Sachin Pilot, Congress National General Secretary, addressing a massive student rally in Jaipur Rajasthan became focal point in state politics. Another name from Rajasthan heard was Vinod Jakhar, a Name as emerging congress leader who currently is NSUI Rajasthan President. He won Rajasthan University Presidential election as an independent candidate, without much of mainstream political party’s support, despite having a below descent and humble socio-economic family background and could not afford prevalent norms of rampant use of money and muscle power in Rajasthan University elections. Our LastLine correspondents had a chat with Vinod Jakhar:
LastLine: How successful was recent student protest led by Sachin Pilot?
Vinod Jakhar (NSUI Raj President): When Sachin Pilot saab is leading himself, there is no question left to analyse the event. His presence itself means success. The Deputy CM of BJP had to hold a press conference, had to give clarifications. Fight is on.
LastLine: What was this protest about?
Vinod Jakhar (NSUI Raj President): It was about conducting student elections in state colleges and universities which is being deferred indefinitely by current BJP government because it is afraid of youth voices and leaders who has tremendous power to challenge their dictatorial style.
LastLine: Why do you think the government did not hold these elections? What would have been the intention of the government?
Vinod Jakhar (NSUI Raj President): Firstly, Bharatiya Janata Party does not believe in democracy. It is afraid of movements, leaders, student leaders, it is afraid that these people will come into politics, they are educated people, they ask questions. When an educated person asks questions, they do not have any answers because the BJP does only and only the politics of religion. It has neither issues nor work on which it can do politics, it does politics by keeping its full focus on religion only. Secondly, their student organization, ABVP, today’s youth have stopped joining ABVP. Somewhere the youth have rejected ABVP. They do not have candidates to contest elections in the whole of Rajasthan.
LastLine: The student leaders who were fighting against BJP before you, those student leaders were very famous JNU people, many are still in jail?
Vinod Jakhar (NSUI Raj President): Kanhaiya Kumar Ji has been released and He is the national incharge of NSUI. Umar Khalid still in jail even without trail which itself shows pattern of BJP governance style. We are not afraid to loose, everything is to gain. Why to fear? who to fear? Most importantly Congress leadership has acted fearlessly be it fight against Britishers or this BJP goverment. We are now fighting against the dictatorship of the government, against its attitude. Against the oppression that the government is doing on whole of nation particularly vulnerable sections.
LastLine: You were taken into custody when you were protesting. Other students were taken along with you, what thoughts were going through your mind then?
Vinod Jakhar (NSUI Raj President): We are demanding that the government should restore the elections as a matter of our right. Instead the police beat our students so badly, they kicked someone in the stomach, even after knowing me NSUI Rajasthan President, they pulled my hair, beat me with sticks in my stomach, tore my clothes, slapped some students, this is very condemnable. This does not happen in a democracy, we have freedom of expression, freedom to express our views, we were protesting after taking due permission, we had to reach the Chief Minister’s residence, the police could have listened to us, could have explained to us through talks, or we could have conveyed our views to the government. But the way lathi charge was made, water cannons were used, students were slapped, their clothes were torn, hair was pulled, sticks were hit on their stomachs, then it was undemocratic. Somewhere, the police stop the students at the behest of the government.
LastLine: Was it the police or could there be someone else in the police uniforms taking cue from the torture you are detailing here?
Vinod Jakhar (NSUI Raj President): Student leaders have also alleged that many times they are not policemen because they do not have name plates. It might be true. BJP can send goons in the guise of police and gets all the acts of stopping and beating the students done. So, such people may have entered the crowd and started torturing our students.
LastLine: So, what assurance have you been given now that when elections will be held?
Vinod Jakhar (NSUI Raj President): We have not received any assurance yet, we have not been able to talk to the government. I am seeking time to meet the Chief Minister and along with seeking time, we will make this movement bigger. When the assembly starts, the session is to begin in September. After that we will surround the assembly. We will go outside the houses of the leaders and wake them up that they should not use the student union elections as per the tool kit because any government that comes, stops it, any government starts it, whenever they want, they stop it, ban it. We have not had any kind of talks yet.
LastLine: Student union elections that were stopped were probably stopped during the rule of Congress. So what was the reason at that time?
