Press Releases

Details: Press Releases; 22 June 2015

SFI central executive committee stands in solidarity with the students of Film and Television Institute of India, FTII who are bravely protesting against the shameless attempts to saffronise one of the prime Institutes of the country. An indefinite hunger strike has been launched by the students against the Modi led NDA Government's appointment of Gajendra Chauhan as the chairman of the governing Council of FTII. Chauhan, whose only credential to head the internationally reputed Institute is that he played the role of Yudishtar in the Mahabharatha TV serial which was telecasted by Doordarshan during early 90's. He is a vocal supporter of BJP for last two decades and also a member since 2004. He was an active campaigner for Modi during the last general election. FTII which produced many finest talents of Indian cinema was headed in the past by stalwarts like Shyam Benagal, Mrinal Sen, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Girish karnad and so on. The appointment of Gajendra Chauhan is another attempt by Modi Government to bring the major research and cultural institutions of the country under the complete control of Sangh Parivar by filling them with their servile ideological henchmen.

For the past one year of Modi Government serious efforts are being made to saffronise the educational and cultural institutions. The appointment of Chauhan is not the first instance where Sangh Parivar's dangerous communal agenda has been pushed forward. Earlier Sudarsan Rao, a true Modi disciple and RSS sympathizer was appointed as the head of Indian Council for Historical Research, ICHR. Rao's qualification to hold this position was nothing but his ability to replace historical facts with Hindu mythologies. In another attempt historians like Romila Thapar and Irfan Habib were thrown out from the ICHR advisory board by the government, replacing them with the sympathisers of Sangh's Hindutva ideology. Baldev Sharma who was the editor of Panchajanya, the mouth piece of RSS was appointed as the head of National Book Trust, NBT earlier this year.

These desperate attempts are only aimed to suppress all voices of dissent and to create a favorable social and cultural atmosphere for the terrorizing pursuit of neo liberal policies of Modi government. Along with the assaults on the Democratic and secular values of the Indian society, Sangh Parivar is trying to uproot the very core of rational thought and the objective historical consciousness. To implement this Janus faced policy paradigm of Hindutva a and neo liberalism, Sangh Parivar has chosen educational Institutes especially Universities and other research centers as the primary target. To resist this right wing Hindutva agenda, collective resistance by the progressive and secular forces has to be Organised on a mass scale. It is important to remember that only because of such a valiant resistance that the MHRD was forced to remove the ban on Ambedkar-Periyar study Circle in Madras IIT. SFI CEC gives a call to rise up in protest nation wide in solidarity with the fighting students of FTII and to resist the continuing undemocratic and anti student moves by Modi led right wing NDA Government.

Released by
Dr V Sivadasan, President
Ritabrata Banerjee, General Secretary

Details: Press Releases; 09 June 2015

The attacks at all levels and in different spheres of education have intensified further in the one year of Modi regime. The policy thrust of centralization, Commercialisation, and privatization of education, however, is not party-specific, but one that is supported by the entire ruling class to serve its interests. The Modi Government’s sinister agenda of saffronisation makes this toxic combination more lethal. Neoliberal assaults over education on one hand and aggressive communalization on the other are today greatest threat to our education system.

The Modi Government has slashed budgetary allocations for education by 16.5 per cent. It has halved the funds for ICDS, cut funds for mid-day meal schemes and for the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan. Funds for higher education have been cut by 29%. Thus, even the limited gains of the past are being eliminated. Successive Governments have underfunded education, and public funding

has stagnated at just 3 per cent of GDP. The failure to expand public investment

in education has facilitated the expansion of the private sector at all levels, from nursery school to higher education.

Right to Education Act has proved to be means of siphoning public funds to private schools and allowing private school managements to hike fees. In the last 5 years since this Act has come into operation, the commercialization and privatization of school education across the country has intensified .It has institutionalized the multi-layered school education systemand increased the already existing inequalities.

