Student Youth Unions and Organisations Launch National Platform Against BJP Govt.

Various student unions, youth organisations, and movements have come together to create a national platform against the Narendra Modi-led central government. The platform has given a call for a Chhatra-Yuva Adhikar March in the first week of February, inspired by the Kisan Mukti March that saw tens of thousands of farmers from over the country flood the streets of the capital.

The organisations constituting the platform include All India Students’ Association (AISA), Chatra-Yuva Sangharsh Samiti (CYSS), Youth for Swaraj, Students for Society (SFS), Yuva JDS, Samajwadi Chattra Sabha, and others.

Meanwhile, various other student organisations, including Students’ Federation of India (SFI), All India Students’ Federation (AISF), and other left-leaning students’ organisations, are going ahead with their earlier call for a protest march on February 18 and 19, raising similar demands.

In a statement, the platform said, “It has always been pointed out that the strongest support base of Narendra Modi has been the first-time voters- the students and youth who reposed their faith in him after being promised the best educational opportunities and two crore jobs per year. But it is often forgotten that as soon as the RSS-backed government showed its real anti-academic character, these university students were the first to sound the bugle of revolt against the government.”

They also pointed out in the statement that how in the four-and-a-half years of Modi regime, students in dozens of campuses, including JNU (Jawaharlal Nehru University), FTII (Film and Television Institute of India), BHU (Banaras Hindu University), and Punjab University, have braved through sedition cases, brutal crackdowns by the administrations, and rustications. At the same time, the government’s anti-youth and inefficient policies have led to a further increase in the unemployment rate all over the country, which in turn led to a rise in the movements by students applying for jobs in the public sector.

Also Read: From Assertion March to Victory March: Punjab Varsity Bows to Student Protests

Charter of Demands

The platform is all set to start a political movement against the government’s failure to deliver his promise of job creation, or even fill the existing vacancies, in the hopes that this movement by the agitated youth from all over the country will decrease, if not completely demolish, the strong support base for Modi amongst the urban youth. In the charter of demands released today December 28, the forum has taken on the government for being the only government which has spent the least amount of budget on education, closing down of government schools, assaults on students from the minority/marginalised communities in university campuses, etc.

Also Read: 4 Years of Systematic Destruction of Education Under Modi Regime

The charter has also put forth demands such as immediate increase in the number of government jobs, allocation of 10 per cent of budget on education, fulfilling constitutionally mandated reservations among other demands.

The charter was signed by over 40 youth and student led organisations. Speaking with NewsClick, N. Sai Balaji, President of the JNU Student’s Union said, “The focus is to make the issue an election agenda, and the forum is a show of solidarity against the dictatorial tactics of the BJP government.”
Speaking with NewsClick, Vikas Bhadauria, Delhi State President of the Student’s Federation of India (SFI) said, “The idea was for all the students and the youth movements to come together to form a forum, but we had some differences. There is a sense of division in the movement given the parallel campaign.”