Sanghi Attempts of Legitimizing its communal Agenda Faces Opposition from Students

Down with Sangh Parivar and BJP’s Use of State and Administrative Machinery for Imposition, Infiltration And Indoctrination of Its Communal Agenda In Academic Spaces!

Following close on the heels of attempts to accord academic legitimacy to Baba Ramdev by inviting him as a keynote speaker in a conference in JNU, the Delhi University has now allowed its premises to be used by a VHP led organaisation for a seminar to garner support for constructing a Ramjanambhoomi temple in Ayodhya.

Prof. Sandeep Pandey, a respected academician and social activist has recently been kicked out of his job in IIT-BHU, on the grounds of his political beliefs. A well-known campaigner for universal education and democratic rights, he has been a vocal and consistent opponent of communalism, displacement in the name of ‘development’, mindless nuclearisation and feudal oppression.

Just a couple of days back, the entire state machinery in Pune was brutally deployed to lathi charge, assault and arrest peacefully protesting students in FTII, in order to somehow install Gajendra Chauhan in the institution.

In Hyderabad Central University, Dalit students have been evicted from hostels and rusticated simply for protesting against entrenched Brahminicial caste hierarchies in campusus and in our society.

All these incidents currently unfolding in different parts of the country are proof enough that the process of infiltration, imposition and indoctrination continues unabated.

DU Hosting Ramjanambhoomi ‘Seminar’

For decades now, the Ramjanambhoomi issue has been used by the Sangh Parivar to spread its communal agenda of hatred and division. Now, once again we are seeing concerted attempts by the Sangh Parivar to milk this issue. This time around, as the BJP-RSS completely control the state machinery, we are seeing the deliberate and dangerous use of academic spaces in publicly funded universities as platforms to take forward this communal-fascist agenda. A two-day seminar to be held in the Delhi University on 9-10 January has been announced with a stated agenda to ‘mobilize public opinion for the Ram Janmbhoomi Temple’.

A private body, the Arundhati Vashishtha Anusandhan Peeth (affiliated to the VHP) is organising this seminar. It has obtained ‘permission’ to conduct this proposed ‘seminar’ in DU’s Arts Faculty. The fact that the DU administration has allowed the use of its space and infrastructure for this ‘seminar’ has to be seen in context. To begin with, the agenda of the proposed ‘seminar’ makes it abundantly clear that it is hardly academic in nature. For a well-known, publicly funded university to allow the misuse of not just its space but its academic credentials and legitimacy for this purpose is indeed dangerous. Secondly, the DU administration cannot escape responsibililty for this by claiming that it has nothing to do with the ‘seminar’, especially because the credentials and powers of a DU AC member (the DU AC is of course an administrative body) has been invoked to allow this seminar to happen in DU. Thirdly, let us not forget that the very same DU administration, which has allowed this ‘seminar’, has been over the years denying permission to the elected DUTA for holding even its GBMs. It has several times not allowed students’ organizations to use DU’s halls and rooms for programs. Even the use of DU’s small activity center has been snatched away. And now the same administration is bending over backwards to allow a clearly divisive campaign to use its space. This simply cannot be tolerated.

Resist the insidious process of saffron infiltration and indoctrination

We are continuously witnessing the systemic imposition of communal hate ideology in our academic spaces.

On the one hand, the BJP government is systematically slashing funds for education, restricting access to higher education and curtailing the scope of fellowships. On the other hand, the legitimacy of public spaces such as Universities and reputed academic institutions is being used and harnessed to further the agenda of the RSS-BJP. Be it Y. Sudarshan Rao‘s appointment in ICHR, or the forcible imposition of Gajendra Chauhan and other ABVP-RSS karyakartas in FTII and elsewhere, there is ample evidence of this process. Students and institutions across the country are bearing the brunt of these twin assualts, even as certain sections of those in power in these institutions are more than happy to kow-tow to this agenda, in order to curry favour with the ruling dispension. These assaults have to be resisted tooth and nail.