Former SFI General Secretary of JNUSU and research scholar in the Centre for Philosophy, Satarupa Chakraborty was recently brutally attacked by some men who she claims belong to the Akhil Bhartiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (ABVP). While Satarupa was thrashed along with a few others belonging to the Left camp during JNU elections, her pictures went viral on the internet because of the kind of scars she suffered.
JNU students' union election is a season of drama in the liberal university but this time things stretched too far when the vote counting halted for 15 hours because of alleged attacks by ABVP cadre people. Reports say that they even beat up the Election Commission members.
SheThePeople.TV spoke to Satarupa to know her side of the story. “On the day of the presidential debate, they started violently attacking us by pushing, manhandling and molesting us. When we started recording the violence then they snatched away our mobiles and even smashed some. After that I and one other person, we went to the Vasant Kunj police station to register a complaint against this. Then on the day of counting when the results of the elections came out and ABVP lost all positions, they again started attacking all organizations’ activists and particularly Left Unity Alliance.
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During this time on 15 September afternoon, I was going to video record the incident. They snatched my phone and I was wearing a dupatta by which they tried to strangulate me which gave me a huge cut on the back of my neck. After this, I and my friend went to Safdarjung Hospital to get a medical check-up. Then we went to the police station to again file an FIR and when we were returning from there in an auto, some people came in a car from ABVP attacked our auto and beat us with belts.”
Satarupa said that most of their women activists suffered attacks by the male members of ABVP. “They wanted to make a point, that is, accept us or we will create a ruckus and terror in the university. But they were not successful in any of their attempts because people who do left politics here are there with some kind of commitment and understanding of politics. So these attacks cannot terrorize us.”
On this whole incident, the new president of JNUSU N Sai Balaji, said, “In the larger context, the moment ABVP realized that they are going to lose, they attacked all those voices who are raising their concerns against them. Especially in this campus, the ratio of men and women is almost the same but that political organization cannot digest the fact that how can a woman raise their voice against them? Satarupa and I belong to different organizations but there has been a very respectful comradeship for years. And the attack on her is not an attack on an individual, but on those thousands of students who wish to raise their voice and are doing so in the university.”
They were not successful in any of their attempts because people who do left politics here are there with some kind of commitment and understanding of politics. So these attacks cannot terrorize us.
But the ABVP has a different story altogether, Monika Chaudhari, who is the National Media Convenor of ABVP, said that Left party was more violent and that they attacked their cadre by entering their rooms and beating people up which included physically disabled people as well. On why they think Left party created violence even after winning all positions, she said, “It is very clear because till date wherever left has come in power across the country, they have created violence everywhere like they did in Bengal, Kerala and now JNU. They felt frustrated because support to ABVP is increasing in JNU. Today, they are at a position where without alliance they cannot win against ABVP.”
In the elections, Left Unity, an alliance of four groups (AISA, SFI, DSF AND AISF) won all four central panel and 15 councillor positions. Balaji won against Lalit Pandey of ABVP to become president by a huge margin of 1179 votes. While politics is okay, this kind of politics where attacks happen and especially on women is sure something to correct.
Picture credit- Twitter
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