Nitish Kumar, the newly elected president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU), shares his name and state with Bihar CM Nitish Kumar. Except, the new JNUSU president is from the Left alliance of the All India Students’ Association and Democratic Students’ Front (AISA-DSF).
Meet JNUSU’s Nitish Kumar
Nitish Kumar, aged 26 years, is a third-year PhD student at the Centre for Political Studies, School of Social Sciences, JNU. Kumar was declared the JNUSU President, after the AISA-DSF won three of the four central panel positions, reported The Indian Express.
What led Nitish Kumar to join politics?
Nitish Kumar’s political journey was driven by the lived experiences of India’s marginalised communities, and began much before he ventured into PhD.
“Nitish Kumar carries with him the lived experiences of India’s oppressed communities,” reads a statement released by the United Left panel.
What’s on Nitish Kumar’s agenda?
Nitish Kumar alleged that after the ABVP entered the panel in 2015-16, JNU suffered an image of anti-nationalism. “This time, we as a union will not let that happen,” IE quoted Nitish Kumar as saying.
Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) is a right-wing and an independent all India student organisation affiliated to the Hindu nationalist organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
According to Indian Express’s report, Nitish Kumar aims to bring more funding into JNU. Apart from improving the infrastructure of the varsity campus, the new JNUSU president further aims to bring back the JNUEE exam for admissions.
We will also “push for the eradication of the CPO manual, which imposes fines on students for dissent and protests, and push for women students to get single-seater accommodation in the second year itself,” Nitish Kumar told IE.
Nitish Kumar family, education
The son of a farmer, and a homemaker, Nitish Kumar hails from a humble family in Sheikhpura village of Bihar’s Araria district. He finished his early schooling at Saraswati Shishu Vidya Mandir in Forbesganj, where the now JNUSU President had “first witnessed and understood the insidious spread of communal fascism within educational spaces,” stated the United Panel.
Nitish Kumar earned his BA degree from the Banaras Hindu University (BHU), after which he joined the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in 2020 for his Master’s degree.
Nitish Kumar’s political career
Nitish Kumar’s entry into JNU coincided with what the party called “one of the most challenging periods for public education in India — the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath,” accusing the JNU administration of “systematically excluding economically disadvantaged students from accessing education” through prolonged campus closures.
In 2021, Nitish Kumar became a prominent figure in the ‘Reopen JNU’ movement, rallying students from various departments to demand the resumption of offline classes, hostel allocations, and access to university facilities.
In August 2023, Kumar went on a 16-day hunger strike to address the severe hostel crisis— a protest that marked a pivotal moment in JNU’s student mobilisation efforts, reported The Indian Express.
As Secretary of the All India Students’ Association (AISA) JNU unit, Kumar also spearheaded campaigns to raise fellowship amounts, reinstate entrance exams, and challenge politically influenced faculty appointments.