News Analysis India

Tag: Aishe Ghosh

  • JNU circular on counseling session on sexual harassment criticized by students’ outfits

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: A circular for a counselling session by JNU on sexual harassment, which says girls are “suppose to know how to draw a tangible line between them and their male friends”, has drawn the ire of student outfits who said it reeks of victim shaming.

    The internal complaints committee (ICC) of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has uploaded the circular on the varsity’s website saying that it will organise a counselling session on sexual harassment on January 17. It also said that such sessions will be organised on a monthly basis.

    Under the subhead “why is the counselling session required”, the circular said that it will make students aware of what consists of sexual harassment.

    It also said that students are being counselled during the orientation programme and at the inception of each academic year, they need to refresh their knowledge about the same, from time to time.

    “ICC come across a number of cases where sexual harassment takes place among close friends. Boys generally cross (sometimes advertently, sometimes inadvertently) the thin line between friendship’s bantering and sexual harassment. Girls suppose to know how to draw a tangible line (between them and their male friends) to avoid any such harassments (sic),” the circular read.

    It also stated that the ICC has a zero-tolerance policy towards any kind of sexual harassment.

    “Number of cases have been dealt with successfully in this academic year. In addition to its usual course of action, ICC, JNU, would like to introduce a counselling session on a monthly basis for all aspiring students who want to know dos and don’ts in regard to sexual harassment,” read the circular.

    It said that students will get to know what is sexual harassment and its prospective repercussions in the sessions.

    Listing out the benefits of these sessions, the varsity said that “the number of sexual harassment cases will be reduced for sure”.

    “Dissipate any confusion related to sexual harassment. Anyone could get the answer of one’s queries related to sexual harassment,” said the circular.

    It said that after getting 20 such forms for registration for the session, the ICC will organise such events on a monthly basis.

    On the girls are “suppose to know how to draw a tangible line between them and their male friends” statement in the circular, Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union president Aishe Ghosh said it was a victim-shaming remark.

    “The ICC in JNU makes a blatant victim-blaming remark where it asks ‘women to draw a tangible line to not get harassed by their male members’. The ICC time and again in JNU has passed such regressive remarks or conducted itself in a way to moral police the survivor,” she said in a statement.

    “Such a remark, creates a space where harassment in such lines will become rampant and will lead to become an unsafe space for women,” Ghosh said.

    The left-affiliated All India Students’ Association (AISA) concurred with Ghosh and called the counselling session a sham.

    “The ICC of JNU has come up with a notice regarding counselling sessions for JNU students regarding sexual harassment. In one of the reasons for requiring such a session, ICC writes: ‘girls suppose to know how to draw a tangible line (between them and their male friends) to avoid any such harassments’. This exposes the attitude of victim-blaming which the ICC has been practising,” the student outfit said.

    “This counselling session is a sham and will only lead to making JNU an unsafe space for women,” it said.

    The JNU administration replaced the Gender Sensitisation Committee against Sexual Harassment (GSCASH) with the ICC in September 2017 in its 269th executive council meeting, a move which was extensively criticised by student and teacher bodies, apart from women’s rights organisations Both Ghosh and AISA demanded the reinstatement of GSCASH.

  • Coal belt’s Jamuria to see three-way electoral battle, with CPI(M) young face Aishe Ghosh pitted against TMC, BJP rivals 

    By PTI
    One of the last remaining Left bastions, Jamuria assembly constituency in the heart of Paschim Bardhaman’s coal belt will witness a triangular battle between CPI(M)’s young face Aishe Ghosh, JNU Students’ Union president against Trinamool’s coal miner-candidate Hareram Singh and BJP’s Tapas Roy in polling slated for Monday, April 26.

    Jamuria has till now withstood Trinamool’s onslaught in the last two assembly elections returning CPI(M)’s Jahanara Khan twice in the last two assembly elections.

    This time round the party decided to risk fielding Aishe Ghosh, a student debutante from the constituency replacing a veteran law-maker.

    Ghosh who came into the limelight during the agitation in the premier university which also threw up another Left leader Kanhaiya Kumar, the young doctoral scholar has been a prominent face in protests against the CAA and new farm laws.

