JNU, its discontents and labels
I have lots of friends studying at JNU
, including my friend B. To most of us JNU is this ,and incidents like this are an integral part of JNU-lore. B's JNU, however, is different. For one, B studies Physics and the Science Department by and large bucks the "Lefty" trend at JNU. In the JNU students Union (JNUSU) elections last year, the anti-reservation "right" Youth For Equality (YFE) gave the left a scare. Poll indicators showed that most of the votes for YFE came from the science Departments-School of Life Sciences, Centre for Bio-Tech and School for Environmental Science, who all have Counsellors from YFE. B tells me that science students are often derided as right wing ABVP supporters, something that he takes a strong exception to. ABVP did win the 2002 JNUSU election, a nightmare for most left parties in JNU.
B prefers to describe himself as a liberal and hates "the left ideology of branding any non lefty as a right winger". B as i know and love him is a hyper-nationalist who at one point of time wanted to drive "a tank and not a bus into Lahore", and wanted India to embody Israels policy towards Palestine to deal with terrorism. B's future plans are to immigrate to Canada and get a cushy job there.
Despite our differences, B is a good friend.
I talked to Shivam once about identites and labels-him pointing out that one of the most fashionable labels in currency is Secular-Right. Secular being the definition of the Political you and Right being a definition of the Free-Market loving you. I mused adapting this label for myself ( Fahad Mustafa-Secular Right(does that say anything?)). Until I came across this calling itself secular right.
, including my friend B. To most of us JNU is this ,and incidents like this are an integral part of JNU-lore. B's JNU, however, is different. For one, B studies Physics and the Science Department by and large bucks the "Lefty" trend at JNU. In the JNU students Union (JNUSU) elections last year, the anti-reservation "right" Youth For Equality (YFE) gave the left a scare. Poll indicators showed that most of the votes for YFE came from the science Departments-School of Life Sciences, Centre for Bio-Tech and School for Environmental Science, who all have Counsellors from YFE. B tells me that science students are often derided as right wing ABVP supporters, something that he takes a strong exception to. ABVP did win the 2002 JNUSU election, a nightmare for most left parties in JNU.
B prefers to describe himself as a liberal and hates "the left ideology of branding any non lefty as a right winger". B as i know and love him is a hyper-nationalist who at one point of time wanted to drive "a tank and not a bus into Lahore", and wanted India to embody Israels policy towards Palestine to deal with terrorism. B's future plans are to immigrate to Canada and get a cushy job there.
Despite our differences, B is a good friend.
I talked to Shivam once about identites and labels-him pointing out that one of the most fashionable labels in currency is Secular-Right. Secular being the definition of the Political you and Right being a definition of the Free-Market loving you. I mused adapting this label for myself ( Fahad Mustafa-Secular Right(does that say anything?)). Until I came across this calling itself secular right.
posted by Fahad Mustafa at
1:50 AM
1 Comments:
if you have time, then please visit my blog at http://jnuchronicles.blogspot.com. i think you'll find it interesting. fell free to post your comments.
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