RSS has been forced to ideological back foot to such an extent that in its Hindi mouthpiece ‘Panchajanya’ it has labeled Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) as “anti-national”. This has come at a time when a host of writers, filmmakers, intellectuals and other sections have come out openly against the rising intolerance and the un-making of India under the RSS-BJP regime. This has come at a time when education is facing all out attacks from the policies of the Modi government and attempts are being made to sell out education in the upcoming Nairobi rounds of WTO-GATS talks.

 

The RSS and its affiliates like the ABVP have raised this bogey time and again. In fact during the tenure of the previous BJP-led NDA government, the RSS tried to target JNU and the JNU Students Union as a den of “ISI agents”.  Such targeting, however, was defeated by the steadfast resistance of the students’ movement led by the SFI-led JNUSU.

 

What exactly is the idea of nationalism which RSS and ABVP seek to propagate? The RSS was not part of the anti-colonial struggle of the Indian people against British rule. Nathuram Godse, the assassin of Mahatma Gandhi, was an RSS man. V D Savarkar, a prominent Sangh leader, was an active participant in the conspiracy to murder Gandhi. The RSS's ideal of India and its nationalism is enshrined in the infamous motto “Hindi-Hindu-Hindustan”. It refuses to accept the equality of all the different nationalities that constitute and comprise India, and which fought together in the freedom struggle against colonial rule. The RSS seeks to impose a monolithic, communal idea of the nation, which is evident, for instance, in the writings of M S Golwalkar, the Hindutva ideologue and the second Sarsanghchalak of the RSS. He wrote in his work 'We or Our Nationhood Defined':

“The non-Hindu people of Hindustan must either adopt Hindu culture and language, must learn and respect and hold in reverence the Hindu religion, must entertain no idea but of those of glorification of the Hindu race and culture ... In a word they must cease to be foreigners, or may stay in the country, wholly subordinated to the Hindu nation, claiming nothing, deserving no privileges, far less any preferential treatment — not even citizens' rights.” This is why one of the articles in the current issue of ‘Panchajanya’ complains with angst the fact that courses on discrimination and exclusion, on north east studies etc. are taught in JNU.

Contrary to the world view of RDD, The students of JNU, have always opposed the Sangh Parivar's bigoted ideology and held up the equality of all people, belonging to all religions, communities, ethnicities, languages and nationalities. They have stood up to oppose the RSS ideology which treats women as second class citizens and as “being fit only for domestic chores”. Precisely because of our determined opposition to the chauvinistic project of the RSS, the Hindutva forces have made JNU a target.

Not only is the RSS's idea of India utterly communal, but in essence and practice the India that it promotes is that of the Adanis and the Ambanis and other big businesses. The workers, peasants, petty produces, Dalits, Adivasis and women belonging to all communities lie outside this ruling class idea of India. The economic policies of the RSS-led Modi government benefit only the ruling classes led by the big corporates, who ultimately form a tiny section of our population. The working population of India, consisting of the workers, peasants, Dalits, Adivasis, women and other toiling sections, must constitute themselves THE nation (though not in the bourgeois sense of the word) in order to resolutely oppose and defeat the RSS and its communal-fascist vision of what India ought to be.

The Central Executive Committee of SFI would like to assert here that student community and the people of India would firmly reject the attempts to refashion India to fit the communal-fascist, majoritarian, ruling class idea of the “nation” peddled by the RSS. We will continue to speak the truth, and all fascist attempts to muzzle our voices in defence of the working people of our country belonging to all communities will be rejected.

                                                       Released by

 Dr. V Sivadasan                                                                          Ritabrata Banerjee MP

 President                                                                                    General Secretary

The latest judgment of the Supreme Court on the issue of reservation in higher education has come out. The judgement is based on a batch petitions filed by some MBBS doctors who complained about eligibility criteria for admissions to certain PG medical courses in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Tamil Nadu. These states permitted only those domiciled in these states to get admitted into these courses. The court went beyond the immediate question before it and gave sweeping comments over the reservation policy as a whole. A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and P C Pant went on to state that despite several reminders to the central and state governments to make merit the primary criteria for admissions into super-specialty courses, the ground reality remains that ‘reservation often holds sway over merit’. This false dichotomy of deserve versus reserve has been constantly used by the ruling classes to deny social justice to the marginalised and oppressed sections of the society.