Vinod Jakhar (NSUI Raj President): The then Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot ji, the new education policy was to be implemented and all the vice chancellors of the universities, all the principals of the colleges, all wrote to Ashok Gehlot ji that the elections should be postponed for some time so that we can implement the new education policy because we do not have staff because there were assembly elections too, so they needed staff to conduct the assembly elections there too. Because voting takes place in colleges, universities, a lot of things happen. Ashok Gehlot ji did not stop the elections, he postponed them. He postponed them. Yes, during that period when they were postponed, BJP made ruckus in the name of student elections, did many promises. They came in the media. They said that when we form the government, we will start the elections. But there is a big difference between what BJP says and what it does.
LastLine: So, do you have any details about the injuries or damages that students suffered during the protest?
Vinod Jakhar (NSUI Raj President): We have talked to everyone; many have been injured. The government is responsible for this torture to the students.
LastLine: In this sequence, What will be the road map ahead for this movement?
Vinod Jakhar (NSUI Raj President): There are student union elections, elections are important but along with that, there are very important issues in the state. Like drug addiction is eating up students and youth today. This is a very serious issue. We will draw the attention of the government on this. Also, paper leak is a very big problem. Due to which many things are happening, suicide cases have increased a lot. Due to paper leak, we were in Kota and saw that as soon as the paper leak happened in Kota, some students committed suicide. Along with this, unemployment is increasing a lot, people get degrees but there is no employment, the government is not able to provide employment. Fees is a big issue for us that the government should bring a fee structure for private institutions so that poor children can also study there, coaching centres have spread dictatorship, they have spread their mafia. Dropouts are happening a lot in the state. Specially in the areas of marginalised sections like Dungarpur, Banswara, the children here are not getting any education and the children are dropping out. So somewhere the reason for dropouts is also the rising inflation in education, the way inflation is happening today. They do not pay any attention to the children in studies, proper classes are not held. The condition of the buildings is very bad, fans are falling somewhere, lizards are coming in the canteen food somewhere, there are many hygiene problems. There is big problem of safety of girls. Today girls are not safe even in the campus. There are many problems and this is a very long struggle.
LastLine: So in the coming elections, is there any anger among the people due to this indefinite deferment of elections? And what other issues you are fighting for?
Vinod Jakhar (NSUI Raj President): When I start from the people’s representative in the village, then it is not able to conduct the elections of Panchayats. It is not able to conduct the elections of municipal bodies. If I talk about the election process, it is not smooth and constant. If we talk about common issues, there were many schemes of Ashok Gehlot government, Chiranjeevi Yojana was a very big scheme in which free treatment was provided, Anukriti Yojana was there in which children studied in coaching for free. Many such schemes were closed. Mahatma Gandhi English medium schools were opened; they are working to close them. Many girls’ colleges were opened by Ashok Gehlot’s government; they are working to close them.
So this is a very worrying situation in front of us that the BJP government only changes the names of buildings, does politics of religion, their focus is on destroy educational institutions, the level of education is decreasing day by day, they are reducing the budget, so we see that there is a lot of anger among the common people, inflation has increased, there are no medical facilities, how we see the incident of Jhalawar now that the school’s roof collapsed, corruption is at its peak. Meaning, yes. The state is being run in the hands of God, who is running the government, bureaucracy has complete control over the government, the Chief Minister is not able to do his work, the ministers are not able to do their work, MLAs got elected but are not able to speak in the House, so the situation in Rajasthan is extremely worrying and it is unfortunate that today we are facing things in this manner under his rule.
LastLine: Yes, what message would you like to give to the people in these circumstances?
Vinod Jakhar (NSUI Raj President): We will say that we will have to be aware of our rights and come together and expose their faces against their dictatorship and we should come together and fight against them and raise our voice against them, only then it is possible, otherwise they will keep on holding power by making people fight among themselves in the politics of religion and whatever basic facilities, basic needs there are, education sector, health sector which are the primary needs of the people, they will destroy that structure, people do not have employment, these people have completely destroyed the economic structure, so one day they will ruin this country, state, everything. So we will have to be aware and raise our voice strongly against them.
LastLine: Do you have any special message for the youth, what would you like to say to the youth, what would you like to say to the students?
