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UP universities: Campuses calm, but tension simmers
LUCKNOW: A face off witnessed between two groups of the students belonging to National Students Union of India (NSUI) and Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) in Agra on Monday can be seen as a warning to various academic institutions and student organisations in Uttar Pradesh.
Amid questions being raised over the ABVP role in campus violence in JNU, Delhi, its Agra unit submitted a memorandum to authorities of BR Ambedkar University, Agra apprehending that attempts may be made to create a JNU-like situation elsewhere.
The ABVP’s memorandum, submitted to the varsity’s registrar KN Singh, demanded a ban on leaders of left wing student organisations on the campus to ensure that no JNU-like incident took place in Agra.
“Students are busy with preparations for their examinations. Cold wave conditions for nearly a month have already affected studies. We want that academic atmosphere is not affected in the university. Administration should take appropriate steps and ban any anti-social left wing activity on the campus,” said Agra ABVP unit president Aakash Rathore.
“NSUI’s Bilal Ahmed said ABVP wanted to disturb peace in the university. The university administration has been favouring ABVP and the university registrar went out of the way to accept the memorandum despite prohibitory orders banning any such activities there,” said Bilal, adding that, “the NSUI wanted peace on the campus and hence did not organize any activity and refrained from submitting any memorandum to the university’s authorities.”
Amid accusations and counter accusations from different students’ organisations, the situation in the state has remained by and large peaceful.
Deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma said the state government has taken a number of initiatives to ensure peace on campuses. “Yes, the situation on UP’s campuses remains peaceful. We have open communication system and remain in touch with students and authorities. The state government has already enacted the Uttar Pradesh Private Universities Act-2019 to check any anti-national activities or programmes that may create tension on the campuses of private universities. We are sure peace will prevail on all the campuses,” said Sharma.
Yet, the incidents that took place at Aligarh Muslim University and Jamia Millia University, and now the JNU incident, remain an issue of concern.
“Yes, JNU incident is a cause of concern for all of us. We want peace on the campus. But we will give a befitting reply if any attempts are made to disturb peace,” said ABVP Agra leader Dheeraj Sharma.
Other student leaders representing AISA, NSUI and Samajwadi Chhatra Sabha etc echo the same sentiments and their assertions indicate towards simmering tension on the campuses.
“We have to protest if any paper is leaked and complicity of authorities is found. But instead of taking corrective measures the students are blamed. We are not allowed to hold our peaceful activities,” said AISA state secretary Shivam Rajwar.
Many of these leaders accuse the authorities of keeping them out of campuses whenever they want to hold any activity while favouring the ABVP. “The university administration has been supporting those associated with ABVP. It was during demonstration on paper leak issue. Both ABVP and NSUI were holding demonstrations. But the vice chancellor came out to meet only the ABVP representatives,” said NSUI, Lucknow district unit president Mohammad Tariq Siddiqui.
“We face police action for raising issues concerning students while the police cooperate with ABVP on all the campuses. This became evident when NSUI held a demonstration at GPO Park in support of students of Jamia. The police did not allow us to hold a peaceful demonstration and we were forcibly moved out,” said Anas Rehman, NSUI’s state vice president.
“We are denied permission for all our programmes while the university authorities grant permission to ABVP’s programmes that have BJP functionaries as speakers,” said Pooja Shukla national vice president of Samajwadi Chhatra Sabha.
ABVP, however, counterer the arguments and said the NSUI or Samajwadi Chhatra Sabha did not have any presence on any of the campuses while ABVP has spread its wings across the state.
“Left wing organisations have no presence on any of the campuses in Uttar Pradesh. The NSUI and the Samajwadi Chhatra Sabha, too, have no unit anywhere. Some anti-social elements may try to create trouble and ABVP will counter any such attempt. ABVP is open to debate on any issue on the campuses and violence has no place there. We have strong units on all university campuses and work there for leadership development,” said Ghanshyam Shahi, ABVP Awadh region organization general secretary.