 

The Central Executive Committee of SFI condemns the statement on Reservation by the Supreme Court. Any move to scrap reservation in education sector will be resisted strongly. It is also a matter of deep concern that such a statement is coming at a time when the anti-reservation forces are in power at the center. The Supreme Court judgment is something which stands against the notion of social justice. SFI urges all the state governments and central government to reject the Supreme Court statement. We also demand the reservation should be properly implemented in all educational institutions including private sector.

 

It has been consistently proved by eminent academics that the efficiency argument used to oppose the reservation does not stand logical scrutiny. 

SFI demands that the Super speciality courses in the medical stream should be no exception to the reservation policy and it is the need of hour to ensure that the higher education which remains the privilege of the elites of the society should be democratised.

 

                                    Released by 

Dr. V Sivadasan                                            Ritabrata Banerjee MP

President                                                      General Secretary

The Central Executive Committee of SFI calls upon all its units across the nation to intensify it's struggles and campaigns to restore and increase the non-NET fellowships. The UGC's decision to scrap non-NET fellowships has been hold back till the next meeting followed by a strong anger raised by the students immediately . But more struggles are essential to make sure that this decision will be taken back forever. SFI has decided to observe a 'Protest Week' from 28 October to 03 November against the Modi govt scripted anti-student move using UGC.

 

The recent move of UGC cannot be seen in isolation with the assault of neo-liberal policies rigorously launched by the Modi led NDA government. This will also be in keeping with the government’s move to open up education as a tradable commodity under WTO-GATS.

 

SFI demand the non-NET fellowships be granted to the researchers in all universities in India and it should also be increased immediately. These fellowships have played a crucial role in helping the M.Phil. and Ph.D. research scholars of the Central Universities in India to sustain themselves. Researchers from deprived backgrounds will be the most hit by the new decision as should be obvious. Especially in the case of women researchers, the lack of financial independence make them susceptible to familial pressures to leave research. The overall result would be the weakening of research in the country, undermining its knowledge base and intellectual self-reliance even as it makes research degrees inaccessible to the deprived sections of society. It has to be noted that the neo-liberal regime which complains about the lack of resources have already given a tax exemption of 5.89 lack crores to the corporate sector in the last budget. And there are further plans to reduce corporate taxes even more.

 

SFI will launch a series of protests across the nation in the coming week under the call of 'Protest Week'. SFI will blockade all the regional centres of UGC ( Banglore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Pune, Guwahati, Bhopal and Delhi) demanding an immediate action in favour of the researchers in India. The students will burn the copies of the Minutes of the infamous UGC meeting which reached to the decision to scrap non-NET fellowships. There will also be effigy burning of the prime minister Narendra Modi who ruthlessly pursues the neo-liberal policies which worsen the life of all sections in this country including students and researchers. There will be protest gatherings, student rallies etc to pressurise UGC and Central government to withdraw the draconian decision. There is already an online petition (available at the link) started by SFI and we request all the academic and democratic community to sign it. The CEC of SFI gives a call to all unites to organise different campaigns and struggles to make the 'Protest Week' a grand success. We appeal all the sections of academia and common people to join hands and stand up unitedly to resist the assaults on students and to save the research and inclusive education in India.

 

                                                   Released by  

Dr. V Sivadasan                                                         Ritabrata Banerjee MP

President                                                                   General Secratary

The central Executive Committee of SFI expresses its deep concern over the increasing incidents of caste atrocities and communal polarization across various states. The situation is particularly alarming in the BJP-ruled states. In the latest incidence, Upper caste Rajputs set fire to the home of a Dalit family in Sunpedh, a village in Faridabad near the national capital Delhi, killing both the sleeping children inside aged 2 years and 9 months while their parents have suffered severe burn injuries.  

We would like to underline that these are not isolated incidents of violence, rather these are a clear reflection of the situation wherein anti-Dalit, anti-minority forces have emboldened ever since BJP has come to power. A large chunk of the society is being denied even their constitutionally provided rights including the right to live. A conscious effort has been launched by the Sangh Parivar to divide the people of this nation over religious and caste lines.

The regressive and social chauvinist ideologies are also penetrating the young minds in the schools and colleges. A sustained campaign is needed to isolate such forces and strengthen the principle of equality. A larger unity among all the democratic and progressive forces is the need of the hour to defeat this Saffron agenda to divide the people to loot the nation. The Central Executive Committee of SFI calls upon all the units to initiate campaigns upholding equality and organize ‘flames of equality’ along with class based discussion forums on these questions in the coming week.

                                                  Released by

Dr. V Sivadasan                                                             Ritabrata Banerjee MP

President                                                                       General Secratary