We have put on a red t-shirt with our red glasses, for fun, to fit in with the hammer and sickle, surrounding the statue of Lenin in the Jadavpur New Market, on the way to Jadavpur University (JU), Calcutta. Among the few institutes in India where Marx is still talked about as strongly among students as the marks in their semester exams. And the left is far from being a metaphorical red flag.
Only some of the buildings on campus are colored in TMC white and blue. Which is not a coincidence. TMC’s Mamta Banerjee government in Kolkata announced property tax exemption in 2014-15 if you painted your buildings in her party’s colours. The state-funded joint venture perhaps took the most practical route.
Graffiti on campus walls criticizing partisanship
We turn right, towards the campus, to discover what remains on the left. When asked if JU is Kolkata’s JNU, locals quickly corrected: “Oh no; JNU is the JU of Delhi! The ideological battle lines drawn in JU student politics still lie between the left and the ultra-left, i.e. parties like AIDSO, FUCI and SFI, all of which have various shades of communism, from Stalinist, Maoist to the most mainstream ”.
Another issue is that the state has yet to greenlight a student union election on campus since 2019. The colors of the buildings don’t matter, once you’re hit with graffiti everywhere, from “smash the patriarchy” , “down with partisanship,” “free Kurds,” “environmentalism without class struggle is gardening,” everywhere invoking the Kranti revolution of Che Guevera, Bhagat Singh, et al.
People, from the outside, might think that JU’s idealism is some kind of elitist bubble. But it is actually driven by students from oppressed classes expressing their disagreement. Which is allowed. In fact, actively encouraged by teachers, academics and authorities. “The space for debate is diminishing on other campuses. “It is brainstorming, rather than brainwashing, and everyone is allowed to give their opinion,” says Srijan Bhattacharya, the CPM ‘Young Turk’ candidate from Jadavpur, who has just returned from campaigning in the rural zones.
Jadavpur is both the university and the constituency in which it is located. Mamata has been elected from here to the Lok Sabha in the past. Like Dean Somnath Chatterjee. The turning point for the Left, however, was when CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee lost to the TMC from Jadavpur in the 2011 Assembly elections, ending a 34-year rule of the CPI(M).
Graffiti on university walls
Since then, the party has been in terminal decline. Getting zero seats in the 2021 state elections. As with the Congress, this Left hole has evidently been filled by the BJP in Bengal since then. “There is a quiet makeover going on within the CPM,” says its candidate, Saira Shah Halim, from neighboring South Kolkata constituency.
By which he means: “We are looking to nominate young, credible faces. There’s even a digital push to the campaign. Something the left had stayed completely away from. Look at me, even I’m making reels!
Saira’s posters across south Kolkata urge voting for the Congress-backed CPM in the same font size, making her the face of the INDIA bloc, which Mamta had quit. This bonhomie between the Congress and the Left is also ironic in the context of JU.
There is a popular story that we make Srijan remember: “Snehansu Acharya, an accomplished lawyer, also from a zamindar family, was imprisoned by the Congress government for his communist affiliations in the 1950s. CM BC Roy asked him to hand over land for education. He did it and then went back to jail. “This is the current situation of JU.”
The canteen students prefer not to be quoted about their politics in the press. One of them, who prefers anonymity because he plans to take the civil service exam, says: “It is not important to be identified as left-wing. Some do. Some don’t. The point is to express and fulfill. Nobody is apolitical here.”
There is visible support for the young Srijan, once a popular student leader at JU, when you ask around at the food stalls outside the campus.
Graffiti on a shutter, ‘smashing the patriarchy’
Campaigning for a month, with another month to go (Jadavpur polls will be on June 1), Srijan is positioned against the young Saayoni Ghosh, a former TMC actor, and BJP think tank ideologue Anirban Ganguly. who has also written a book on Narendra. Mode.
Saira, in south Kolkata, faces two sitting MPs: incumbent Mala Roy of the TMC and Debasree Chaudhuri of the BJP, a former minister brought in from the Raiganj constituency.
Saira says: “The problem here is corruption. Both the BJP and the TMC were left exposed with electoral bonuses, while the CPM is still working on party members’ fees. Look at the scams exposed during the TMC: recruitment of teachers, land grabbing…”
He adds, “In the 2022 bypolls, I defeated the BJP candidate, while I lost to BJP’s Babul Supriyo from the Ballygunge Assembly seat.” Securing a respectable second position would still be some kind of success for the left.