Press Releases

Details: Press Releases; 17 February 2015

Central Executive Committee of Students’ Federation of India will be organising a national rally on 26ht February, 2015 at parliament against commercialisation and Communalisation of education in which thousands of the students from different states of the nation will participate.

In the education sector BJP government is pursuing the same agenda of commercialisation. But more dangerously central government is also taking agenda of communalisation of education very seriously.

MHRD has issued a notice to universities to strengthen semester system and to implement ‘Choice Based Credit System’. This CBCS is nothing but the blue print of the provisions of FYUP to be completed in three years. This reflects the commitment of this government to the same agenda and withdrawal of FYUP only a political stunt. The CBCS is only a cafeteria-approach based system which is designed facilitates “seamless student-mobility” between courses and universities. It is identical in its course structure to the FYUP (repeat pattern of Foundation, Core and Elective Courses), except the fourth year. Basically this system is designed on the basis of American system which runs on students’ loan and on the shoulders of add-on professors (contractual). This is only to woo and facilitate the foreign institution in India. BJP government is carrying forward the problematic campaign ‘RUSA’. There is much discussion on the provisions of RUSA. But the experience of its implementation has proved our concerns. In the states where it is fully implemented like Himachal Pradesh and Assam, there a colossal discontentment is there in student and teaching faculty. Whole of the education process right from class room teaching to evaluation of examination is in pathetic condition

Indian education system is already over commercialised, which is having adverse impact on the reach of students from poor and middle class. Presently contrary to the general belief our education system is running by the private players whose motive is only to cater degrees and earn profits. Even after the implementation of Right to Education through long struggles the pace of privatisation is on increase. This private education is not only commercial but also unequal as private schools never follows the norms of social justice. This privatisation is on continuous rise. In the year 2005 there were 17% private school in rural India. This percentage rouse up to 27% in 2013 and this number has reached to 30.8% in 2014. Percentage of girls and boys clearly conveys the impact of privatisation of education on girls. In 2014, in the age group 7-10 years, 35.6% of boys are enrolled in private schools as compared with 27.7% of girls. For the age group of 11-14 years, 33.5% of boys are in private schools as compared to 25.9% of girls.

The pace of privatisation is more rapid in the area of higher studies. More than half of the students’ enrolled in higher education today are under private educational institutions. 66% of students in general education and 75-80% in technical education are enrolled in private, self-financing institutions. Commercialization of education has already led to huge distortions in the educational landscape, both social as well as spatial. Education priorities cannot be left to vagaries of market forces. Commercialization entails that quality education becomes synonymous with affordability. The goals of equity and inclusion, the fundamental pillars of policy making in any democracy, might be the first casualties if unbridled profit making is instituted as a norm for the educational institutions in the private sector.

Central government is not ready to increase the budgetary allocation on education which was quite evident in the first budget of this government. Even in the revised budget estimates for year 14-15 government has reduced the funds on higher education to the extent of Rs. 3900 crore.

If we analyse the developments of last six months intension of RSS/BJP becomes clear. Much has been discussed about the political commitment of BJP to this agenda of communalisation of education and acceptance by BJP leaders in open and even in parliament. Leaders of the BJP are on record announcing their intention to change the textbooks and syllabus. In the last NDA government these kinds of efforts were also there. But present BJP government is much more aggressive and staunch. Because presently Prime Minister is heading the comparing and teaching new science not only to general public but also to the topmost doctors and scientists of India.

This is the burning situation of Indian education system which is n more deteriorating in the BJP regime. Being a responsible students’ organisation it’s our responsible to take the challenge and organise students against these policies to wage a strong struggle. Keeping this in mind SFI has launched a nationwide struggle against the commercialisation and Communalisation of education. Taking this forward this march will be organised.

Released by

Dr. V. Sivadasan

President

Ritabrata Banerjee, MP

General Secratary

Details: Press Releases; 07 January 2015

Central executive committee of the Students’ federation of India calls all its units across the country to rise in protest against the red carpet welcome to the US President Barrack Obama in the upcoming Republic Day celebrations.Republic day is a very important day for the entire Country, as on this date in 1950 Our Constitution was formally adopted. It is not mere coincidence that Barrack Obama, a representative of the aggressions of US imperialism and its war crimes, is going to be our ‘national guest’ at a time when the Modi regime is hell bent on undoing the very foundations of Indian Constitution. This represents the collusion of the interests of the Indian ruling class and the US-led imperialism to such a degree that national sovereignty and national interest no longer matter for them.

