It is a university India should rightly be proud of, not because of its business or science and technology education -- for that India has Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) -- rather, JNU is known for its high-class social-science education and research. As per the results announced on September 10, the left alliance of students defeated the BJP supported student union in elections.

Girls played a leading role in this victory, especially the presidential candidate -- Gita Kumari -- was a moving voice of sanity against the onslaught of the rightist and Hindu fundamentalist bigotry on campuses. The alliance of the left-wing student unions included in its ranks AISA, SFI, and DSF who fielded their candidates jointly and won all four important positions.

The JNU is not an old university. Hardly 50 years ago, during the first government of prime minister Indira Gandhi, the JNU was established by three prominent figures: the first vice-chancellor, Parthasarathy; the founding chairman and rector Prof Moonis Raza and the then union education minister of India, MC Chagla.

Interestingly, two of these personalities, Raza and Chagla, were Muslims. Moonis Raza was an educationist from UP who had received his education at Aligarh Muslim University, whereas Mahommedali Currim Chagla (1900-1980) belonged to a Muslim Shia family in Bombay (now Mumbai). He was a renowned jurist who had remained the chief justice of Bombay High Court for ten years. Led by these outstanding personalities, the JNU soon acquired the status of a leading institute of higher education in India, where all topics under the sun could be discussed and questioned without any fear of intimidation or persecution.

Student unions have been free to have political affiliations and participate in healthy political discourse and activism on campus. With this background, the JNU has prided itself in allowing student politics and intellectual battles of ideas. For the recent elections, all student unions fielded female candidates too, and United-Left candidates won for president, vice-president, secretary, and joint secretary positions.

In its 50-year history, the JNU has seen many attacks on its academic freedom, especially from the right-wing circles but it has always stood its ground. A dynamic and non-violent educational and political atmosphere never allowed the right-wing to dominate the JNU.

Since this piece will be read by many Pakistani students too, a brief explanation of the right and left is in order. One comes across even university graduates in Pakistan who have no idea about what the right and left stand for in political terms. Be it local politics, national, or international; be it labour unions or the student ones, the right and left stand apart. Originating from the French revolution, these terms have survived for over two centuries thanks to their usefulness in defining divergent ideologies.

The right-wing politics mostly denotes a reactionary, out-of-date, and regressive politics that tries to retain the status-quo or drive societies back to a supposedly golden age that perhaps never existed. Such politics may include a religious, sectarian, or denominational outlook that can be covert or overt.

The left-wing politics stands for liberal, secular, democratic, and progressive movement that tries to carry society forward out of the clutches of age-old norms, traditions, and values. The left politics is mostly free from religious and sectarian prejudices; does not fan hatred based on caste, colour, or creed, and strives for a just society. Though many right-wingers also talk about a just society, they are more likely to believe in a dogmatic approach towards faith and nationalism.

Of course, this explanation is not definitive and there are many shades and nuances of both the right and left, but the left politics advocates change and progress, sometimes too harshly and radically. In India, the Hindu right-wing is led by the BJP, RSS, WHP, and Jan Sangh. Whereas the Muslim right-wingers in India indulge in conservative politics that tries to keep the Indian Muslims mired in trivial matters such as triple talaq and reciting of anthems. Increasing religiosity is a hallmark of right-wingers in both India and Pakistan.

One battlefield of this right-left strife is student politics that trains young minds in productive and creative political debates without resorting to violence. For this to ensure, it is of utmost importance that the state institutions and functionaries provide a healthy and secure environment to student gatherings. That is one of the reasons why even the BJP while holding power at the Union level, was unable to impose any restrictions on a strong culture of student politics in the JNU.

The anti-BJP student unions at the JNU had complete freedom to voice their concerns against an increasing tide of Hindu religious fanaticism. They managed to expose the religious and narrow-minded polity of the BJP supported student union, and won the elections.

In Pakistan, since the times of General Zia, the state institutions have been promoting a right-wing religious and sectarian politics, students too have become prone to extremist ideas and politics. Now the same officers from the civil and military bureaucracy who whole-heartedly jumped on the rightist bandwagon of General Zia ostentatiously ask about what has happened to our youth. The youth study at higher education institutions such as the University of Karachi and LUMS, but set up terrorist outfits with names such as Ansar us Sharia and use the latest software and social media to promote their designs.

In India too, the BJP and its like-minded outfits have been trying to exploit social media to spread their message of religious hatred but the students of the JNU proved themselves smart enough to counter such propaganda. The BJP and similar rightist political parties have another distinctive feature. They capitalise on nationalistic feelings and dub all liberal and secular people as anti-state and anti-religion. The BJP-supported student union at the JNU used the same trick of calling its opponents ‘anti-state elements’ who were trying to break the country up; whereas they declared themselves to be the believers of ‘Jay Bharat Mata’.

A similar trend we see in Pakistan when all liberal and secular people are labelled as anti-Pakistanis; and whoever deviates from the state narrative is accused of trying to divide the country. The JNU has been famous for its democratic values and has challenged the BJP government every now and then. One of its former student-union presidents, Kanhaiya Kumar, was also arrested on charges of treason. The BJP-supported student union that goes by the abbreviation of ABVP, also derives its strength from the RSS. But all this failed when the United-Left candidate, Gita Kumari, defeated the opposing candidate by 464 votes.

Even more impressive was the victory of the vice-presidential candidate, Zoya Khan, who surpassed the opposing candidate by over 1000 votes. Interestingly, the incumbent VC of the JNU, Jagdish Kumar, tries to curry favour with the BJP and the Indian army. In July this year, he said something that astonished almost everyone. Following the nationalistic line of the BJP, he suggested that an army tank be installed on the JNU premises so that students get inspiration from it to fight against the enemies. He said such symbols would increase the love for India.

The promoter of this idiotic idea doesn’t realise that any display of arms and weapons furthers hatred in society and does irreparable harm to it. Jagdish Kumar went on to stress that an army tank would constantly remind the students of the sacrifices that the Indian army has been rendering to the nation. In any country, if vice-chancellors of universities can hold such narrow-nationalistic notions, the society is bound to descend into chaos, that we have been witnessing in the entire Indian-subcontinent including Pakistan. The vice-chancellor at the JNU also arranged a ‘Kargil-Victory day’ celebration to promote the idea that the Indian army had won the Kargil war.

The BJP and the Indian army are spreading a war hysteria, and the VC appears to be an accomplice in these efforts; to remain in the good books of the BJP government. In this situation, the victory for an anti-BJP student union is an auspicious achievement. One can hope that with this step, the student movement against religious hatred in India will gain momentum. Whenever state institutions in any country try to create a war mentality, religious factor somehow gets into it. The religious majority tries to suppress the minorities and people are divided in the name of religion and patriotism.

A dynamic student politics serves as the nursery of democracy. As the Chairman of Senate of Pakistan, Raza Rabbani, recently suggested, the student unions in Pakistan should immediately be revived and allowed to function in a peaceful manner, just as they do in India. Only then, can we hope to nurture a generation imbued with democratic values, so vital for a modern society today.