Cultural way of garnering students' votes

new delhi: for those uninterested in politics, the jawaharlal nehru university has a unique way of turning the tables. political groups have found that persuasion has little effect and coercion doesn't work at all. cultural activities are the only way of wooing the fence-sitters. not surprising then that the sprawling campus has given rise to a plethora of cultural groups which organise plays, film shows, poetry recitals, quiz competitions and debates.most groups have an ideological affiliation. there are no definite estimates as to the number of cultural groups in the university. a number of them are seasonal, springing to action whenever a issue that concerns them comes up. others try to convince students with pamphlets on local issues throughout the year. "many students think that politics is a waste of time. the only way to get their support is through cultural activities," said a member of the students federation of india. the vote then comes on the basis of personal rapport, he added. groups like the indian peoples' theatre association, dastak, jugnoo and jan sanskriti morcha have a leftist orientation. they have their counter in right-inclined outfits like utkarsh, patriotic forum and vivekananda vichar manch, among others. the national students union of india (centre), too, has units like mukhota, which organises street plays, and the nehru discussion forum. a number of groups have been set up as counter-measures. the patriotic forum (1995), for instance, was reportedly set up to counter the human rights activists from kashmir, who were being invited to the campus by leftist groups, said an abvp functionary.