NSF: A Saffron Plague in Disguise

The ‘politics of apoliticism’ supported by decades of a false and problematic notion of Horizontalism (the whole historical concept of ‘Horizontalism’, backed by post-modernism is Utopian and proved to be problematic and self-destructive in movements like Arab-spring, occupy Wall Street and Paris 1968) has served a thin veil for counter-revolutionary reaction, obscuring the nature of class struggle. Such truths, remain valid even for the perceived traditional bastions of radical thought. In Jadavpur University, about 14 years of the undisputed dominance of the ‘independent, non-ideological, apolitical’ bourgeois liberal activism (circa 08’ with the fracture of CAP & the rise of the now infamous ‘Collective’ [1]), when faced with the crackdown by the state has all but collapsed under its own contractions. In the long absence of an ideologically coherent vanguard force among the students and continuous opportunist anti-revolutionary stances of Social Democrats, this ‘non-aligned’ activism has provided fertile ground for two apparently distinct yet dialectically related tendencies to flourish: abstention from all sorts of political activity and religious fundamentalism.

For years, ABVP, the student wing of the right-wing extremist organisation RSS, has tried to gain a foothold on campuses across India (having successfully done so in Hindi Heartland), one being JU. After being handed a loss in the previous Union Elections (2020) even after emptying coffers in the tune of lakhs, the ABVP has now embraced the monicker of independent non-aligned ‘national students’ under the ever-so subtly named NSF. (Nationalist Students’ Front) One must not forget, 2019, when ABVP-NSF, following the gherao of then-Minister of State Babul Supriyo, mobilized an armed and coordinated assault on the university, breaking down campus gates, unleashing arson, and vandalising the AFSU Union Room. Reports confirmed the use of acid-based weapons during this assault, along with the active collaboration of outside goons. Far from being an aberration, this was part of a broader strategy of manufacturing religious flashpoints using pujas, ‘national festivals’, and fabricated provocations as pretexts to unleash violence on dissenting students, fascist aggression[2] in practice. This was an attack on campus democracy, JU has for decades now, provided a democratic space for students where they can put their demands and fight for what is rightfully theirs. The motive of organisations like NSF is to capture this democratic space for independent thought and fill it with Right-wing fundamentalist propaganda under the guise of religion and God.

Under this new name, NSF tries to re-enter student politics, covering up its checkered history of assaults on students & teachers alike. Though, of interest, one might note that the leaders of this new nationalist front, who claim to be nothing but believers of religion and demand for religious practices on campus that have never been celebrated or been a part of our culture, have organic ties to the ruling BJP at the centre, often being funded, felicitated by leaders of the BJP’s state unit. Members of NSF (particularly its leaders from final year) have served high level assignments in the state’s IT Cells, often responsible for churning out propaganda & false information. These are the ideological foot soldiers of Hindutva fascism - agents of misinformation, casteist propaganda, and misogynist warfare conducted under the guise of manufactured outrage. Their embrace of pseudoscience, their demands for increased surveillance, their support for fee hikes and exclusionary policies, these are not aberrations but the very logical outcome of a politics designed to reproduce the hegemony of the Hindu upper-caste bourgeoisie, under the pretence of ‘national development.’ They have always opposed the organisations that effectively represent the interest of the marginalized section like SC/ST and Dalit students in and out of campus . While on the surface the RSS-NSF see all hindus equal and superior to all other races, its deeply ingrained yearning of a Hindu-Rashtra, will with it bring back the old Caste system of our society and restore the inhumane structures of Brahmanical domination under its banner.

Those who make space for the NSF - who lend them platforms, normalise their presence, or shield their violence behind hollow appeals to “free speech” or “political diversity” are not merely mistaken; they are functionally agents of fascism. In light of these developments, the only answer is to convert these halls into laboratories of revolutionary consciousness, and for organisations afraid of their political identity, to reaffirm their own beliefs and ideologies, for ‘Without revolutionary theory, there can be no revolutionary movement’ (Lenin 1902, ‘What is to be done?’)

In this society of intensified crises of capitalism in its death agony, when all other avenues of temporary rescue or relief have been historically exhausted, the society faces but one task: to drive the final nail into the coffin of this zombie system.

This is not an easy task, but it is the only one. In the twilight of capitalism’s death agony, when every promise of reform has withered into dust, history demands not compromise but closure the final act of burying a system that lingers on as a lifeless spectre. In one way or the other, ideology shall fill this space, & if we fail to do so, the people’s enemy will, & the fascists do not hesitate.

LONG LIVE WORKER-PEASANT-STUDENT UNITY!

LONG LIVE PROLETARIAN INTERNATIONALISM!                  

LONG LIVE WORLD SOCIALIST REVOLUTION!

[1] “Collective” here refers to a self-proclaimed “not-organised” group of students who had been dominant force in campus between 2008-2023. After the incident of ragging in JU main Hostel, which had alleged ties with the aforementioned “collective”, the members disbanded and started working under various different names but their politics remained the same. The so-called “not-organised” group of students was in reality a highly organised and structural machinery, which has for years successfully attracted students under the slogan of “non-aligned independent” movement, while at the same time serving the interest of the ruling class and alleged ties with the ruling party of the State.

[2] While fascism in todays’ world might have become a widely used jargon, with some claims like fascism died with the end of world war II, it is a misconception to think the same. Fascism, is a petty bourgeoisie reactionary mass movement. Whenever a crisis is there in this capitalist society (crisis is one of the inherent contradictory characteristics of capitalism), to provide capitalist system a temporary relief , the fascists turn the frustrations of the middle class towards religious/racial minorities and the proletariat being their principle antagonist class, to divert the focus away from the real enemies, the capitalist class, whose existence determined the inherent contradictions of this system and dependent on the private ownership of the means of production and the fruits of production of the labour of the working class.