These days, the name of Neha Bora, the dynamic leader and president of All India Students Organization (AISA), is being taken very prominently on the scene of Indian student politics. Recently, the way Neha Bora played a central role during the protest organized by ‘INDIA’ alliance in Delhi against the alleged irregularities in the voter list and ‘vote theft’ and the march to the Supreme Court, has attracted the attention of political analysts. During the march from Barakhamba Road to the Supreme Court, pictures of Neha Bora with Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra went viral on social media. Scenes like her presence on the main vehicle (truck) of the opposition leaders and Rahul-Priyanka holding her hand proved that this young leader coming from a leftist background is now getting a new and strong identity in the opposition camp.
Neha Bora’s sudden political shine and closeness to the Gandhi family has refreshed the old history of JNU and leftist student politics. There is a strong discussion in the political circles whether this political journey of Neha Bora is exactly the same as that of Kanhaiya Kumar. It is noteworthy that Kanhaiya Kumar, who was once the President of JNU Students Union, had also become a big face of youth protest at the national level after leaving the leftist student organization AISF and later he joined the Congress Party. However, after joining the mainstream Congress party, Kanhaiya Kumar has had to face many challenges like contradictions, ideological discomfort and factionalism within the party. In such a situation, when Neha Bora is seen sharing the stage with the Gandhi family and the mainstream opposition leadership, it is natural to raise the question whether she too will remain trapped in the same established political and ideological trap, from which it often proves difficult for leaders from leftist background to get out.
Before this, Neha Bora has aggressively raised her voice on issues related to the paper leak movement and youth rights that echoed across the country. Neha, who has emerged from the struggles of water and plain student politics, now faces the biggest challenge to fit into the larger political equations of the opposition alliance while preserving her independent leftist ideological identity. Political experts believe that when the youth of student organizations suddenly come into the dazzling center of mainstream national politics, they often fall prey to the priorities and electoral compromises of the senior leadership of the established political parties. In the case of Kanhaiya Kumar, it was also seen that after leaving the ideological base of Communist Party and joining Congress, he had to strike a heavy balance between his old aggressive image and organizational coordination, in which he had to face uncomfortable situations many times.
The real question is whether Neha Bora will be able to break out of the ideological laboratory of the Left and penetrate the maze of mainstream dynastic or big party alliances in which Young Turk leaders often lose their ideological independence? At present, even though the top leaders of Congress and ‘India’ alliance are putting forward the faces of student organizations to connect the youth, but in long-term politics, this path is full of thorny. If Neha Bora maintains her core ideological commitment, grassroots struggle and credentials of independent student leadership, she can draw a different and stronger political line than Kanhaiya Kumar. Otherwise, the danger of becoming a pawn in the political laboratory of big parties always looms. Her political moves in the coming days will decide whether she becomes a true symbol of youth aspirations or remains entangled in some new equation of traditional politics.