In JNU student poll, Kabali mauls Gabbar

DELHI: "They say if you vote for Bapsa, 'Gabbar will come'. But this time,

Gabbar

won't come, this time

Kabali

will come, Kabali!" thundered Sonpimple Rahul Punaram, the candidate who represented the Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students Association (Bapsa) at the presidential debate of the recent Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU) election.

The poll, held on September 9, gained significance as it came after the recent controversies over Afzal Guru and 'azadi', which had led to the arrest of the then students' union president Kanhaiya Kumar on sedition charges.

In this election, the All India Students' Association (AISA), backed by the CPI (ML), and the Students Federation of India (SFI) affiliated to the CPM formed an alliance they called 'Left Unity', in an attempt to root out Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) affiliated to the BJP.

It was seen as the rise of a new 'non-right', 'non-left' trend on the JNU campus when Bapsa, a two-year-old organisation, filed nominations for all the four key posts. Bapsa was seen as the rival that could match up to the united Left alliance as a representative of groups like dalits, Muslims, Kashmiris, students from the north-east, as well as the gay community .

This led to the Left organisations, especially the AISA, slandering Bapsa, says Rahul. They spread the idea that Bapsa was floated by the ABVP, which they saw as 'Gabbar', the villain of the iconic film 'Sholay'. The 'Kabali' response was for this.

Though Kabali was an afterthought in Bapsa's electoral strategy, the Rajini film had indeed been playing in the minds of Ambedkarites on campus. "For me Kabali is a man who is a representative of assertion. He fights with dignity. His attire is a symbol, just like that of Ambedkar's," says Rahul.

The promotional video of Bapsa had a much more direct reference to Kabali. The song 'Neruppu Da' plays in the video's background and it starts off by showing the pictures of Ambedkar, Birsa Munda, Jyotirao and Savitribai Phule. The new political discourse steered by Kabali as a symbol gains significance as JNU has been long seen as the epicentre of student politics in India and has been actively involved in important political happenings.

Kabali holds a personal resonance for Rahul. "I used to dress up well and wear shoes, not slippers. On seeing this they started slandering me saying that I was too elitist," says Rahul, who adds that just like Ambedkar, Kabali has also become his ideal as he asserts his dignity, the expression of which is dressing up well.

Yerramadasu Uday Kumar, the vice president of Bapsa, says Kabali was useful for them to subvert status quo ideas. "When we want to communicate political ideas for the subaltern and the oppressed, the political language becomes difficult. But Kabali was a symbol which helped us communicate easily," he says, faulting the Left as dominated by brahmins.

"For a relatively young organisation, we have got around 1,500 votes for the president post, which is the biggest vote share for any individual organisation," says Uday Kumar. Bapsa scored more votes than ABVP­ Gabbar­ for the post.

The Left is not unduly worried by the good showing of Kabali. "We have supported dalits in all issues till the recent Una uprising. But Bapsa's discourse seems to be of a new kind. They are more interested in attacking the Left," says Nilotpal Basu, senior leader of CPM and a former SFI leader. The united Left swept the JNU election.

Mohit Pandey, the candidate of the united Left, who won the election says that they used the symbol of Gabbar just to indicate the fear factor associated with ABVP , but it was turned into a fight of metaphors. "I respect the Kabali narrative. Kabali did come.Bapsa put up a good fight. But I don't see the Gabbar vs Kabali equation to be very fitting," says Pandey .

Kabali as a symbol of Ambedkarite politics may have a short shelf life nationally . But, for a Tamil film, it is a rare phenomenon. "The only Tamil movie that gained such an attention before was Mani Ratnam's 'Roja'. That was because the movie talked about a pan-Indian issue. But Kabali is the first Tamil movie to have gained attention as far as JNU," says V M S Subagunarajan, editor of Kaatchipizhai, a film magazine.

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