Wednesday, February 24, 2016

#JNUStories no 12. Money Matters!!



There is a slogan that communists often use. "Ho Ho Ho Chi Minh, We shall fight We shall win". The fight can happen on several issues and the fight can also happen with fellow comrades over a few thousand rupees. Communism is very much like christianity, you can find them in different shades and colours. CPI-ML is one such communist party which has never ruled in any state of India but they claim to be purer than other communist parties.

All India Students Association (AISA) is the student wing of CPI-ML and it acts as the nursery from where CPI-ML gets regular supply of leaders. They have presence in several universities of India but JNU is the place where they are the strongest. Many JNU professors are card holding members of CPI-ML.

AISA has won JNUSU President elections several times. Chandrashekhar Prasad alias Chandu who was shot dead in Siwan by goons of Shahabuddin in the phase of Jungle Raj in Bihar, was member of AISA and JNUSU President. Kavita Krishnan is president of All India Progressive Women's Association and also member of polit bureau of CPI-ML. She has also won joint secretary post of JNUSU. Seniority wise, there are many AISA Leaders who are senior to Kavita Krishnan as far as leadership is concerned as she never became the President of JNUSU.

But somehow, she became a public face of communists when she was being regularly invited by NDTV as a women's rights activist. Other channels also followed the trend and she became a popular face of left in India.

Till this moment, everything was going well, she was outraging on every issue related to women and nobody knew her background so she could not be countered for her biased views towards BJP. 

Appearing on TV debates has several benefits. One of them is that News Channels give a cheque of 5000 rupees to every panelist. This helps motivate people to participate again even when they know that they shall get bashed by other panelists. This is the reason why retired pakistani Generals appear on News Hour as they know that getting a mouthful from Arnab Goswami brings an appearance fee.

Kavita ji got addicted to the cheques. Five thousand rupees for appearing on a show of 30 minutes is not a bad deal at all for a comrade who has always talked about 'Das Kapital' but never experienced the warmth of it first hand. The problem started when fellow comrades of AISA got wind of this income. An ugly fight ensued between Kavita ji and other Comrades. Their argument was that Kavita ji was getting that money because of the organisation and all the income should be equally divided between comrades. Being a comrade is not an easy task as life has to be lived via free loading. When all the academic extensions possible in JNU are utilised, Comrades have to leave The hostel and most of the times, Comrades live in the hostel rooms of fellow comrades as PIG(permanent illegal guest). In such case, any hope of some extra income is nothing less than a dream come true.

While comrades asked for the division of the capital earned through appearance on channels run by corporate houses, Kavita ji realised that Marx might have erred while talking about equal division of capital as she argued that she was the one who was doing the labour and that cheque was rightfully hers. But this has led to one repercussion and that is jealousy among fellow comrades. They have started gossiping against her and how she has compromised the cause. She is given less imporance in the meetings, and, a silent boycott by unhappy cash starved comrades is in process.

Her appearances on Television have decreased drastically and other comrades have decided to take the plunge so that future NDTV Cheques bear their names on them and they can also argue how Marx was incorrect when he talked about equal division of Capital.

As they fight over a few thousand rupees, we ridicule communism by paraphrasing their slogan.

"Ho Ho Ho Chi Minh, Chhodo Bharat Jao Cheen"


You can read other eleven stories by scrolling through this thread. https://twitter.com/navfrn/status/699488852306587648


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