NSI Statement On Unleashing of ABVP Violence in Delhi University
The Ramjas College of University of Delhi, and wider campus of the
university are under siege. Members of the ABVP, the student group
affiliated to RSS, have unleashed an open terror. They attacked a
seminar organised by the English Department and Literary Society of the
college on 22 February, threw stones on the college conference hall, and
physically and verbally attacked students and teachers of the college.
The following day, they were even more violent. They held students and
teachers of the college hostage by not allowing them to march to the
local police station against the previous day's happenings. Violent
threats were openly given against two teachers of the college, and like
the previous day, students and teachers were abused and threatened.
Outside the college, they attacked students and teachers of other
colleges and universities of the city, who had gathered in solidarity
with students and teachers of the college, and against ABVP violence.
Scores received serious injuries. A dangerous low was reached when
student members of the ABVP were seen physically attacking their own
teachers. Delhi police has acted as a mute agent of ABVP terror. It did
not arrest ABVP members when they attacked the Ramjas college seminar,
threatened its students and teachers, and assaulted others the next day.
In fact, police personnel joined the attackers, and also attacked
journalists covering the violence.
ABVP violence is the result of careful planning, training, and crucial
support from state functionaries of the Modi government, whose Home
Ministry directly controls Delhi Police. Unlike other universities like
JNU and HCU, which have seen ABVP aggression in recent times, DU has
been a centre of ABVP politics for decades. It has won many student
union elections. However, this level of violence is unprecedented. It is
well known for decades that RSS trains its cadres for visceral hatred
and violence against minorities. ABVP members at a place like Delhi
University have now also been successfully trained for direct physical
assault on other students and teachers. It is a new high for fascist
organisational skills of the RSS and BJP. They have a group of storm
troopers, ready to terrorise and physically assault in open day light
anyone who does not agree with, or opposes, RSS and BJP.
A university is a rare space in the caste ridden, patriarchal and
communalised society of India, which provides the youth to interact
freely with students and teachers of diverse backgrounds, to learn and
critically think about diverse aspects of society, and develop as
autonomous social agents. Radical social reformers like Phule and
Ambedkar had long recognised the importance of modern education for the
oppressed, and its potential to challenge existing social hierarchies.
The recent expansion of higher education in the country has seen
millions of first generation students from oppressed castes, minorities,
and women joining universities like DU. The relative openness of a
university space allows for radical questioning of hierarchies, and
explains why the social environment in universities can be liberal and
encourage growth of radical politics. At present, when the state
ideology in India has become neoliberal, and an expanding capitalism has
created a receptive atmosphere for the rightwing politics, it is
precisely radical politics against caste and patriarchy, and the radical
left which demands abolition of class rule, which stand most forcefully
in the way of the overall subjugation of India under the fascist Hindu
Rashtra programme of the RSS and BJP. This also explains why
universities are critical for the RSS, and why since the BJP came to
power at the Centre it has targeted groups like Ambedkar Periyar Study
Circle at IIT Madras, Rohith Vemula's organisation, Ambedkar Students'
Association at HCU, JNU, and now students and teachers at Ramjas College
and DU who do not agree with them. The most recent case of suspending a
member of the faculty at Jodhpur's Jai Narain Vyas University for
something as basic as inviting Nivedita Menon for an academic conference
exposes the extent of their insecurity well.
It needs to be recognised that the RSS/BJP politics is fundamentally
different from other forms of authoritarian politics. Its success lies
in turning violent authoritarianism into the politics of mass
mobilisation. It was worked on for decades on the religious, communal
and caste prejudices of Hindus to build an expanding core of supporters.
More recently, it has clothed itself in the flag of nationalism to
brand its opponents as anti-national. In reality, the Hindu Rashtra of
RSS/BJP would be a prison house of hatred and violence against any
freedom and equality. It would impose a nationalist test on everyone. It
would mobilise Hindus for violence against minorities, oppressed castes
and those in Kashmir and the North-East who question the impositions
and brutal use of military force by the Indian State there.
None of this is being taken lying down and resistance has been growing,
whether in the 139-day strike of the students of FTII, the anti-caste
movement that emerged in HCU following the institutional murder of
Rohith Vemula or the battle that continues to this day in JNU. The
confrontation in DU is simultaneously testimony to the fierce resistance
offered by the broader university community in rejecting the terror
tactics of the ABVP. NSI calls upon the student and teacher community of
Delhi University to not be cowed down by this blatant exercise of
muscle power by the ABVP. It is an opportunity to think clearly about
the actual game plan of the RSS/BJP, and not be taken in by any slogan
of false and violent nationalism. Students and teachers of DU need to
come together and think of effective ways to counter ABVP terror on
campus.
All left, progressive and liberal forces in campus need to plan for
mobilising the widest sections of students, who wish to use
opportunities at DU for learning and critical thinking, and are seeing
ABVP terror as an attack on their freedom.
NSI demands that:
1. Appropriate legal action be taken against ABVP members who indulged
in violence and attacked students and teachers of Ramjas college and
University of Delhi.
2. Delhi police officials who connived with the ABVP, and did not take immediate and appropriate action be punished.
3. Authorities of the University of Delhi, Ramjas College and all other
colleges of DU must provide a secure environment for learning and
questioning, holding extra-curricular activities like seminars on all
issues, and for all students and teachers to express their opinions and
organise without fear.
