Indian students chart way forward
By Sean Healy
PATNA, Bihar <197< Under the slogan <169>Remove Saffron from Power and the Soil", the third conference of the All-India Students' Association (AISA) met here on August 27-28.
The main focus of the conference was the need for students to mobilise and defeat the "saffron alliance" of Hindu fundamentalism, including the Hindu chauvinist federal government of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Since it formed government six months ago, the BJP's campaign to impose a "Hindu Rashtra" (pure Hindu state) on India has been growing stronger. The prime targets of the campaign are religious and national minorities, and women, for whom a "Hindu Rashtra" will mean an even more subservient position. The BJP also poses a threat to intellectual freedom.
"The BJP are a communal fascist party, fascist because every such force trying to destroy society must first try to destroy intellectual freedom and expression", said AISA general secretary Ranjit Abhigyan in his concluding remarks to the conference.
Attempts to impose Hindu "purity" on intellectual life include the partisan rewriting of university history curricula, Bible-burnings, a heavy emphasis on the teaching of "pure Hindu" Sanskrit and the systematic appointment of Hindu chauvinist vice-chancellors at universities.
Economically, the BJP has followed pro-business and pro-western policies, particularly favouring its base amongst traders and black-marketeers.
This has already had some disastrous consequences. Twenty-three people have died in Delhi from an outbreak of dropsy, caused by contaminated cooking oil. The contamination is in large part due to government loosening of safety and inspection.
But the BJP has also struck trouble from its unstable coalition allies, so that large parts of the BJP's agenda have still not been implemented.
With the government facing the desertion of one or another of its key allies and a no-confidence motion which will almost certainly lead to a new government, there is an opportunity to strike hard at the BJP.
Speaking in the respected Sunday magazine on August 23, Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) general secretary Vinod Mishra remarked: "The so-called BJP wave is on the wane. The left parties must take an independent initiative to wage war against the BJP ... Let us go to the people and start a huge mass movement throughout the country."
The main decision of the AISA conference, therefore, was to throw the organisation's full weight behind anti-BJP activity, including a national student strike in October and a national march on parliament in November.
Since its formation in 1990, AISA has grown rapidly and has branched out from its main bases in the "Hindu belt" of north India to most states in the country. More than 500 delegates attended the conference, many travelling for days to reach the conference site.
The conference was the first since the assassination of Chandrashekhar Prasad, a popular AISA leader and president of Jawaharlal Nehru University students' union. Chandrashekhar was murdered in March 1997 while addressing a street meeting in rural Bihar.
His killers are allegedly linked to state MP Shahabuddin, who is close to the chief minister of Bihar, although no charges have been laid.
In his opening address, Mishra asked AISA delegates to "remember Chandrashekhar and stay true to the ideals and principles he fought and died for". The conference hall was renamed in Chandrashekhar's memory, and his mother unfurled the organisation's flag to start the conference.
One of the major features of the conference was the discussion about how AISA can consolidate its rapid growth and capitalise on its increased profile and popularity.
"AISA is a movement, but it is also an organisation", said AISA president Shankar. "There is no contradiction between the two; they are mutually dependent. If we cannot consolidate organisationally, we cannot expand. That is why we have adopted the slogan, 'Put the organisation in command'."
To that end, the conference also adopted several measures, including regular publication of an AISA newsletter, ideological training workshops and a nationwide round of state conferences in December.
The conference adopted resolutions condemning the US strikes on Afghanistan and Sudan, and the Indian nuclear tests, as well as a motion supporting the demands for autonomy made by peoples of north-east Assam.