US-led imperialism has been destabilising governments through military interventions in Countries like Iraq, Libya, Syria and elsewhere. It continues to support the Israeli aggression over the brave people of Palestine. Such military interventions have led to the rise of monstrous extremist forces like ISIS which is a threat to peace in the region, including ours. Brutal attacks on the protests in Ferguson recently clearly demonstrate the credentials of the US regime as a human rights violator. India has now become one of the most important centres in the geo-strategic concerns of US, with a substantial part of its naval and military resources being shifted to the region.

Indian government has completely tailed the US foreign policy, in its attempts to protect the interests of the Indian big businesses and monopoly capitalists. The desperation is so huge that ordinances to increase FDI in insurance sector to 49%, to allow 100% FDI in medical devicesin the Pharmaceutical sector and to denationalise the Coals sector were unconstitutionally brought. Earlier during the Modi’s visit to US in September, the Foreign Educational Institutions’ (FEI) bill was one of the main things on agenda. Besides this, there are plans to allow US intervention in course designing and faculty training, in developing community colleges which help prepare uncritical ‘skilled’ workers according to the interests of the big businesses and in developing massive online courses (which will ease out the pressure on government to expand public education.)

There is strong pressure of the US to weaken the patents regime in India to benefit the US drug companies, so that they can sell drugs in India at high prices. America’s pressures that India to give up its food security programme by undermining public procurement and the public distribution system. It is pressuring India to weaken laws that protect labour rights and environment, to benefit US corporations. The Obama-Modi efforts to dilute the civil nuclear liability law to favour US nuclear companies are also quite clear.

The ‘Nation’ who’s Guest of Honour will be Obama is not the nation of the Students, workers, peasants and the overwhelming majority; it is the ‘Nations’ of the monopoly capitalists, the agents and the looters. It is the duty of all patriotic forces to rally against this bonhomie of the RSS-BJP led regime and US imperialism. Central Executive Committee of Students Federation of India calls all its Units to organize militant protest demonstrations on the 24th January against Obama’s visit and expose this unholy alliance.

Released by

Dr. V. Sivadasan Ritabrata Banerjee

President General Secretary

Details: Press Releases; 04 January 2015

SFI strongly condemns the mindless violence by the police, Rapid Action Force (RAF), and TMC
goons against students in Jadavpur University (JU) on Tuesday night. The condition of two students is critical. Students were demanding fresh enquiry into a case of molestation of a girl student in the campus which occurred last month. The enquiry process in the case had been seriously compromised after several enquiry committee members, instead of investigating the case, questioned the woman complainant about “what she was wearing”, “was she drunk” etc. The outraged students have been staging protests for quite some time now demanding justice in the particular case and demanding the formation of an institution like GSCASH to deal with cases of sexual harassment. The meeting of the Executive Council was scheduled to be held on 16 September. The students had organised a set-in and demonstration in front of the administrative building, and gheraoed the VC demanding the inclusion of two external members in the enquiry committee. But during their peaceful demonstration, a group of TMC-led employees’ union members tried to evict them forcefully, and even beat up some of the students. The Vice-Chancellor Abhijit Chakraborty showed a vindictive attitude towards his own students and called the police to evict them. The police indiscriminately lathi charged the students, and several woman protestors were molested by the policemen. 37 students have been arrested and 17 have been injured. In protest, the students went for road blockade. SFI has called for state-wide students’ strike on 18 September. The students of JU have called strike for an indefinite period. The students brought out a huge rally demanding the resignation of Abhijit Chakraborty, a loyalist of the TMC who was in the past chosen by the ruling party to hush up a huge financial scam in a B.Ed. College by holding a sham enquiry.
SFI reiterates the demand that bodies like GSCASH be formed on an immediate basis
in all colleges and universities across the country. Struggles for this purpose have been
taking place in campuses all over India in the recent past, including an important movement led by SFI in Pondicherry University. The latest violence by ruling class hooligans and the police has once again exposed the TMC’s intolerance towards any kind of dissent, and its evident contempt towards the cause of gender justice. The TMC’s attempts to crush student resistance against its policies using brutal violence will not go unpunished.

Details: Press Releases; 24 December 2014

The Central Executive Committee of SFI strongly condemns the cold blooded murder of forty eight Adivasis, including women and children in the Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District (BTAD) in Assam. It is not the first time that the region is witnessing such gruesome violence. The National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) is attempting an ethnic cleansing of the area, by merciless massacres of the non Bodo population. Eye witness accounts of the activists from SFI who are trying to assist the affected people confirm the miserable failure of the state in protecting the lives and livelihoods of the people of the BTAD.

The Congress government of Assam has miserably failed in protecting right to life of the residents of the BTAD. There should be immediate action to curb the activities of NDFB. There is an urgent need to assist the people who are fleeing from their homes and villages, fearing further escalation in ethnic violence. SFI urges all progressive sections to stand in solidarity with the affected people.

V Sivadasan Ritabrata Banerjee,
President. General Secretary.