Vinod Jakhar (NSUI Raj President): The most worrying situation for the youth and the students is that the way the BJP government is reducing the education budget is very worrying and the way it is spreading hatred inside the colleges today, the way education is being politicized is very worrying. For this, our students will have to raise their voice against them.
LastLine: What do you mean by politicization of education?
Vinod Jakhar (NSUI Raj President): See, the biggest thing today is that RSS branches are being set up in colleges, schools, universities and RSS has only one aim, how to instigate fights between Hindus, Muslims or other religions and how to poison their minds. Also, if we talk about campuses, then plethora of professors of the campus, the vice chancellors, their only aim is to connect people with RSS. How to bring people to RSS? Their aim is to make changes in the syllabus of politics and education like there are many things which are related to independence and many of our leaders who fought are being removed from the syllabus, people who had no contribution in the independence movement, betrayed the country, people who never got even a nail cut in their life, by making them great, they want to prove in the syllabus that they were great. Apart from this, we see that the campus is being saffronised, be it uniform, books or anything else inside the campus, if we talk about it, the previous government of Ashok Gehlot ji had given cycles to the children, so today the cycles too have been coloured saffron. Recently they have issued a notification that the main gates of the college campus or the university campus will also be saffronised.
This is the politicization of education and they do this work of connecting people with an ideology. Like they painted Ambedkar’s statue saffron, so now it means the system of painting everything saffron. They have no answer to Dr. Ambedkar, but they can never break his ideas, but they are placating him, today they are confusing people, the ideas with which Ambedkar Saheb moved forward and the ideas which he was against, today see how a Shivling is made in front of Ambedkar Saheb’s statue, along with this, today he is being worshipped in this way by the youth of today because they do not have any alternate, but they are doing it in this way. Yes, through getting Kavad Yatras organized so that he can connect Dr Ambedkar with religion..
LastLine: So in the coming times, when you will come from being a student leader to a leader, that is, as a common man’s leader, you will come as a public leader. Then what will be your preferences and what will be your targets?
Vinod Jakhar (NSUI Raj President): If we talk about Baba Saheb, then the biggest thing, his focused was on education but, still, after more than seventy years of independence, section of society which had no right to study and write had no connection with schools. Today, their children have become educated, so if I ever get a chance to do some work as a public representative, then the first thing I will do is work on education. Mostly because a person who has education is automatically strong in everything, whether he is strong financially, strong intellectually, strong in terms of getting his representation in the society or anywhere, everyone has only one key which is education, so the class I come from, the biggest challenge I have seen is that my mother is uneducated, my father is illiterate but we are the first generation of people who have reached here after passing college and university. Our parents could not reach school. Today, their children have reached college and university. So we want to know how we can provide better education to our future generations. This will be our party and there are many other things. How can we provide employment, solve joblessness crisis which is serious? But how can we improve the living standards? How can we connect them with employment? So we will work on all these major issues.
LastLine: By the way, are you a PhD scholar?
Vinod Jakhar (NSUI Raj President): I have two Masters, one in Rajasthani and another is Sociology. Phd is still a target under consideration.
LastLine: Sociology means a good understanding of society because of studying sociology and also because you come from a marginalized class, so you should naturally be in politics. Well, before you, another student leader had reached a very high position in NSUI and Congress, a very well-known name in National politics Dr Ashok Tanwar?
Vinod Jakhar (NSUI Raj President): Yes, he started from JNU. Ashok Tanwar ji reached a very high position and was the national president of our NSUI and youth congress. Most important is that his family background and without political backing he reached a height which can be dreamt only by today’s youth. I think his journey in today’s politics stands tall.
LastLine: What did you learn from his journey?
Vinod Jakhar (NSUI Raj President): The journey itself as a student from humble family without political backing to a politician who became backing to many.
LastLine: Now, would you like to tell what Sachin Pilot thinks, his politics and his personal views, what are his views about the marginalized section, the oppressed class of the society? Because the words of Sachin Pilot are very well thought out.
