SFI dissolves its JNU unit,triggers protest

CPMs students wing SFI in the Jawaharlal Nehru University its much-celebrated citadel and the political launch pad of party bigwigs Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechury on Tuesday suffered a split.

This after the SFI leadership dissolved its JNU unit,which had openly challenged the CPM Politburos decision to support Pranab Mukherjee in the presidential election embarrassing the party,and expelled four of its state committee members from the varsity for indulging in anti-organisational activities and violating the outfits constitution.

Those expelled were SFI Delhi unit president Roshan Kishore,vice presidents Zico Dasgupta and P K Anand and SFI-JNU vice president Lenin. The decision was taken by the Delhi State Committee of the SFI at a meeting which was attended by SFI national president and Lok Sabha MP P K Biju and general secretary Ritabrata Banerjee.

The SFI unit in the JNU has lost its democratic character. It has gone into the hands of autocratic despots, Banerjee told The Indian Express. Biju said according to the SFIs constitution,a unit committee cannot take decisions which have implications which go beyond the confines of the institution or the units area of work.

Hours after the expulsion,the JNU SFI unit hit back saying the decision to dissolve the unit is nothing but a mockery of the democratic processes of organisational functioning as laid down in the SFI Constitution and a grave assault on the independent and progressive character of a student organisation like the SFI.

The expulsion,it said in a statement,smacks of an authoritarian,undemocratic and vindictive attitude.

The statement had signatures of SFI JNU unit president Anagha and many of its JNU office-bearers. They said they will continue to function in the name of SFI-JNU and alleged it was the SFI national leadership who acted against the SFI Programme and Constitution. A protest march was later taken out. On its part,the SFI leadership appointed an ad-hoc office-bearers team.

Story continues below this ad

The all-India leadership seems to be under the misconception that by targeting a few individuals they will be able to browbeat the entire unit and divert attention from the relevant political issues. They are taking the collective political consciousness and organisational unity in the SFI-JNU unit for granted, the statement said.

The upheaval in the JNU comes as an embarrassment to the CPM whose general secretary Prakash Karat and Politburo member Sitaram Yechury began their political life as SFI activists in the varsity. Karat was president of the JNU Students union in 1972-73,while Yechury held the same post in 1977-78.