ABVP’s DU student union poll manifesto includes lectures to promote nationalism

The ABVP said if it wins the DUSU polls this time, it will “try to design programmes for students with a mix of strong Indian tradition and values combined with latest development and vision.”

The Akhil Bhartiya Vidhyarthi Parishad’s (ABVP) manifesto for the Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) elections released on Thursday promises to “convince” the university’s teaching community to introduce special lectures and programmes to promote “nationalism” among students.

ABVP National Media Coordinator Monika Chaudhary, DUSU president candidate Ankiv Baisova, ABVP National General Secretary Ashish Chauhan and DUSU Joint Secretary candidate Jyoti Chaudhary release ABVP manifesto for DUSU election at Press Club in New Delhi on Thursday. (Mohd Zakir/HT Photo)

Counting its “initiatives” to expose “anti-national” elements in DU and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), the students group affiliated to RSS said in its manifesto: “In 2016, the ABVP had exposed the ‘afzal premi’ and ‘tukde tukde’ gang in JNU and in 2017, ABVP exposed the same set of people in Ramjas college in DU.”

The ABVP said if it wins the DUSU polls this time, it will “try to design programmes for students with a mix of strong Indian tradition and values combined with latest development and vision.”

The DU elections will be held in September 12.

Other promises include security for girl students, better hostel facilities and an assurance to keep the “country ahead of everything else”.

Following the campaigning style of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the ABVP defined this year’s manifesto through its name.

“We redefined our definition to define the manifesto. Now, ‘A’ stands for ‘academic, sports and co-curricular reform’, ‘B’ stands for ‘Bharat first’, ‘V’ stands for the ‘vision’ and ‘P’ will be means ‘pledge for women safety’,” ABVP’s national general secretary Ashish Chauhan said.

For the first time, the ABVP will release a separate “sports manifesto”. “We are going to put special attention on sports-related activities this time,” ABVP’s national media convener Monika Choudhary said.

Other than campus -related issues, the student group highlighted national issues such as SC, ST and OBC scholarships, a wall for martyrs in all colleges and effective implementation of the Centre’s ‘ek bharat shresth bharat programme’ in its manifesto.

The ABVP has fielded Ankiv Baisoya, a first-year student at Ramjas college, as its presidential candidate. “We will try to provide internships to large number of students in different ministries and government institutions if get elected,” he said.