By Amit Kumar, TwoCircles.net
Rahul Sonpimple, in one-on-one conversations, maintains eye contact at all times: although I interviewed him in near darkness at the bus stop near Ganga Dhaba just after midnight, I could feel his piercing look. A Dalit from Nagpur, Maharashtra, Sonpimple barely has any time to spare: the initial request of 30 minutes for an interview has to be curtailed to 15 minutes, he says, apologising profusely.
As the Vice President candidates locked horns on the second last day of campaigning, Sonpimple locked himself in his room in Old Brahmaputra Hostel, to prepare for his speech. When he emerged from his room at the end of the VP debate, he walked into Jhelum lawns and within minutes, he was surrounded by his friends, and fellow party members.
Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students Association (BAPSA) may be contesting only its second elections in JNU, but to an outsider, the kind of support it receives may well make it seem as if this too is a veteran party. Rahul Sonpimple, a second year MPhil student and the Presidential Candidate of BAPSA, knows that he, and BAPSA, stand at an important juncture in students politics. Rahul and his team of candidates might well do the unthinkable: beat the stalwarts of “progressive” politics in their own backyard. Eye to the sky, ear to the ground: Sonpimple listens attentively to every person who comes and speaks to him. “Bhai, talk of Malcolm X. Remember the Gramsci point I mentioned? Talk about that,” says someone, and Sonpimple nods, although it is difficult to judge whether he is registering much. “So many people are coming up and saying so many things…all of it is cramming my head, I need to relax,” the 27-year-old tells a friend in Marathi.
Sonpimple has been in the campus for two years: almost the same time as BAPSA itself, but says with utmost surety that it is only BAPSA that provides a platform for what he terms as “oppressed unity” comprising of SCs, STs, OBCs, women, religious minorities to represent themselves. “Within the larger framework of what constitutes ‘progressive politics’, we too are part of it, so one could say that we are probably more similar to Students’ Federation of India (SFI), and All India Student Federation (AISA) than to Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). However, I would like to point out that the similarities end there,” says Sonpimple. “During the events that followed February 9 incident, BAPSA, along with all other like-minded parties, defended the idea of JNU. But at the same time, we do not agree to the notion that JNU does not have its own issues which need to be addressed,” he says.
“Unlike SFI and AISA, we are not creating a platform where others come and talk about our problems, and issues. Now, we want to talk about it ourselves,” he says. “BAPSA is an attempt to further the cause raised by Birsa, Ambedkar and Phule…they did not depend on others, and neither do we,” he adds.
“The fight against oppression must be led by the oppressed…witnessing oppression is key to fighting against oppression. Unlike oppressed sections, some people just talk about oppression and “celebrate”, he says. He cites the example of CPI (M) and CPI (ML) to strengthen his argument. “Sitaram Yechury, Prakash Karat, and Kavitha Krishnan go on national and international media and talk about oppression. If they are so concerned about it, how come they never have anyone from the oppressed communities sharing their experiences?” he asks. “Krishnan has, on so many occasions, talked about atrocities on Dalits in Bihar. Then how come we never hear anyone from these communities?” he says. “Name me one tribal, or Dalit leader from these parties who is a national leader?” he asks.
“This type of Godfather-like politics,” says Sonpimple, pointing to Don Corleone from the legendary movie Godfather, “will not work,” he says. “AISA and SFI have always been of the idea that the oppressed must come to us, and we will look after them, raise their issues. Why can’t we take up our own issues? Why do we need a ‘guiding light’? What does this kind of politics indicate?” he asks.
BAPSA believes that to fight for the oppressed, the Brahminical forces (whether Left or Right) must be countered on all fronts. “We have never been against an individual, or even against one party. Our fight remains the same as Babasaheb’s…we will counter Brahminism in all its forms; whether it is on campus, or outside it,” says Sonpimple.
It is no surprise that the popularity of BAPSA has got the Left Unity Panel, which brings together two arch rivals-SFI and AISA- rattled. BAPSA, by using slogans like “Lal-Bhagwa Ek Hai, Saare Comrades Fake Hai” has also made it clear that they refuse and resist the binary that the upcoming JNU elections is a fight between Left and Right, or between Progressives and Conservatives. “The slogan is an attack on all those who use the idea of Left politics to further their own cause. Of course, there are a lot of people associated with the Left who are working honestly on the ground, and we are not against them. Far from it; we believe that the Left parties have consciously ignored them,” says Sonpimple.
For Sonpimple and BAPSA, the issues that are key to their campaign include the high drop-out rates in JNU. “It is no surprise that most of the students who drop out of JNU belong to the marginalised communities; and this an important issue for us. Along with this, the reduction of weightage of Viva Voce marks is also an important issue for us (although this issue was raised by nearly all the other parties too). AISA has been in power for four years in this campus but has done little over this issue,” says Sonpimple, adding, “I filed an RTI and studied the long-term trend of students dropping out. The RTI showed that both the Right-wing and Left-wing people were involved in discriminating against oppressed sections. While students of the weaker sections got 60 to 70% marks in written exams, many were denied admission by teachers who gave them zero marks in the viva voce.”
The issue of deprivation points is another issue that BAPSA has raised often. In a press release in April, the organisation had said, “The present changes in the deprivation point system are nothing but the misplaced solutions to the problem that has been a longstanding concern for us. The low level presence of students from the quartile regions is undeniably the cause of concern, but the solution to this problem can not necessarily be traced in the arrangements of the already restricted deprivation points but rather the discriminatory viva-voce marking.
Sonpimple asks to be excused: he has to go back to his speech, and consult his fellow party-members. “Remember to relax tomorrow,” says a well-wisher. “Do you have a new Kurta for tomorrow’s speech?” someone else asks. “Yes,” says Sonpimple. As he looks forward to donning a new Kurta for his final speech, one wonders: is JNU ready to don a new identity?