    The newcomer is however not a greenhorn as far as the coal belt is concerned having been brought up in the colliery belt of the Burdwan.

    The Trinamool Congress has nominated Hareram Singh, a coal mine worker and a leader of the party’s labour wing INTTUC-approved coal mine workers association in this area.

    The TMC is betting on Singh to wrest the constituency, which has large numbers of coal miners.

    The BJP, which had a huge lead in Jamuria in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections as part of the Asansol constituency, has put up Tapas Roy as its candidate and is hoping to ride on a wave to win the seat.

    Lack of safe drinking water, pollution and bad roads in this colliery belt are major problems faced in day to day life, according to locals, who also complain that though there are quite a few schools in the constituency, there is only one college catering to a large catchment area.

    “We have to depend on primary health centres in the area for medical requirements or travel to Durgapur or Asansol for treatment,” said Mukta Das, a resident of Damodarpur.

    Of the 2.22 lakh voters in Jamuria, 27 per cent are from the minority community, while around 25 per cent belong to the scheduled castes and tribes, an official said.

    CPI(M) area secretary Manoj Dutta claimed that apart from some sponge iron factories, no major industry have come up in Jamuria during TMC’s rule in the last 10 years.

    “At least two industries, including one steel factory, proposed during the Left Front government have not seen the light of the day, thus depriving local people of much needed job opportunities,” Dutta told PTI.

    Expressing confidence that the CPI(M) will hold on to the seat, he said that just as Ghosh had led the anti-fee hike protests at JNU, she will also be vocal in the assembly for overall development of Jamuria.

    Contending that the people of Jamuria had benefited from various welfare schemes taken up by chief minister Mamata Banerjee statewide, TMC candidate Singh alleged that the local populace were deprived of any development initiative by its CPI(M) representatives over the years.

    “We will wrest the seat from CPI(M) this time as the welfare schemes like `Duare Sarka’, `Kanyashree ‘have benefitted the people,” he said.

    Claiming he has received an overwhelming response from local people, BJP candidate Roy said that people have faith in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s development initiatives and that this will give rich dividends to the saffron party in this election.

    “People of Jamuria have seen governments of both the Left Front and the Trinamool Congress and know that neither has done anything to solve their long pending problems relating to drinking water, pollution and jobs,” Roy said.

    The BJP is also raking up coal and sand smuggling in Jamuria as major issues in this election.

    BJP leaders claim illegal coal mining from abandoned mines of Eastern Coalfields Ltd. in the area has increased in the last decade.

  • Bengal polls: Trinamool, BJP opt for star appeal in youth connect, Left welcomes activists

    Express News Service
    KOLKATA: Bengal’s two main political forces, Trinamool Congress and BJP, are banking on the star appeal of young Bengali actors to win a few constituencies.

    Most of their young candidates are from the world of films and TV serials.

    The Left in contrast has chosen a different path.

    After being criticised for years for being unable to unearth new faces, CPI(M) has fielded a number of youngsters, mostly present or former leaders of the party’s student wing.

    Among the seven young faces of CPI(M), Aishe Ghosh and Dipsita Dhar are research scholars of Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University and known as firebrand student leaders.

    The rest are prominent faces visible in recent movements against the Centre and state government.

    Continuing the trend in Bengal politics introduced by TMC in 2011, the ruling party has fielded eight actors. Following in its footsteps, BJP have pitted five from the Bengali movie and TV serial circuit.

    For the Nandigram seat, where Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is taking on BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari, CPI(M) has fielded the 36-year-old Minakshi Mukherjee, state president of Democratic Youth Federation of India.

    ALSO READ | From JNU to Jamuria: Aishe Ghosh to test her brand of politics in Bengal polls

    “The youth, working class and women are hitting the streets against state-sponsored corruption,” said Minakshi.

    President of the JNU students’ union, who was injured in an attack on the campus, Aishe is contesting from Jamuria in West Burdwan.

    Dishita, a PhD scholar at JNU, is a candidate from Bally in Howrah. Pritha Tah, 28-year-old daughter of CPI(M) leader Pradip Tah who was murdered in 2012, is contesting from Bardhaman South.