Government schools have been shut down in Rajasthan, Maharashtra and elsewhere to make further way for privatization of school education. The absence of a statutory requirement that the Central Government provide the additional resources to ensure the implementation of the Right to Education, combined with the worsening finances

of the States, is leading to a catastrophe. The Government’s claim that it is transferring more funds to States in the spirit of “cooperative federalism,” while actually slashing allocations for major centrally-sponsored programmes, is characteristic of the crisis. Acute infrastructural shortages, poor student-teacher ratios, cramped classrooms, insufficient hostel facilities, and inadequate laboratory and library facilities characterize all levels of education, from schools to higher educational institutions.

The Rashtriya Uchhtar Shiksha Abhiyaan (RUSA), the Choice Based Credit System (CBCS), and the Common University Act are part of the agenda of privatization. Centralization has been used a means to push these agendas. In the recent case of the UGC order to implement CBCS in all universities from the 2015-16 academic session with centralized syllabi allowing only 20% deviation is an example of similar approach. CBCS, which is being pushed as an academic system which will give ‘choice’ to the students, will in effect, give choice to only those who have money

. The real agenda behind it remains the ruin of public education, so as to create further space for the private sector.

RUSA replaces the pre-existing multiple funding mechanisms with one centralized mechanism. The funding is linked to a set of conditions failing which the institutions / states won’t be eligible to receive funds. These conditions include implementation of Choice Based Credit System (CBCS), Semesterization and compulsory accreditation among others. The same document makes it clear that the funding under RUSA will be norm based as well as performance based. This basically means that the state governments or universities won’t have any room to modify the system according to their specific conditions and all powers to determine their education are snatched away from them. This will go on to increase the already existing inequalities.

Indian government had agreed for ‘Market Access’ in ‘Higher Education Sub-Sector’ to WTO way back in August 2005 as a part of Doha Round Trade

Negotiations which started in 2001. These have not yet become ‘commitments’ as the trade negotiations could not be concluded for the last 10 years. But now with a fresh momentum in the negotiations, there are plans expedite the process of the ongoing trade negotiations in WTO from the coming July and successfully conclude them in the ensuing Tenth Ministerial Conference to be held at Nairobi, Kenya from December 15 to 18 this very year. Since agreeing to WTO rules would also necessarily mean that Indian government will have to offer ‘level playing field’ to the private and foreign players, as well. The current policy level offensives are intrinsically linked to the preparations for offering this level playing field.

In the last one year, RSS has intervened in a host of educational and cultural bodies like ICHR, ICSSR, NBT and Sahitya Academy. There is a concerted attempt to push the hindutva agenda in various spheres. Apart from this, the various BJP-led state governments have been tampering the school text books. This has gone hand-in-hand with outfits like ABVP’s planned efforts to communalize the campuses.

The democratic rights of students and teachers are being curbed. Other than in a few States, student union elections are not held and students are denied the minimum democratic right to organize. Lyngdhoh Committee recommendations with their stated aim of ensuring the democratic rights of the students have went on to become a tool of depoliticization in campuses and limiting the fighting capacity of the unions against the adverse ruling class policies. The recent derecognition order of Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle in IIT Madras at the behest of MHRD, is only a pointer to the situation of democratic rights under current regime.

It is in this background, that we have come together to launch joint movement with on the following issues:

Build pressure on Indian government so that it doesn’t agrees to give ‘market access’ to ‘higher education sub-sector’ in the upcoming Nairobi rounds of WTO-GATS.

No to the trident of CBCS, Semesterization and RUSA, which have become tools of commodification of education.

Increase public expenditure in education to 6% of GDP, 10% of central budget and 30% of state budgets.

Uphold democratic rights in campuses. Reject Lyngdhoh Committee recommendations. Bring legislation calling for compulsory students’ union elections in all institutions.

Free universal compulsory quality school education and strengthening facilities for preschool

Education.

Replace the RTE in its present form with a new legislation mandating fully public funded

school education. In the meanwhile, private schools can’t be given any leverage to deny the mandatory 25% seats for students from economically weaker sections.

Legislation to control fee structure and to ensure equal opportunities for students from socio-economically weaker sections in private institutions.