Vinod Jakhar (NSUI Raj President): If you have met him, you would like the thoughts of Sachin Pilot? For the people living on the margins and their problems? See, if I talk about Pilot sahab, then Pilot sahab’s father thought a lot for the Dalits and tribals. My father’s village used to come under his Lok Sabha constituency before ours. So my father tells that there was a problem in his village, there was a land dispute between Pilot saab’s caste people and marginalised caste, so during that time Pilot sahab supported poor people and took risk, set things in righteous manner so somewhere his father’s ideology, his father’s image is also seen in Sachin Pilot ji. Since my family has gone through that phase, has gone through their work, when I met Sachin Pilot ji, I found him to be a very composed person and he gave me a lot of advice. He said that the path is very challenging and you are working, you have reached here. He shared his experience and guided and mentored me like an elder brother.
You can see Sanjana Jatav didi is a good example of bringing forward people who are standing on a marginalised line. He supported Sanjana Jatav didi but she lost the assembly election, after that he supported her for parliament election and today she has become MP. I feel if Pilot sahab was not there then path for her might have been near impossible to walk. There are many leaders like me who are with Pilot sahab today and are working with him, so their aim is how to represent common people and marginalised in politics, how to bring them in mainstream, so if I think, Pilot sahab is highly mature, honest and a leader with a vision.
LastLine: Rahul Gandhi’s ideology is also quite different now a day as He is talking on a wholly different lines all together and of course, he is presenting issues, but is this ideology and of Sachin Pilot’s limited to name sake representation to marginalised because it has to be given to garner votes. Is that so?
Vinod Jakhar (NSUI Raj President): Our Leader Rahul Gandhi ji is Social reformer and leader in true sense, not a mere politician. he is a perfect leader for marginalised and poor, whose ideology has always been to take these people forward.
let me tell you about Pilot shab also that recently by-elections were held in Dosa district, by-elections were held in Dosa district and that is a general seat, Pilot sahab gave a chance to Sh DC Bairwa. Pilot sahab gave a chance on the general seat and he won the election and he defeated the veteran leader from Giridih Meena ji, brother of Kirori Lal meena ji.
LastLine: There is another question that recently Rahul Gandhi has given a big presentation of one hour and eleven minutes. And there are allegations that during the election some such things have come to light which can be called allegations and due to which irregularities, malpractices are seen in the election, a big allegation has been made and he claimed to have a lot of such evidence which he has done earlier also, so what do you think about that? He gave many pages, screenshots, it was a presentation of at least twenty-four pages and probably there were thousands of pages, he had files etc. So you must have seen what do you think about this?
Vinod Jakhar (NSUI Raj President): There is no second opinion about this. BJP can stoop to any level to get power, can go to any extent. The way questions are being raised on EVM, how votes are being stolen, how names of people are being removed, how names of people are being added, this raises a big question, in democracy today, BJP has done all these things to win the elections, there is no place for this in democracy.
I believe that today we saw Rahul Gandhi Ji’s ‘s press conference in which he revealed everything from A to Z and I feel that it was a press conference that was understandable even for the common man and he explained it in a very good manner. Presently it is a topic of discussion, Whenever we met the common people throughout the day, the presentation of Rahul Gandhi, the way BJP is working, the way it is dividing and adding votes, there is no doubt that the public is now waking up. The phobia of Modi that people had is over. The way Rahul Ji came to the media by presenting voting fraud as a true leader better than whole BJP together. for International issues, The way Modi promoted Donald Trump, the way it is going on. He used to ask for votes for him and now without any importance. The country’s Prime Minister bowed down. The way Trump got ceasefire done with Pakistan, these stories have been exposed and Rahul Gandhi Ji exposed them. T they are stealing votes. Rahul Gandhi has exposed them everywhere and now the common people have started to understand that there is no better leader than Rahul Gandhi, no leader is as educated and better understanding of country’s national and international issues as him and I see him as a leader who thinks so much for marginalised and poor.
LastLine: Final and most important question is “how do you eat mango?”
Vinod Jakhar (NSUI Raj President): Hahaha………. This will have to be asked from Modi Ji. We are rarely fortunate to get mangoes because we are so busy in struggle that we don’t get time to have a normal meal. There are so many challenges in life, getting food on time is a big luxury. Only Modi Ji can answer such a critical, career threatening tough question. At this stage of understanding, I don’t have enough wisdom to answer such a difficult question.
*Translated from hindi
