 Hello and welcome to NewsClick. The recently concluded GNU SEO elections witnessed massive violence, but it has also established one fact that the united resistance put by students can defeat any force. Today we are joined by Shatrupa Chakraborty, former general secretary of GNU SEO. Welcome to NewsClick Shatrupa. So let's start with this all news going on that how ABVP has unleashed violence in the campus and we know history of ABVP. But when it comes to you individually, you were also attacked. Can you just throw some light on what actually happened? Where were you coming from and who were those people? So I was attacked three times during the whole election process. The first attack happened on the day of presidential debate. When the ABVP members continuously tried to provoke the members of other organizations, they continuously pushed various activists. So when I was video recording the entire violence, at that point of time one member from the ABVP, he snatched away my mobile phone and one of the comrades were there along with me. She was trying to help me out and her phone was also being taken away. And then manhandle molested us. That was the first incident. Second incident happened during the process of counting. When they stole the counting for around 16 hours, which did not happen earlier, they attacked the election commission members who were also students. They attacked the security guards. And then again the same sort of strategy they applied of provoking the other activists and pushing them, manhandling them. There I was again attacked. The third attack happened when I went to file a police complaint and I was coming back on the way the attack happened. So if you see the whole series of attacks, it's not only me, but many other activists from the left were targeted individually and the ABVP members unleashed attack. So the way I see it is this way that the ABVP tried to stall the election process itself. When they failed to do that because of the united resistance of the students, they tried to individually target the people. So this is happening for the first time in history of JNU that you're seeing this scale of violence not just during the elections but also after the elections that they were roaming around in the night targeting individual activists. And then the police complaint was filed, police comes and then they also attacked the president who's recently elected as a president who was sitting inside a police van and then they attack him. So I mean there's clearly a nexus between the administration, JNU, administration, ABVP and the police, right? Right. So the ABVP unleashed attack. We went to register police complaint. Those were not turned as FIRs yet. So I don't know what is the status of my complaints. Then the JNU administration, which is proactive on taking actions against students who are raising student issues, have been criminally silent about whole violent incidents. Yesterday when the dean of students came and the student representatives were asking him questions, he said that no official reports were filed by the security forces. So this clearly indicates that there is an excess going on where the police is not filing FIR, the administration is trying to protect the ABVP lumpens. And this is not the first time when it happened because if you remember when Najeeb Ahmad was attacked in JNU and there were several witnesses given, no action was taken by the administration. So also ABVP had to face massive resistance when it comes to students. The election process was again started, the counting was started and then we see yesterday a long march that took place in JNU. So I think it's also for the first time, not only when it gives a message to the entire country that because JNU has been giving this message again and again that if the students, teachers, everybody comes together, it's not that difficult to defeat these forces. So it also gives a message to the entire country that this is possible. Yeah, this is very much possible and JNU not only this time when in 2016 concerted campaign was launched against the whole university and the student leaders. That time also the student, teachers, Kamcharis, everybody stood together in a united platform. All the non-ABVP organizations have come together in a single platform and yesterday also we have seen the same reflection that all the organization, teachers, students, staff association, offices association, all of them come up with a joint statement also. Joint statement issued by all four organizations, unions in JNU. So we see that in JNU time and again the student, teachers, staff association are coming together against that sort of culture that ABVP is trying to promote in JNU. The question still remains, why JNU? Well, JNU has been in the hit list for a while. One is because of the character, the public funded character that still exists in JNU and which is not there in many of the universities today. For example, if you see the present ruling government is trying to promote a model of privatization, geo-institutes and all sorts of private institutions are mushrooming throughout the country. Where JNU stands out as a public university where in 283 rupees a student can come and take admission which includes a lot of people from different sections, the unprivileged section in particular. So I think that it is an attack on the character of the university A and secondly also the culture that JNU could build and promote for a long time, that culture is being attacked. This time throughout the election they tried to buy votes in terms of giving parties, throwing parties and so on but it didn't work in JNU because be it the student who just joined JNU or be it the student who are just passing out from JNU they have a consciousness to which political force to choose. So keeping 2019 elections in mind these attacks are going to intensify definitely. When it comes to people's issue they are already on back foot and to divert the attention you will bring the issues of nationalism who are nationals, who are anti-nationals. Then you have issue of urban nuxals. So the entire JNU is now being branded as urban nuxals. So what do you think what is the way forward? Well I think we have to consistently raise the student issues because when it comes to the fundamental issues of student or like in a broader larger context if you see what is happening outside be it the issues of the peasants or working class people or women issues or the issues of the marginalized sections the government has failed to address those issues. The similar kind of approach applies to the universities also. The JNU administration has been failing to ensure that the reservation policy is implemented properly and the deprivation policy which JNU is known for has completely been scrapped. The students are not getting hostile. Here I would like to mention that the new school started for the engineering students and no resources has been provided to the students. Their fee is about 60,000 per semester which is not in resonance with the fee structure of the other students who are pursuing education in JNU. So I see a major failure of the government and to divert the issue as you rightly pointed out they are trying to create a binary between national and anti-national they are coining new terms and trying to brand a university and its students as somebody where a public opinion can be mobilized and target the entire university students and this has been failing when it comes to JNU because be it in the academic standard or be it in terms of raising political questions we have never resorted to violence or our stand or our way of dealing with the issues have been very different and I think if you see it in that lens the AVEP, the BJP government could not really succeed in their agenda. So I think that's a very good note to leave on that the issues of the people need to be raised continuously vis-a-vis students, farmers, workers and also the united resistance need to continue. That's all the time we have for today. Shatrupa and thank you for giving us your time. Thank you. Thank you for watching NewsClick.