Mayukh Biswas
Educate all, employ all, and unite all – is the slogan of the 17th all India conference of the SFI. Even after seven decades of independence, India has not been able to ensure that all its children can go to school. What is all the more shocking is that even access to education has become a distant dream for many at present. In the global hunger index for the year 2022, India ranked 107 which means that the country is home to the greatest number of children who go to bed with an empty stomach every day.
In this situation, SFI organised its 17th all India conference at Osmania University in Hyderabad with 709 delegates. Thousands of students bearing the flags of ‘Independence, Democracy and Socialism’ marched through the streets of Necklace Road, Hyderabad on December 13, prior to the public meeting that happened at People’s Plaza. But the scene of people marching with white flags in a long line wasn’t the only exciting part of the public meeting. It was also the powerful words of Manik Sarkar, former Tripura chief minister and founding joint secretary of SFI who inaugurated the meeting. All these comrades who reached from various parts of India were eagerly waiting for the words of their former leader.
Murthy, Telangana state president of SFI welcomed the gathering. Nagaraju, SFI state secretary addressing the meeting spoke about the legacy of Hyderabad’s student movement which started from the times of Telangana Armed Struggle. Nagaraju later invited the all India president, VP Sanu to preside over the meeting.
Addressing the meeting, Manik Sarkar offered his heartfelt greetings to the fighting comrades from different state units of SFI. Being in the midst of students is a proud moment, he added. He said, this conference is taking place in a challenging time when the entire country is going through a complex crisis which is getting worse by each day. Starting from the education sector, each sector is being attacked like never before. Prosperity and advancement of the country is clearly under attack by the RSS-BJP Regime. The National Education Policy (NEP) is undoubtedly an attack on the existing education system, he observed. Through the NEP, they are trying to divide the entire student community into elite and non-elite, majority and minority sections to avoid any collective student movement against the anti-student activities of the current regime. BJP led central government is constantly trying their level best to handover education to the hands of private capital. He congratulated the SFI for being the first and foremost student organisation to raise its voice against this draconian education policy. He also emphasised the importance of a collective struggle that should happen against the NEP. He hoped that as the future youth force of this country, SFI will be able to lead that struggle. He also mentioned about the need for a broader united force against the RSS-BJP. Isolating and defeating BJP both ideologically and politically should go simultaneously. He recalled that in 1936, when the organised student movement was formed, it ignited the fires of freedom in several minds of the nation. He added that the conference will give directions to the student struggles for the same. Mayukh Biswas, addressed the meeting and told the delegates from different parts of the country that, “We may be divided by languages, but we are united by our struggles for justice, the struggle that is of SFI”. Dipsita Dhar also addressed the public meeting. Shaik John Basheer, SFI CEC member delivered vote of thanks.
VP Sanu hoisted the conference flag, which was brought from Idukki Engineering College where Comrade Dheeraj was martyred. The delegates and other comrades paid tributes to the martyrs column. The delegate session of the 17th SFI all India conference was inaugurated by Justice K Chandru and Teesta Setalvad at the Dheeraj-Abhimanyu-Anish Khan Manch of Mallu Swarajyam Nagar. SFI all India president VP Sanu presided the session. Martyrs resolution and Condolence resolution were placed in the inaugural session of the conference. Justice Chandru began his inaugural speech by remembering his SFI days. Justice Chandru was a delegate in the first all India conference of SFI held at Trivandrum in 1970. He was one of the founder leaders of SFI in Tamil Nadu. He recollected his experiences of working with Manik Sarkar, Biman Basu, MA Baby, the early leaders of SFI. With pride, he stated that the foundation of his later life was deeply influenced by the orientation he gained through SFI. Justice Chandru also pointed out the challenges before Indian democracy in the present times under the Sangh Parivar regime. He reiterated the need for united struggles to protect the constitutional values and the secular fabric of the country.
In her inaugural speech, Teesta Setalvad congratulated the student community for the struggles they waged. She was addressing the conference through a video message. She reminded the delegates about the Occupy UGC movement of 2015, which became the first organised resistance against the anti student policies of Modi regime.
Rajendran, father of martyr Comrade Dheeraj and Sabeer Khan, brother of martyr Comrade Anish Khan handed over the SFI flag at the17th all India conference and inspired the conference. Justice Chandru released the document ‘Status of Education’ published by SFI central executive committee by handing it over to Shejina Basheer and Nilanjan Dutta.
‘Bring back to classrooms’ was a major campaign we undertook during the pandemic years. Many students were forced to drop their studies due to the pandemic, most of them being women, dalits and adivasi students. SFI will continue the struggles against fee hike and discrimination based on class, caste and gender. Recently, SFI expanded to new areas. But we have to build movement among students in professional courses. Also, SFI will have to focus on new areas like sports, environment. We will strengthen and expand our organisation in the Hindi belt as well as the North eastern states of the country, and transform our organisation from ‘organisation of organisers’ to ‘organisation of student masses’, focusing on local issue-based sustained movements in all these states. Also Indian students studying in various countries also face multiple challenges. We have started forming units in foreign countries. This will be expanded to more countries. We need to engage more in the ideological struggle to unite students against the politics of hate. All these were discussed in detail in the conference.
The leaders of AISF, AISA, PSU and AIDSO greeted our conference. This time we also invited fraternal delegates from other countries. Malena Rojas spoke on behalf of student-youth movement of Cuba. Dipak Sil, general secretary of Bangladesh Students Union and Aditi Shrishty, general secretary of Bangladesh Chhatra Moiti addressed the session. Apoorva Gautam spoke on behalf of the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement for Palestine. Also student leaders from Palestine, South Africa, Argentina, Belgium, Young Communist League London, Pakistan, Swaziland, Left Progressive activists of Indonesia and the US also sent messages to our all India conference. For the first time in the history of SFI all India conferences, the daily conference supplement of Student Struggle was brought out. The supplement was released by the former all India leadership of SFI. The conference edition of Student Struggle was also released. The calendars for the delegates were given to Arya Prasad, sister of martyr Comrade Ajay Prasad.
The delegate session was greeted by former SFI all India leadership on the second day. MA Baby and Y Venkateswara Rao, former all India presidents , Nilotpal Basu and Vikram Singh, former all India general secretaries, greeted the delegates. Leaders of fraternal organisations of DYFI, CITU, AIDWA, NPRD, AARM, AIAWU also greeted the conference.
The conference passed 36 resolutions – for world peace; for restoration of campus democracy; against the dismantling of UGC; against NEP2020; against the withdrawal of Maulana Azad National Fellowship; against increasing violence on women and assaults on dalits and minorities. 89 comrades along with 30 girl comrades participated in the discussions on the report which lasted for 8 hours and 45 minutes in the four day all India conference. The conference elected an 81 member- CEC and re-elected VP Sanu as president and Mayukh Biswas as general secretary.
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