Stop the entry of foreign universities. No to FDI in education.

Ensure a secular, scientific and democratic educational system. No to any attempt of saffronisation of education.

We, the undersigned organizations, have come together to launch movement at the national level. Efforts will be made to bring students’ organizations and groups at the state, district and campus level who agrees with the basic understanding as outlined in this declaration.

ALL INDIA DEMOCRATIC STUDENTS ORGANISTAION (AIDSO)

ASHOK MISHRA –GENERAL SECRETARY

ALL INDIA STUDENTS ASSOCIATION (AISA)

SUCHETA DE- NATIONAL PRESIDENT

ALL INDIA STUDENTS FEDERATION (AISF)

VISHWAJEET- GENERAL SECRETARY

STUDENTS’ FEDERATION OF INDIA(SFI)

V.SIVADASAN- NATIONAL PRESIDENT

Details: Press Releases; 05 June 2015

SFI strongly condemns the police assault on students who gathered outside the gates of the Ministry of Human Resource Development to form the Ambedkar Periyar Forum in Delhi today. The Central Executive Committee (CEC) of SFI had given a call to form Ambedkar Periyar Forums in campuses across the country. It must be noted that after the derecognition of the Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle in IIT Madras, several such study circles have sprung up in campuses across India.

Today’s programme in Delhi met heavy police repression. A few minutes after the Study Circle was inaugurated, the students who had gathered peacefully were assaulted and pushed into the police bus. They were detained in the Parliament Street Police Station for several hours. SFI All India President Dr. V Sivadasan, All India Joint Secretary Dr. Vikram Singh and Delhi State Secretary Sunand were among those who were detained.

The entire episode betrayed the deep anxiety of the Central government on this issue. The derecognition of APSC is a reflection of the Hindutva fascistic powers’ attempts to curb democratic voices, and brought to light the deeply undemocratic nature of the so-called guidelines in several such institutes which deny students the basic fundamental rights of freedom of speech and freedom of association. Campus democracy is something that has been absent in many of our top notch institutes. The developments surrounding APSC and IIT Madras have also brought to the fore the reality of caste discrimination in our premier institutes. In the last few years, scores of students have committed suicides in many of the premier institutes due to caste discrimination.

The SFI CEC resolves to struggles on these issues and to carry them forward to their logical conclusion.

Released by

Dr. V Sivadasan (President)

Ritabrata Banerjee, M.P. (General Secretary)

Details: Press Releases; 04 June 2015

Central Executive Committee of STUDENTS’ Federation of India strongly condemns the brutal lathi charge on the student-youth protesters of SFI-DYFI who were protesting outside the IIT Madras against the derecongnition of a students’ body named Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle at the behest of the MHRD. It needs to be noted that the Human resource development ministry has clearly breached a Central Vigilance Commission guideline in forwarding an anonymous complaint to IIT Madras. After the amendment last November, CVC rules make it clear that government departments “should not take action on anonymous/pseudonym complaints”.

The manner in which the MHRD clearly reflects displeasure of the current RSS-BJP regime with ideas which question them. On the contrary numerous media reports have pointing to existence of associations like Vivekananda Study Circle in that very IIT Madras campus, which continue to propagate unscientific and irrational ideas. Such a dual approach in an institute of national repute which is supposed to stand for scientific growth and rationality completely unmasks the regressive and retrograde face of RSS-BJP. While it is the battle of ideas which has forced the MHRD to act in such a partisan manner, the whole episode has also brought to fore the deep alienation that the dalit students face today in the IITs.

We would like to declare that the façade of ‘politics not allowed in IITs’ doesn’t hold any ground when administration and ruling class continues to propagate its own politics and ideology through numerous associations. We appeal all democratic sections inside the IITs, as well outside to rally in support of campus democracy and freedom of speech.A battle of ideas in unfolding and all those who stand for progress and scientific attitude must not yield a single inch to the forces of regression.

Released by
Dr. V Sivadasan (President)
Ritabrata Banerjee, M.P. (General Secretary)