Under the banner of ‘United Students of India’, 15 student organisations jointly gave a call for march to the parliament on 12th January 2024. This concluded into a gathering of thousands of students at Jantar Matar from all across India. The platform ‘United Students of India’ included the following organisations: AISA, AISB, AISF, CRJD, CYSS, DMK Student Wing, Dravidian Students’ Federation, DSF, NSUI, PSF, PSU, SFI, Samajwadi Chatra Sabha, Satro Mukti Sangram Samiti, and Tribal Students’ Union.
It is a unique moment in history in which all these organisations have come together to form a larger alliance with the slogan, “Save Education, Reject NEP. Save INDIA, Reject BJP.” The slogan itself reflects the mood of the students today and it is quite evident from this march that students realise in order to save their education, they must reject the NEP and in order to save India, the nation, they must reject the BJP. This apt slogan has been taken up at a very crucial time when the next Lok Sabha elections are going to take place soon and the only way to save the education and the nation is by rejecting the BJP government and its policies. These ideas become clearer as we see the progression of the gathering that happened on 12th January at Jantar Mantar.
Students In Action 1.0
The public meeting at the Parliament March began with VP Sanu, All India President of Students Federation of India, delivering the welcome note. In his note, he called various things done by the BJP government in the recent times undemocratic, he said, “A security breach happened in the parliament and instead of investigating the breach, the BJP government decided to suspend the opposition Ministers who were raising pertinent questions. Modi ji, you call India the mother of democracy but you yourself have given the warrant for killing of this democracy. This is a protest against that.”
While concluding the welcome note, he said, “This protest will not end here, it will continue. It will reach people, it will reach students, it will reach schools and campuses, it will reach villages. From there we will start to build a new India and that India will be secular, democratic, and it will preserve the federal values. It will ensure the rights of the students. We need a new India for that, and for that we need to reject the BJP.”
Leaders from all the different organisations spoke at the rally, addressing similar concerns related to the deteriorating situation of the education system of the country. They also spoke about the constant attack of the BJP government on the ethos and the principles of the Indian constitution. How the secular fabric is being torn apart and religion is being used by the current government to divide the people and students from focussing on material problems of education, employment, inflation, etc.
Sujit, Secretary of Tripura Students Union, spoke about the situation of North-East India and how the government has completely failed to provide any relief in Tripura or even have a future plan to make things better. Talking about the situation of education in the country, he said, “The BJP is not running a democracy, it is running a monarchy. It doesn’t want to provide the people with equal education rights. The people have long fought against this kind of monarchy and have won and similarly, through this march and the united platform, the students will emerge victorious against Modi as well.”
Near the end of the gathering, Mayukh Biswas, General Secretary of Students’ Federation of India, gave a fiery speech that re-energized the crowd to burst into hooting and interrupted him with applause. To directly quote him from the beginning of his speech, “Sita mata ro rahi hai, Sanghiyon tumhare kaam se. Saare desh ko loot liya, unke pati ke naam se.” (Mother Sita is crying because of the kind of things Sanghi or the RSS-BJP is doing. They looted the whole country in the name of Mother SIta’s husband, Ram.)
He reached the concluding point of his speech by saying that we believe in the legacy of the slogan ‘Tebhaga, Telangana, Punnapra-Vayalar! EMS, Jyoti Basu, Sundarraya Zindabad’. He concluded, “We selected today to conduct this march because it is the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekanand and the death anniversary of the freedom fighter Surya Sen. We follow the legacy of these great social reformers, freedom fighters, and revolutionaries while they believe in the legacy of the British stooge Savarkar. The battle line is drawn, on one side it is us who want to save the nation and on the other side it is them, who want to sell the nation. We have to fight this fight, there is no other option.”
The public meeting came to an end with Dipshita Dhar, All India Joint Secretary of SFI, reading out the final demands of the protesting students. The charter of demand read as follow:
- Reject National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, National Eligibility cum Entrance Test, and Common University Entrance Test.
- Enact Bhagat Singh National Employment Guarantee Act, ensure education and employment for all.
- Resist fee hikes and ensure free, quality education from kindergarten to post-graduation.
- Resist communalisation-commercialisation-centralisation of education. Uphold the democratic secular progressive scientific temperament in education.
- Protect and create rights and opportunities for Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), Other Backward Castes (OBCs), and other marginalised groups in education and employment. Implement reservation policy in the private sector.
- Enact the Rohith Act and stop discrimination based on caste and economic status.
- Establish GSCASH on every campus- Make all educational institutions free from sexual harassment and gender discrimination. Form committees against sexual harassment as directed by the Supreme Court in all educational institutions.
- Conduct Students’ Union Election on all campuses. Ensure the democratic rights of the academic community.
- Roll back Agnipath scheme.
With this the protest came to an end with revolutionary songs being performed by the music group of DASTAK, a students’ cultural organisation. Before summing up, another rally as an extension to this march was announced. The rally will take place in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, on 1st February 2024.
Students In Action 2.0
The United Students of India carried forward their unity from the national capital all the way to Chennai, Tamil Nadu. The second installment of the rally by United Students of India: Students In Action 2..0, took place in Royapuram, Chennai. Minister of Youth Welfare and Sports Development of Tamil Nadu, Udhayanidhi Stalin inaugurated the rally.
The rally concluded with a public meeting where the representatives and leaders of the 15 students organisation addressed the gathering. On behalf of SFI, All India President VP Sanu addressed highlighting how the RSS-BJP-led Central Government has dismantled public education, and how the current regime is misusing the state apparatus like the position of governor to carry an attack on the federal structure.
Along with VP Sanu, SFI Tamil Nadu State Secretary G Aravindhaswamy addressed the gathering talking about the necessity for a progressive and democratic student community to save the nation from the current fascist regime and to take the fight against NEP strongly in order to defend public education.
Students In Action 3.0
Carrying forward the momentum from the first two rallies, a third rally was organised in Kolkata, West Bengal by the United Students of India on March 6. Two large processions of students marching from Howrah Station and Sealdah station met at College Street.
The public meeting began at College street with students as far as one could see. The gathering was addressed by the representatives and the leaders of all the 15 student organisations. They spoke and reiterated the demands of the United Students of India. The demands that were announced in the first action were reiterated with the same force and enthusiasm. The leaders of the 15 organisations made it clear through their speeches about how pertinent it has become for any party that forms the government at the center to take into consideration the demands of the students. Their voices clearly expressed their discontent with the BJP government and its approach and policies towards education in India.
Mayukh Biswas, All India Secretary of SFI, in his speech demanded a complete scrapping of the New Education Policy and demanded an immediate stop to the BJP government’s attempt to privatise education.
These three actions by the United Students of India were successful in making the stance of the students clear to the whole nation. These three rallies made the statement that students completely reject the moves by RSS-BJP to dismantle the system of public education through Commercialisation, Communalisation, and Centralisation and gave a call to all the students of the nation to unite under the banner of United Students of India and to raise the slogan- “Save Education, Reject NEP. Save INDIA, Reject BJP.”