AISA president Neha Bora has emerged as a prominent face of protests against CEC Gyanesh Kumar over SIR.
Founded in 1990, AISA is the student wing of CPI(ML) Liberation.
The organisation has a history of Left-wing campus activism and protests, including against CAA-NRC.
Student movements rarely bring down ministers. It had never happened in the last 12 years before this July. Neha Bora and the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), along with other student organisations, forced the education minister to resign. Once again, Neha and the CJP have become the focal point of the ongoing protests against the Chief Election Commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar, over allegations of irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision.
Neha,29, is the national president of the All India Students’ Association (AISA). She completed her graduation from Delhi University and was actively involved in student movements during her graduation days. Neha then enrolled in the B. R. Ambedkar University of Delhi for a master's degree. She is currently completing her PhD at Jawaharlal Nehru University's School of Arts and Aesthetics.
Several members of AISA and other student organisations such as Students' Federation of India(SFI), All India Students Federation(AISF), etc., sat on a hunger strike along with Sonam Wangchuk in July that led to the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan.
Her political journey is inseparable from the organisation she leads. To understand her political ideology and the imagination she brings to the streets, it is worth looking into AISA’s own history and ideological evolution.
The Making Of AISA
It is not the first time that her organisation is on the streets against the decisions of the state. To understand the history of AISA, one has to understand the history of communist parties in India.
AISA was founded on 9 August 1990 and claims that it is a revolutionary student movement. It is the student wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation, also known as CPI(ML)L. The CPI(ML)L was born from a faction of the CPI(ML) that led the Naxalite movement in West Bengal in 70s and 80s.
The Communist Party of India was formed in 1925 through the Kanpur Conference under the chairmanship of M. Singaravelu Chettiar. AISF, the student wing of CPI, was formed in 1936. However, in the year 1964, the CPI saw a split, and the CPI (Marxist), or CPI(M), became an independent party.
The CPI(M) formed government in Bengal, leading short-lived United Front coalition governments in 1967 and 1969. However, on the issue of an attack on a tribal youth in Naxalbari village by the local landlord’s men, rebel cadres of the party - Charu Mazumdar and Kanu Sanyal launched an armed uprising.
In 1972, Mazumdar was arrested by the police, and he eventually died in jail. The revolutionary movement further split into the Dakshin Desh, that become the MCC in 1975; the People’s War Group (PWG); the Party Unity; and the CPI(ML)L, the parent party of AISA.
CPI(ML)L left the path of armed struggle, and Subrata Dutta (Jauhar) became its first General Secretary in 1974. The three factions of the revolutionary movement continued with the armed struggle.
Lal Bahadur Singh, the founding president of AISA, who later became president of Allahabad University Students Union, told Outlook that AISA was formed on the premises of Allahabad University one day after the Mandal Commission was implemented in the country. He said that Gopal Pradhan, Pranay Krishan, and Dhirendra Jha were among the founding members of AISA.
Singh further added that before the formation of AISA, several organisations such as Progressive Students Organisation (PSO) in Uttar Pradesh, All Bengal Student Association in Bengal, All Bihar Student Union in Bihar, All Bengal Students Association in Bengal, Democratic Student Front (DSF) in Tamil Nadu, and Uttarakhand Chhatra Sangathan in Uttarakhand were working independently and later merged to form AISA in a conference that was called on August 8-9, 1990.
What Does AISA Believe In?
AISA is a revolutionary student movement that stands firmly on campuses throughout the country with a vision of “A New India and A New World,’ according to the website of AISA.
The website adds, “AISA is committed to carrying forward the revolutionary legacy of Bhagat Singh and Chandrasekhar, and our journey will not stop at any cost, not without achieving our destination — the Revolutionary transformation of society. We give voice to students’ creative energy through processions, demonstrations, seminars, street plays, film shows, and revolutionary songs on various issues of our times. We appeal to you all to come with us and participate in all these activities and play a significant role in transforming society.”
The ideology comes from its parent party. AISA is the student wing of the CPI(ML) Liberation, whose own programme begins with the "minimum programme of accomplishing new democratic revolution in India".
Aditi Mishra, who is the current President of Jawaharlal Nehru University Student Union and a member of AISA, says that AISA works on every movement, be it a student issue or a social. She said members of AISA and DSU showed black flags to Manmohan Singh in protest against its several decisions.
Singh said AISA worked against caste hierarchy, demanding the creation of employment opportunities for the youth and supported the supported the Mandal Commission and reservation.
He said AISA has always worked against communal fascism from its founding. He said AISA opposed Ashok Singhal, leader of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), on his visit to Allahabad University after the demolition of Babri Masjid on 26 January 1991.
Its critics say the revolutionary language matters more than the campus demands. One critical commentary in Swarajya argues that most students who share AISA's clips online know little about its history or its parent party's programme. AISA's supporters see a student body that fights for fees, safety and campus democracy and sits in the tradition of Indian left politics.
For now, the question for AISA is how long the energy of the past few months can last. It helped to force out an education minister in July, and under Bora it is now part of a larger confrontation with the Election Commission.
Where does AISA work?
Nitish Kumar, former JNUSU president and a member of AISA, says that currently AISA is in the part of the union that has won elections in JNU, Hyderabad Central University, and Garhwal University. He further added that AISA is working in almost all colleges of Bihar and Bengal. In UP, AISA has units in around 30 districts, and it also works in BHU, Allahabad University, and Lucknow University.
Kumar says AISA also has a presence in Panjab University and the Kumaun region of Uttarakhand. It has units in Jaipur, Nagpur, Pune, Mumbai, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Bengaluru, and in Assam.
