The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has nominated three PhD scholars and a professor – all from the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) – as its spokespersons in an obvious bid to refurbish its image and arm itself with talented youngsters to carry forward its ideological battle against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).The party’s newly nominated national spokespersons are Jayant Jigyasu of the Centre for Media Studies, who recently submitted his PhD thesis; Priyanka Bharti, a PhD scholar in German at the School of Languages; Kanchana Yadav, a fellow of the Council and Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and PhD scholar at the School of Life Sciences; and Anwar Pasha, professor of Urdu at JNU.RJD secretary general Abdul Bari Siddiqui issued a notification to this effect at the instruction of the party’s national president Lalu Prasad Yadav on October 11, but the influence and vision of Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav are palpable.The move clearly reflects Tejashwi’s efforts to revamp the party’s image. The RJD under his father’s stewardship has carved out an image of the most credible and non-compromising regional outfit fighting for social justice and secularism. But it is also known as the party of the rural poor and inarticulate sections of society.Tejashwi has worked in a sustained manner to mobilise students and scholars at top educational institutions, particularly JNU and Delhi University. The appointment of Jayant Jigyasu, Priyanka Bharti, Kanchana Yadav and Anwar Pasha is the culmination of a six-year exercise to build his party’s cadres, train them and then appoint them as important office bearers.Young talentsThe RJD leader who played a major role in opening the student wings of the party on JNU’s campus is Nawal Kishore, a professor of political science at Rajdhani College at Delhi University.He made the JNU the centre of the RJD students’ wing’s activities in 2016-17, when the Narendra Modi government targeted it in a big way and the ruling establishment supported the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sang (RSS)’s students’ wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) in unleashing violence on the cadres of Left and centrist parties.Jayant Jigyasu, the son of a farmer-school teacher from the backward Khagaria district in north Bihar, was an RJD cadre when doing his under graduation at a college under the Bhagalpur University in Bihar. He carried forward his activism when he joined JNU as an MPhil student in 2017-18. He unsuccessfully contested the JNU Students’ Union presidential elections in 2018. But it helped him build the party’s cadres on campus.Jayant’s father participated in the Jayaprakash Narayan-led movement in the 1970s. His parents adhered to Kabir panth (tenets of saint Kabir) that inculcated in him liberal and inclusive values. He was on the RJD’s state executive committee prior to becoming the spokesperson.Priyanka Bharti is a firebrand RJD activist in JNU. She hails from a humble background from Fatuha, the eastern outskirts of Patna district. “My father was a farmer. He had no money to support my education when I joined the School of Languages at the undergraduate level in 2016. I tutored students to pay for my education, something that I still do,” Priyanka said.But she carried on with her activism, leading the students against fee hikes and even sustaining a police assault. The RJD fielded her to contest the JNUSU presidential election in 2019. She didn’t win but made a mark as an orator. Tejashwi lashed out at the police in strong words when Priyanka suffered the blow of the police’s baton, adding to her confidence in the party and Tejashwhi’s leadership.Kanchana Yadav is probably the most studious of the three students drafted as spokespersons. She cracked the CSIR fellowship when she was doing her MSc in Zoology at JNU. Now, she is a senior fellow doing research on cancer. She is from the Johnpur district of Uttar Pradesh.Her grandfather was a government servant and her father worked in the private sector in Mumbai. In a way, she belongs to a relatively well-to-do family. As a senior fellow of CSIR, she gets Rs 42,000 per month to conduct research. “I strongly believe in Lalu Prasad Yadav’s politics of social justice and secularism. I have faith in Tejashwi’s leadership,” she said.Prof Anwar Pasha is a part of RJD’s ideological think tank. He has worked among the Pasmanda (backward) Muslims and has produced books and research papers on the poor sections in the minority community.Ideological battleProfessor Nawal Kishore has used his organisational skills to build a cadre at the campus, while the party’s Rajya Sabha MP Manoj Jha guided them in ideology and academics.They all have unwavering faith in Tejashwi’s leadership. Be it the issue of caste census, caste survey in Bihar, quota for OBC women in the women’s reservation in parliament or communalism and hate campaign by the Hindutva forces – these young RJD activists dominate the discourse on social media. They are adept at advocating the party’s line and countering the BJP’s attacks on the Indian National Development Inclusive Alliance (INDIA).The RJD’s new list of national spokespersons, issued after the publication of the Bihar caste survey, shows the party’s commitment to social justice. The party has consistently fought for OBC reservation and an OBC quota in the women’s reservation Bill. Lalu Prasad Yadav has also spoken about “jiski jitni sankhya bhaari, uski utni hissedari” (a share in power in proportion to the numerical strength). Jayant, Priyanka and Kanchana are all from OBC communities.Nalin Verma is a senior journalist, author, media educator, and independent researcher in folklore.
