.

One of the drastic changes was the fragmentation of each regional lobby into at least two fragments. For some, it is a positive sign. Yes, of course, it is .But looking deep into it, I think, in previous elections one lobby remained completely focused on one candidate and if that candidate lost the election it was perceived as a loss of the entire lobby. But now each lobby put its force behind one candidate or the other. So winning or losing of any candidate ultimately proved beneficial to one lobby or the other. In a technical sense, the elections remained a zero-sum game for any lobby now.

I observed that some candidates were “politically honest” and this time, the victory kissed the feet of only those candidates who mastered not in politics but in “politricks”.

In short, it all reminds me the theory of Statecraft of Machiavelli. I wonder that how some people could be in born Machiavellian. Any sensible person cannot turn deaf ears to the new stimulus and responses. Anyone who keeps his eyes protectively dim to these new developments really deserve the title of “idiot”, which was used for the politically insensitive people in Ancient Greece. 

- Imran Ahmad Kichloo, M.A. Political Science

The Political Process in AMU

                This brief note seeks to examine the political  process as it operates among the students in AMU, with special reference to the AMUSU elections.

                What we shall seek to analyze here is the mode of political organization, the language and issues of politics and the purpose of political action.

Political Organization

         There are no political parties or formally  organized political groups in AMU. Political organization is almost exclusively on the basis of regional affiliations, coupled with personal friendships. Occasionally sectarian differences such as Shia-Sunni or Barelvi-Deobandi do come into play, but are rarely divorced of regional considerations.

Some prominent collectives, or ‘lobbies’ as they are called in AMU, are Bihar, Bengal, Azamgarh, Ghazipur, GBS (Gonda-Basti-Siddharthanagar) and various cities of Western U.P. like Sambhal and Saharanpur.

            The basis of these collectives is a sense of regional pride and the impulse to protect and further the interests of students hailing from the particular region that the collective represents.

Being non-ideological however, these collectives are quite flexible and include many students (and non-students) from other regions that become part of their activities due to personal friendships, relationships, or long association with people who identify themselves with the collective.

Structure and Leadership

                These collectives mostly do not have any formal structures (except perhaps Bengal, which has a semi-formal functional “Bengal Association”), and are  often broken up into factions which are identified by prominent ‘seniors’,  that is, those who have spent many years in AMU and ‘given time’ to the collective.

              Apart from seniority, leadership is based on personality cult and a rustic form of charismatic politics. Since the contest for political space or personal differences among students of different regions often erupts into violent encounters, proficiency in violence is a strong factor in assuming leadership roles.

Role of Teachers in political organisation

            The involvement of teachers too cannot be ignored, and often it is teachers hailing from a particular region who direct the political activities of their co-regional students.

            Teachers play a key role in recruiting new students to these collectives, and in protecting students from the consequences of illegal action. It is also not uncommon for teachers to encourage even violent conflicts to further their interests in the university.

The language of Politics and its issues

             The language of politics is largely chauvinistic and adversarial. It is devoid of any central or underlying idea and its gravitas is nostalgic rhetoric full of allusions to past glory, both real and imagined.

          The most common adversary is the Administration, the much-denounced intezamia, but it changes depending on the issue and can  include anyone from the RSS to Central and State governments and political rivals.

            The issues which are raised are mostly university-related. National and international topics which have emotional appeal (such as  communal riots or Palestine) are also agitated upon, but from a very  narrow Milli perspective.

Purpose of Political Action

                  In the absence of greater ideas, the purpose political action is limited to grabbing power, and enjoying the consequent privileges.

           For the more ambitious, the Students Union is a platform which helps them join an established political party from a position of strength, thus getting a head-start in their political careers.

                For others, getting elected is a way to earn some quick money. This is done either by stealing from the sizeable Union budget or by disrupting University administration and forcing them to favour paying  clients.

                    For supporters of the candidate, it is about the pride of getting ‘their’ candidate elected, and thereafter sharing in the fruits of power. The candidate is also  expected to get them out of trouble, if the need arises.

                  The common student only expects that their  representatives speak for them and that too on very local issues. Some of these issues may be very legitimate, such as helping out with bureaucratic red-tape, while   others may not be so much so, such as problems with attendance.

All in all, the real expectations from politics are not very high, and are essentially located in a very local and often self-centred context.

Contesting Elections

Selection of candidate

          The norm is that when elections are announced, each  regional collective or “lobby” holds a “General Body  Meeting”, in which it decides upon a candidate. In some cases, a lobby may not field its own candidate but decide to make a “pact” with another lobby and support their candidate. Often it also happens that different factions within a lobby may field or support separate candidates.

The “General Candidate”

            There is also the case of the “General Candidate”, that is, a candidate with supposedly no roots in any one lobby. Such a candidate seeks the support of different lobbies, or power groups within the lobbies.

Campaigning

               The point of the campaign is to hype the name of the candidate, to spread it in every corner of the campus. This is done primarily by posters, banners and flexes. The posters rarely have any creative content or send across an idea or even list an issue. The only content is the candidate’s name and a catchy slogan.

                   Since all candidates are in reality unknown entities to most of the campus, the challenge is to get maximum number of people to just remember the name.

Another important component is the rallies, which are mostly bike-rallies. Prevailing common sense is that the bigger the rallies, the greater the hype. Added to this are the various gimmicks and political stunts that candidates engage in to get media attention and publicity. Pamphlets highlighting personal achievements of candidates are also common.

                   The topics of discussion are mostly centred on the strength of the rallies, the visibility of posters and the controversies around the person of the candidate. The campaigning of every candidate follows more or less these same methods, with only minor alterations and differences in strength.

Role of teachers in election process

Teachers play a vital role in the selection of candidates. It is common in AMU when taking of different candidates to talk of the teachers backing them.

This backing mostly follows regional lines, but has no set rules. One of the criterion  of course, is the amount of use the candidate can be to the teacher or group of teachers. But primary motivation is mostly regional pride.

- Fawaz Shaheen, B.A.LLB