Published On: Fri, Oct 3rd, 2014

Campus Wars: AISF bullies JNU Vice Chancellor over Hindu festival

A reader alerted IndiaFacts to what an ongoing campus war occurring in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). The war though is being fought with posters and pamphlets. The occasion this time is the upcoming celebration of Vijayadashami on the JNU campus.

The fact that the JNU is the Mecca of Marxism in India is beyond doubt. And the fact that Indian Marxists have played a singular role in deriding, distorting, and demonising Hinduism for about 70 years is equally beyond doubt. In keeping with the same tradition, the student group AISF put out the following poster, an “Open letter to the Vice Chancellor of JNU” all over the JNU campus. (Click the image below to view the full size)

AISF Poster

What AISF says in not so so many words is this: it does not want the VC  Prof. S. K. Sopory to attend the Vijayadashami festival. 

Needless, AISF’s open letter is a familiar tactic well-documented by first rate scholars and thinkers like Arun Shourie and Sitaram Goel: intellectual bullying, labeling, calumny and character assassination.

In response, India First, a student group ideologically opposed to AISF published a counter to AISF’s false propaganda. (Click the image below to view the full version)

India  First poster

The full text (in the image above) of India First’s rebuttal to AISF’s Communist propaganda is given below.


Does AISF stands with Neo-Nazi groups & racist theories?

While AISF brings out poster abusing Hindus and Hindu festivals ( An open letter to VC of JNU dated 1/10/2014) in alliance with neo-Nazi groups with usual bogus theories born out of gibberish Aryan Invasion Theory, lets have a look what its parent party CPI has been doing these days. CPI has been allowed to end untoucahability towards Hindus by the communist coven as per a decision reached at within the LDF because the efforts of communists to attract Christians and Muslims have “not been quite” successful. Below is excerpt from news report Published: 26th Jan 2014 –

“Its mythology over ideology for the Communist party of India as a survival strategy. Left staring at a rapidly shrinking support base, and unable to attract the new generation of voters, the Communist Party of India (CPI) is turning to the power of Hinduism to stay relevant. Today, a three-day seminar begins in one of the last red bastions in the country which will focus on the “power of the past”. The Kannur meet—aptly called Bharateeyam—will have stalwarts studying the past to seek answers for the future.

For the first time in the history of any Left party,  sessions will be held on traditional Indian knowledge systems, Indian philosophy and culture. Also on the agenda are detailed discussions on Vedic and pre-Vedic periods and the Upanishads. The seminar, which will be attended by academics and Vedic experts from across the country, will have separate sessions on Vedanta, Indian Philosophy and Thoughts, Relevance and Significance of Upanishadic Literature and Indian Knowledge Systems. “Vedic literature forms a wonderful monument of literary wealth handed over to us by our ancestors…” begins the brochure for the seminar. And the stated objective of the meet is to “popularise ancient authors and their thoughts to the new generation without any prejudice.”

While one may, out of habit, associate these topics with right-wing politics and ideology, one need not anymore if one goes by the CPI argument. “Vedas and Upanishads are part of our collective past. Why should we let the RSS hijack it? We all have lessons to learn from these ancient texts,” said a CPI leader when asked about the apparent incongruity in the topic of the seminar and the tenets of Leftist ideology. Organised on behalf of a trust named after late CPI leader N E Balram, the seminar is being attended by politicians and academics from across the country.

“Other Communist parties may agree or disagree, but it is a fact that no Left party can survive in India without acknowledging India’s collective past and traditions,” the CPI leader added for good measure. Going a step further, the brochure proudly declares that CPI leaders like Veliyam Bhargavan and K Damodaran are “scholars of Vedic literature and classic Sanskrit.”  (http://www.newindianexpress.com/thesundaystandard/Tough-Times-Reds-Cite-Vedas-to-Win-Hearts/2014/01/26/article2020286.ece)

So AISF must come clean on its stand on Hinduism and worship of mother goddess in particular. Does it still believes in now dis-credited Aryan Invasion Theory? Does it believes that worship of Mother Goddess, which is the most ancient tradition of the people of this land ie Dalits & tribals and which even pre-dates vedas should be abused by neo-Nazi vandals? Does it supports that an event, literature or festival should be boycotted/banned because they supposedly “hurt sentiments” of some people? Then does it support Dina Nath Batra’s attempt to drag books into courts because they “hurt sentiments” of some people? People are not surprised at the double-speak and thuggish behavior of AISF because it too is a communist party after all. And like all “believers” in the criminal ideology of communism, its gleefully sides with Nazi groups who pose as champions of social justice.


IndiaFacts welcomes members and/or supporters of AISF to respond to India First’s rejoinder in a spirit of encouraging open debate.

About the Author

- Sankrant Sanu is an entrepreneur, author and researcher based in Seattle and Gurgaon. His essays in the book "Invading the Sacred" contested Western academic writing on Hinduism. He is a graduate of IIT Kanpur and the University of Texas and holds six technology patents. His latest book is "The English Medium Myth." He blogs at sankrant.org .


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  1. Sanal Madhusudana Girija says:

    It seems kids in JNU has a lot of time to waste on trivial issues and fighting shadows! I have seen many SFI/AISF leaders participating in Durga Pooja/Vijayadashami. Same is true for CPM/CPI leaders. Google it, you can find photos of CPM/CPI leaders in these festvals. Let AISF start practicing it at their home, I mean within their groups, before the preech to the VC and students!

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  4. rajud21 says:

    I remember one of my junior from JNU narrating a story. The “secular” student body banned all Hindu festival celebrations on campus, but fully sponsered a buffet/dinner party on Ramzan/Eid. This is how sickular the situation is there. They are now probably coming to terms with loss of power. They used to abuse the Hindus as Manu-vadis (which was least abusive), etc.

  5. harihara says:

    The
    celebration of victory in Vijayaashami is more to remind ourselves of the need
    for our own ethics to win over our own evil thoughts like kidnapping
    represented by Ravana, to win over laziness repped by madhu and kytabha, to win
    over ahankaara repped by mahisha, to win over obstinacy repped by chanda and
    munda, to win over drugs/alcohol by dhumralochana, consumption by raktabeeja,
    to win over foolishness represented by shumbha and nishumbha – all bad
    attitudes and qualities to be suppressed by our own buddhi; the anecdotes are
    guides to good living and behavior for every human, these have nothing to do
    with caste or race . Universities had better be centers cultivating people who can
    generate IP instead of ahankaara

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