Misogyny and sexism: What's ails liberal JNU's Confessions page

New Delhi: While JNU has always been known as a liberal university, with politically active students, the institution has seen the floating of a forum called JNU Confessions on Facebook — which allows participants the shield of anonymity and has resulted in The forum which was started on 27 February plugs itself as: Do you want to make a confession? Here’s your forum. Send in your confession to JNU Confessions. It is completely anonymous. Your name will not be posted. The only rules of the forum are that those posting do not include names or that spam and defamatory posts not be sent (or they will be ignored). Those wishing to send their confessions about the JNU community have to send them to a Google doc link  from where it will be moderated and posted on the Facebook community. While it may be a good forum for those from the student community who are more muted in their opinions to voice their concerns, it also brings to the fore the dangers of anonymity while putting up posts. Take the example of this confession, which is an open threat and challenge to another student on the forum: In the comments section of confession #1119, two students (say STUDENT A and B) get into a confrontation about the tactics of the ABVP and their “goonda raj”. Student A said, “I have a very big problem especially when it comes from a fanatic party like the ABVP, who beleive in the " goonda raj” ! I have faced personal problems too in my hostel but the fact is I am not scared!!" He went on to say, “If you are so proud of your muscle power, let me show you some of mine, I am an ardent supporter and a member of Guns and Patriots. I believe as a proud Nepali the right to a Khukri is defined by birth and passed by ancestry, they day I get any one, then pray that you don’t have to confront me, for it will certainly be your last!!!!” Student B replies saying, “Dear Student A, an ardent supporter of Guns and Patriots, you should know the difference between conflict and violence. Before you posted this comment we possibly were in conflict but now you have resorted to violence. I have accepted your challenge.” He adds, “Your place and your time I am always ready…” Student A goes on to state the hostel he lives in and the place for the physical confrontation he has challenged Student B to. [caption id=“attachment_1030709” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Screengrab of the JNU Confessions page from Facebook.[/caption] The forum which began as a platform where students voiced their opinions and experiences about the administration, the dhabas and the hostels, has now mostly turned into a place where students are complaining about the fellow students and often veer off into misogynistic and sexist comments. Post #1123 states: When girls visit boys hostel and they feels the need of using the toilet ( which seems very unfortunate for them), everytime they go “Ewwww!! Boys toilets stinks!” Makes me wonder, do their sh** and p** smell of flowers?? Never been to a girls toilet. I’m clueless ,as well as curious about their such reaction.. *-* And instead of chastising such comments, there are those like Dhiraj Rai, abetting it. In response to the post he comments: Hahahahaaha.. Good dost, now this is called hitting a few inches below the belt.. Sahi ghuma ke diya hai (You gave back good). Good one… Another post, No. #1090 says: I love to roam at shipra and koyna and I wonder why I am so exited when I passed ladies hostel. I love the colourful inner wear hanging at the balcony.. A justifiably irate Bhavna Thakur, commented back saying: “So, u get the same excitement when you see your mother or sister’s colorful inner wear hanging?” Some like the sender of Confession #1101 seem to have a grievance with women who complain of rape. He goes on to ask, who knows which partner initiated sex. His post reads: “At the very beginning let me make it clear that what has happened on 3st July…….. Its indeed very sad…. It should not have happened……….. BUT Uske baad ye jo ladkiya halla karna shuru kar di hain ki partner ka freedom hona chahiye….Tell me frankly…if u want freedom to choose ur partner then why do you go running to police station and get a case registered of rape on false promise of rape!!!!! Agar ladka partner change kare to uspe rape ka charge lage aur agar ladki kare to freedom hai…” (If women want to choose their partner then why do they go running to the police station registering complaints of rape. If a man changes his partner its rape, but if a woman does so its called freedom). Backing this misogynist post was a person called Shashi Kant Jha, who said: “Yes you are right…some girls misuse it….” Some members of the community who put up posts on the community, put the onus of the safety of women on themselves. Post #1099 while acknowledging that the incident has put a question mark on the university’s security said: “I really don’t know how many of you are going to consider this or not, but late night walks around campus, specially in places like psr and ring road, should be banned! Not because of this horrific incident, but the campus is huge, like a jungle, it aint safe at night anyways! atleast there should be some time limitation.” And then there are the homophobes who also prowl the forum. The person who posted confession #1121 and recently attended an event where a gay poet delivered a talk at JNU’s English centre stated, “It was so pathetic to see that people are proud of their abnormalities and even listeners applaud such nonsense!!!!! And I am 100% sure that those who were cheering him up that day would actually speak derisively about homosexuality… This is for those self-confessed gays/lesbians: just think otherwise, and you will be straight, and would be capable of leading a normal life… Please understand that a disease is nothing to be bragged about… Keep it to yourself and prevent it from spreading… And to those who pretend to be very intellectual by endorsing homosexuality: will you welcome a gay/lesbian in your own family? No!!!! then is it not your moral responsibility to assist those who are in a similar situation? Feel brave to confront myth-makers…” Thankfully though, most commentators to this post strongly criticised the view. However, many students say the confession page has become a forum for scandal and gossip and is not needed. “I got to know of the page from FB and the first time I went to it I saw a really graphic and bad post by a boy about how he was taking advantage of a girl, who he got pregnant a couple of times by promising her help for getting admission into JNU. The post didn’t sound like a confession to me, but rather a proclamation flaunting what he had managed to do,” Tintumol Joseph, an MA student in International Relations told Firstpost. Joseph doesn’t see any need for such pages. “People started reading it for gossip. I think FB itself is confessional and becoming full of scandal and gossip, why does anyone need any more?” she said. Subin Dennis, a PhD of Economics at the university says that the internet’s anonymity allows such slander to pass. “JNU confessions has always been for non serious things, but the questions of internet security that it poses are disconcerting. It’s the internet, so anyone can write anything, but the fact that peoples lives can be affected it is a matter for concern,” he said. Dennis said that until there isn’t more accountability nothing could be done about forums like JNU Confessions that will continue to attract people who want to spread scandal rather than talk about any real issue. “There are moderators but nobody knows who the moderators are,” he said.