Jaipur: In an unprecedented partisan act, the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Institute of Technology (SVNIT) Surat has associated itself with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to organise an All India NIT Students’ Conference. The move has attracted criticism from other students’ organisations.
The conference will discuss “issues and find reforms that can be inculcated in NITs in the interest of the student community”. Talks will also be held on “nationalism” and “making India great” among others. It is scheduled for September 14 and 15.
The collaboration has attracted criticism because the institute does not allow student politics or the presence of political student organisations on campus. While the institute does have student elections, candidates who contest are not affiliated to any students’ organisations.
In such a scenario, rival students’ organisations accused the NIT Surat of siding with the ruling dispensation by allowing the ABVP to conduct a conference.
The CPI(M) aligned Students’ Federation of India (SFI) has termed the development “shameful.” It condemned the NIT Surat, an institute of national importance, for becoming “a platform of the ABVP”. The SFI said while the NIT discourages any kind of student protests on campus, why should it join hands with the right-wing student party for the conference.
“The Bharatiya Janta Party’s agenda to saffronise institutions in the country has been revealed yet again. The NIT administration has officially associated with the ABVP and allowed them to use the prestigious NIT logo as well,” said V.P. Sanu, SFI national president.
Mayukh Biswas, the SFI’s general secretary, told The Wire that the Ministry of Human Resource Development and the NIT Surat’s administration must say on what ground they have officially associated with the ABVP to organise the Conference. “We demand that this association be immediately withdrawn and strict action be taken against the concerned officials of the institute,” he added.
The ABVP, on the other hand, said their association with the institutes to organise events is not new.
Ashish Chauhan, the ABVP’s national general secretary, told The Wire that the organisation has conducted similar events at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahemdabad (IIM-A), Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and other national institutes. “We did this even during the UPA’s rule. Those who are raising hue and cry right now probably didn’t do their ‘research’ properly,” he said.
The ABVP has held conferences in technological and management institutes as part of its Think India initiative. The initiative, according to the ABVP’s website, is an active forum of researchers, professionals and students to debate national issues, raise their concern and offer innovative solutions to problems. However, an ABVP regional organisation secretary admitted in the past that students would be told about the ABVP’s “nationalist ideology” through events held by Think India.
‘Academic event’
Speaking about the conference at the SVNIT, Chauhan, the ABVP’s national general secretary, said the event has been planned “in an academic way”. “There are talks, programmes, representations and competitions which are related to academic and socio-cultural issues in the present scenario. We will be paying the NIT for all the arrangements. It has been done according to the procedure,” Chauhan said.
When pressed about the academic merits of a talk on nationalism, Chauhan said “90% of the topics are related to academics”, while the rest are about “socio-cultural topics”. He said, “Speakers would deliver their own ideas on the topic [nationalism] and students are free to debate and argue.”
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“We remain active in every domain. Those who are complaining [other students’ organisations] should also organise events for students’ welfare,” he added.
According to an ABVP member who wanted to remain anonymous, Union road and transport minister Nitin Gadkari will interact with participants through a video conference. He will speak about the recent amendments to the Motor Vehicles Act. The ABVP member said that people associated with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) have also been approached to participate in the event.
“Just because Gujarat is Narendra Modi’s home state, people tend to have a problem with anything that happens here,” the ABVP member claimed.
Even the SVNIT administration has denied that the collaboration with the ABVP is “political”. Speaking to The Wire, SVNIT Surat registrar K.D. Yadav said the proposal was accepted on its merit, not because of the politics of the ABVP. “It has got nothing to do with the party; had there been another proposal by students of another party, we would have accepted that also. It is not a political move,” he said.
Recently, several discussions that oppose the Centre’s actions were cancelled, allegedly under pressure from the ABVP or the BJP. Debates on Article 370 were cancelled not just in educational institutes, but also in public forums. In such a scenario, the administration’s claims that all organisations will be given equal opportunities to organise conferences is questionable.