    “It’s not about personal grief or hatred against the killers of my father. In communism, one doesn’t inherit any personal agenda. One inherits the will to fight against class oppression,’’ said Pritha.

    The CPI(M) has also fielded youth wing leaders Sayandeep Mitra and Monalisa Sinha in the Kamarhati and Sonarpur North constituencies, respectively.

    In contrast, TMC candidates chosen for their glamour quotient like Sayantika Banerjee, Sayani Ghosh, Kaushani Mukherjee and Soham Chakrabarty are rank newcomers in politics.

    In the elections held in Bengal from 2011, TMC often opted for actors. 

    Taking a leaf out of Mamata’s book, BJP too has given tickets to actors Anjana Basu, Payel Chakrabarty, Yash Dasgupta, Hiranmoy Chakrabarty and Anjana Basu.

    Taking on Basu in Sonarpur Dakshin is TMC’s Lovely Maitra, a face from TV serials. Political observers find inclusion of youngsters in CPI(M)’s list to be a new trend.

    “Young candidates have broader perspective. This may not secure satisfactory electoral dividend immediately, but in future it will deliver a message to the youth,’’ said Bishnupriya Dutta Gupta, a professor of political science.

  • From JNU to Jamuria: Aishe Ghosh to test her brand of politics in Bengal polls

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Fielded by the CPI(M) from Jamuria Assembly seat, JNUSU president Aishe Ghosh said she will have Jawaharlal Nehru University in her heart and mind as she tests the politics she has practised so far in the coal fields of West Bengal.

    The first sitting JNUSU functionary to fight assembly polls, Ghosh, a latecomer into politics, blossomed as the president of the union at a time when student politics saw a resurgence after Left leader Kanhaiya Kumar came into media limelight following a sedition case.

    When asked what is it like to be catapult into national politics from JNU, she replied, “It is a big responsibility, but my politics will remain the same.”

    “The issues we fight for in JNU are an extension of what is happening across the country. Be it reservations, communalism, our fight for better education, employment, better living conditions. The issues are the same everywhere in this country. I will carry these issues that I fought for in JNU to the people of West Bengal,” Ghosh told PTI.

    Busy arranging her papers for travelling to Bengal for the election, Ghosh apologised for not being able to field calls while packing for a long and arduous battle that begins the day she arrives in Jamuria.

    A resident of Durgapur, where her parents still stay, Ghosh will be contesting from Jamuria, known for its illegal coal mining.

    But the 26-year-old seems to have a handle on her agenda.

    “The youth of Bengal is asking for jobs, better standards of living. Bengal itself has turned into an old age home where the youth are being forced to leave for better lives elsewhere.”

    “Even for higher education, youngsters are leaving the state. In the coal belt, where I come from, after the coronavirus crisis there is a huge issue of migrants who have returned and have no jobs,” she says.

    Ghosh passed her secondary and higher secondary exams in Durgapur, before joining Daulat Ram College in New Delhi from where she graduated in political science.

    Thereafter, she enrolled at the JNU for masters degree.

    After completing her masters, she enrolled for MPhil at School of International Relations in JNU.

    She is at present a second-year student of MPhil.

    She left Bengal in 2013 and her politics has remained centred around Delhi.

    When asked will she be treated as an outsider, Ghosh said, “My roots are still in the state. I was born and brought up here. I see no contradiction in this. I faced all the issues that are being faced by the people there. I know what the situation is there. My parents still live in Durgapur.”

    When asked how will she balance her roles as a politician in Bengal and a student at JNU in case she wins the Assembly polls, Aishe exuded confidence about being able to do so.

    “I am yet to think about it. While I believe education is extremely important and I will continue it, I can promise the people of Bengal that I will not run away like others have done in the past. If they show their faith in me by electing me, I will stand by them forever,” Ghosh said.

    Her conviction seems similar to her confidence barely a year back as she appeared at JNU campus addressing the media with injuries on her hand and head, and lashing out against the university administration and demanded the resignation of the vice-chancellor.

    “I had mixed emotions when the nominations were announced. Actually it is difficult to describe. When I told my parents about it, they were proud, happy and of course as parents may be a little apprehensive. However, there is a battle to be fought, it is not an individual fight, and I am all in.”