Students in 'sedition list' are committed to academics, popular figures

Over the past few days, a number of hostel rooms on the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus have been locked and are empty as a certain number of students have gone "underground", either disappeared off campus altogether, or are afraid to go back to their rooms. A list of 20 names circulates on the campus, those with targets painted on their backs, by the authorities and the right wing.

This is a list of the entire student leadership from the university's left-leaning bodies, all who have been at the forefront of student movements -- Occupy UGC, Justice for Rohith Vemula, even the December 16 gang rape protests -- say their peers. This has led the student body to believe that a witchhunt is on, picking off the politically active students, to demolish leadership and eliminate political opponents for the right.

This list includes those named by the police in the court for sedition -- earning the moniker 'the sedition list' -- those suspended from campus, and a few others. They face accusations of terrorist activities, anti-national, etc, from the mainstream media, and right wing organisations such as the ABVP, the BJP's student wing. Some are required to depose in front of the 'high-level' inquiry committee for their alleged role in the events of February 9 that led the student union president Kanhaiya Kumar to be arrested on charges of sedition, even as society bays for their blood.

When dna spoke to their peers and their teachers, the picture they painted was of students committed to academics, to their campus, to helping out the student body as much as possible, popular leaders and go-to figures for people in trouble.

Professor Ayesha Kidwai praised one such student highly, for her sense of the law and where it applies, for her work with one of JNU's most vigorous, admired committees, the Gender Sensitisation Committee Against Sexual Harassment (GSCASH), where they served together. This student, who comes from a small Uttar Pradesh town, has fought with her family for years to resist marriage and continue with her studies, and is now a PhD student in linguistics. A long-time political activist known for her leadership during December 16 protests and Justice for Rohith, Kidwai, and the student's peers, spoke of her ability to handle students and faculty in such cases, and keep confidentiality, especially in high-profile cases where senior members of the faculty had been penalised. She has also fought for the rights of contract workers in JNU, ensuring salaries and better health care for them.

A faculty member from the School of Social Sciences said much the same about the other GSCASH member, doing her Master's in International Studies, the youngest on the list. The teacher called it a joke that someone who knows law so well would be accused of 'anti-nationali activities. This teacher called the student "bright" "down to earth" and "very balanced and principled", who has handled some difficult cases with GSCASH, where, again, "very powerful people in the university" found themselves on the wrong side of the law. The teacher added that her work had earned the ire of the ABVP, and there had long been a threat perception.

Mona Das, a student at the Centre of Political Science (CPS), recalled how during admissions last year, she came across one of the students on the list; part of a hunger strike that had been on for six days for providing basic hostel facilities to students, this student was still standing at the admissions office, helping out the new lot. This student leader, coming from a difficult background, one of Orissa's poorest districts, and a Dalit family, is known among his peers and other leaders for being one of the most hardworking and sincere people on campus. His M Phil professor, Sudhir Suthar from CPS, said that despite his political work, he never faltered on his academic work, which looked at the Niyamgiri hills conflict. A good student, a "docile chap", Suthar recalled how he had trouble speaking about his work when he joined, yet mounted an impressive defense of his thesis to his professors. "I think he was the first person from his village to get a master's degree," said Suthar, "and he wanted to give back to his community."

Another of the listed, a former student union member, too was part of this strike. This student, a member of the Centre for Law and Governance, went on strike for 13 days to solve the hostel crisis.

Yet another former union member on the list has been lauded for his political leadership in times of crisis. When the Delhi Police had detained a lot of the Occupy UGC protesters at a thana in the outskirts of Delhi, this student had mobilised hundreds on campus to gherao the UGC office yet again. From a peasant family in Bihar, according to some of his friends, this student now does his PhD at the School of International Studies. Like many other student leaders from poor backgrounds, he received JNU's merit-cum-mains fellowship in his master's -- Rs 2000 a month -- to get by.

One former union member was born to a Dalit family in the neighbourhood of Bathani Tola, where she witnessed the 1996 massacre of Dalits by the Ranveer Sena as a child. Her work as a PhD student now is on the left's engagement with people through art and culture, using mediums of theatre, poetry, street plays, etc. Her parents are still landless labourers, say people who know her on campus.

Most of the people on the list come from struggle, and have made something out of themselves academically and politically,

Their acts of leadership, say faculty members, that have put them in the crosshairs of authorities. This list has not appeared out of the blue. Hostel wardens have received notices asking these students to depose before the 'high-level' inquiry committee, yet these students have been pushed underground, afraid to enter campus or the hostel for fear of being picked up. Meanwhile, as JNU protests peacefully inside campus, growing numbers of right wing activists patrol the streets outside, in trucks, asking for traitors to be hanged.