Five posers to the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad

Delhi University students protesting on Thursday at Delhi Police HQ at ITO posed the following five questions to the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP):

Is asking for Azaadi from Manuwad anti-national? By what stretch of imagination can shouting slogans like ‘Bastar Maange Azaadi’ (Bastar seeks freedom), ‘Bhookhmari se Azaadi’ (Freedom from hunger) or ‘Jaatiwad se Azaadi’ (Freedom from casteism) be described as anti-national as is being done by the ABVP?

Does ABVP believe in agitating under police protection? While student activists the world over find themselves at the receiving end of police batons, Members of the ABVP seem to be on friendly terms with the police everywhere. Kanwal Preet Kaur, President of DU unit of AISA lashed out at police crackdown, “The miscreants are easily identifiable but police did not arrest them. Instead they wielded the lathi on us. ABVP congratulated policemen…” A teacher of Delhi School of Economics recalled that when he saw a member of the ABVP hurl a stone which injured a processionist who started bleeding, he had complained to the policemen. They gave him a cold look and said they had not seen who had hurled the stone.

Does ABVP believe in defaming colleges, students and teachers? ABVP is accused of spreading disinformation through their WhatsApp groups and on social media. While Ramjas College, just as JNU earlier, is presented as a hub of anti-national activity, Prashant Mukherjee, president of DU unit of Student Federation of India (SFI) complains, “ABVP activists have been spreading a rumour that that I am not a student of DU and I am an outsider but it is not true. I am doing my research from the university.”

Why can’t ABVP protest peacefully? “They use violence as a method to achieve their goals,” alleged a student demonstrator on Thursday. “Recently when we held a meeting on justice for a fellow student Najeeb missing from JNU, they attacked us and disrupted the programme. There are many videos on the internet that establish their proclivity to violence,” alleged another student. ABVP had also violently disrupted the screening of a documentary, “Muzaffarnagar Baki Hai”.

Why are ABVP’s events never attacked or disrupted? An agitated student wondered why events organised by the ABVP on campus are always smooth and peaceful. “It is because all of us opposed to the ABVP protest peacefully and do not believe in disruption or violence,” he explained. “On 9th of January this year ABVP organised a seminar on Ram Mandir controversy in which BJP leader Subramaniam Swamy was invited as the chief guest; pointed out another protester. “We are opposed to this movement but we did not even think of disrupting the event,” he added.

Also see ‘Why is ABVP afraid of the war in Adivasi areas?’