“Dimagi Naxals? That Simply Means We Have Brains”
A Conversation with Neha Bora Danny, social analyst
My thanks to the daily newspaper Sakshi for publishing this conversation with Neha Bora.
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First, congratulations on the leadership role you played in one of the most successful movements of recent times—one that has given the country a new sense of hope. More than that, it has, to some extent, lifted the climate of fear that has enveloped society for the past two decades. Again, congratulations.
Now, to the questions.
Why the nationwide tour after Jantar Mantar?
The main purpose of this tour is to express solidarity with the student movements unfolding across the country.
In Jharkhand, students are agitating for the cancellation of the JPSC and JSSC examinations. That is why we went to Ranchi.
In Kolkata, students at the Indian Statistical Institute are mounting a major protest against a bill that threatens the autonomy of their institution. So we went there as well.
Next we traveled to Jaipur, in Rajasthan. The state has become a hub of paper leaks. The private coaching mafia is a serious problem there, and the pressure of the education system has driven many students to suicide. Paper-leak incidents are widespread in Kota. We expressed solidarity with the students there.
In Hyderabad, some students are fighting against violence by the ABVP. At another university, students are resisting the administration. There is even the threat that those who oppose inviting the Chief Justice of India to a convocation will not be allowed to register with the bar.
In short, student movements are underway across the country. The Jantar Mantar agitation gave enormous strength to students elsewhere. Now they are fighting on their own issues. We are going to stand with them, to give them courage. They are fighting for themselves; we are fighting alongside them.
What lessons did the Jantar Mantar movement teach?
The principal reason for its success was that we remained united.
Wherever students are struggling, they too must organize. To truly confront authoritarian tendencies and undemocratic forces, they must come together, raise their own consciousness, and demonstrate that they stand united against the administration and the government.
What is your immediate goal now?
There is no single, specific immediate goal.
Meeting students, expressing solidarity with their movements, organizing as many students as possible, bringing them into organized politics, and helping them understand that real power lies in unity—these are our aims.
We must fight for quality education and for a better future for students.
At Jantar Mantar, three different streams came together on a single platform. What about the future?
We are not going to form a new organization together. I am part of AISA; that is my organization. Abhijit Dipak is part of CJP; that is his. Sonam Wangchuk is an independent individual with his own views. But if there are common issues concerning students and the country’s youth, we can again fight together on a united platform.
Will you enter mainstream politics?
My understanding of mainstream politics is different. I come from a left ideology. We do not regard mainstream politics as ideal politics. Therefore I will not join mainstream parties. I am already in politics—I will continue my ideology as deeply and as extensively as I can. Mainstream parties may continue with their own politics.
What is your response to the new label “Dimagi Naxal” that Modi has recently attached to you?
It is a completely ineffective word. They keep inventing new terms to portray people as villains, to demoralize them, to break their spirit. But “Dimagi Naxal” is nothing more than a joke. Everyone is directing all sorts of satirical slogans at Narendra Modi. It seems he thought, “Everyone is mocking me this way, so I too must invent some new phrase,” and came up with “Dimagi Naxal.”
Yet there is another side to it. “Dimagi Naxal” means that all of us have brains. We have the capacity to think. We do not need a teleprompter to say what we are thinking. We do not need someone else to write our words before we can speak in front of a camera. Nor do we need the Instagram language that ordinary people cannot understand—the language that distances one from the people instead of fostering friendship with them.
So if they call us “Dimagi Naxals,” let them. In this country they are pasting all kinds of labels on ordinary people. Every time they invent a new label, our unity only grows stronger. On one side stand the people of this country. On the other stand those who hand out labels. That is all.
“You are the sharpest voice of the protest.”
I have Marxist politics.
