Students March to Demand Scientific and Quality Education Which is Fair to All

Resisting attempts by a majoritarian government to create an atmosphere of fear in the country, students, under the leadership up Students Federation of India (SFI), have been taking out jathas across states. The aim to build up country-wide resistance to the Narendra Modi government’s bid to instill fear among the student community for airing any kind of dissent.

“Fear is governing us….This is what Modi government is doing now. Every dictator has done this. They are making us fearful  of being killed or detained anytime without reason. The SFI is trying to eliminate that fear,” said V P Sanu, National President of SFI, as he sat in the Tamil Nadu state committee office, with a team of energetic volunteers from different parts of the state. The volunteers were taking a break from the National Jatha, with the slogan ‘Scientific and Quality Education Without Discrimination’. 

The jatha in South India, one of the four National Jathas being conducted by the SFI, is being led by Sanu. It started from Kanyakumari on September 4 and will end on September 17. The National Jathas, which will culminate in a massive rally, will pass through 22 states.

There are four clusters of states through which the jatha will pass. The Southern jatha will covers Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Telangana. The North Eastern will cover Tripura, Jharkhand, Bihar and Bengal. The East West march began from Madhya Pradesh and will conclude in Gujarat. The Northern jatha began in Jammu Kashmir and will conclude in Uttar Pradesh.   

The National Jatha is a continuation of the struggles that the SFI has been leading for the past few years. However, student movements across the country  have been at the receiving end at the Modi government. From appointing Gajendra Chauhan to head the Film and Television Training Institute in Pune to the suicide of Rohith Vemula in Hyderabad Central University to the slapping of cases on student leaders in Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, and the recent attempt on the life of former JNU student Umar Khalid, the government is being criticised on its anti-student stand and policies. Attacks on the autonomy of higher education institutions and increasing in academic bodies and institutions, saffronisation of textbooks, etc are part of the BJP government’s policy changes that are harming the higher education sector. Through the National Jatha, the SFI has been raising awareness on all these issues among students.

“We have to bring down this government through the democratic process. These jathas are meant to impart energy to these efforts,” said Sanu. “The central government and ruling party is mocking the scientific temperament of the people. The BJP is talking constantly against science. These are the things that we are highlighting. We can joke about these, but these could end up in syllabuses tomorrow. People will be led back to the dark ages. Imparting scientific education is the only way out”, he added.

As per reports, the jathas are being accorded a warm welcome by the student community in the state, including by teachers. In many places, students have also share their grievances about the education system. Talking about this, Sanu said, “SFI had always taken stand against autonomous colleges. Students from such colleges come to this programme and share their grievances. They know that the state and central governments are making education a commodity.”

Recent Student Agitations

The SFI Tamil Nadu state committee has been actively participating in many protests since the past couple of years, such as the suicide of Anitha, who had scored high grades in the exams and filed a case against NEET in Supreme Court. Lakhs of students were part of these protests which were intense for the first 12 days. About 25 SFI leaders were also detained during this agitation.

Then there was an indefinite strike against the hike in bus fare. The government had to reduce the increase after a week of intense protest. Also, the SFI Tuticorin district committee had continuously boycotted classes as part of the citizens’ protest against the Sterlite plant where police firing on workers. Many workers and leaders are still facing charges.

Asked about the role of students’ protests  in Tamil Nadu, Sanu said these were a reflection of the situation across the nation. “Many political observers in the country had opined that the real opposition in the country now are students. When the majority of the country was silent, it was the students who raised their voice against this authoritarian government. Student protests had a huge role in deciding this change of discourse in the country.”

Asking about the continuous surge in protests in education institutions, he attributed the reason to neoliberal policies followed by both the Congress-led UPA and the BJP-led NDA governments.

“Congress had waited years to implement these policy changes. Even then Left student organisations, including SFI, had raised issues. But the majority didn’t agree with us. The prey didn’t realise that it was being hunted. When BJP came to power, this process became faster.”.

The SFI, which is holding its national conference from October 30 to November 2, in Shimla, is gearing up for a nationwide discussion on the changes being introduced in the education sector. “There is a two-pronged attack on education. On the one side, they are attacking with an economic agenda based on  neoliberal policies, while on the other side, they are pushing a cultural agenda. We will conduct a strong campaign and simultaneously hold protests,” said Sanu.