Sangh Family's Ploy in Higher Education
Few months back we witnessed how ABVP, the student wing of the Sangh family along with BJP had tried to project the film 'Buddha In A Traffic Jam' at Jadavpur University (JU) using its muscle power ? though they were finally forced to retreat at the face of the stiff resistance from the University students. It is amply clear that by exhibiting the movie made by a henchman of Sangh family, they are actually trying to make an inroad into JU. Take a look at the University of Hyderabad (UoH). There, ABVP attacked Ambedkar Students' Association, which ultimately led to the suspension of Rohith Vemula & four other students & finally to the 'institutional murder' of Rohith. Look at JNU. There Kanhaiya Kumar & some other students were falsely implicated, repeatedly attacked & harassed. All these incidents explicitly reveal the hidden motive of the Sanghis to establish its control over the institutions of higher education & research centres. For doing this, they are implementing primarily three spades. Firstly, utilization of state & administrative power unabashedly; secondly, appointing their stooges particularly at the top of the central educational institutions & research centres, and using these stooges as puppets for their own ideological & political agenda; and thirdly, they are organizing a band of Sanghi goons from among the students & giving them a free hand to crush all progressive & democratic voices.
Incidents of UoH, JNU & JU have been much highlighted, but those were not the only one targeted. Rather it is going on one after another. Incident of FTII, another premier film institution is also nonetheless known to all. Here instead of paying heed to the demand of the students, their voice was quashed down. Not only that, till date 35 leading students are barred to join in their workplace after completion of their course. The message is clear ? what awaits the protesting students if they challenge the sinister design of the Sanghis! Similar nature of attack had been unleashed on Richa Singh of Allahabad University, who dared to oppose the conspiracy of inviting Yogi Adityanath, one of the most communal MPs, in the University to give an 'inspiring' lecture. Using the authority of VC, Sangis had attempted to cancel her registration as research scholar.
Even the liberal-free thinking teachers are also not being spared. Magsaysay awarded Prof Sandeep Pandey of IIT, BHU has been summarily dismissed with a one-month notice without any valid reason. In an interview with New York Times, he categorically stated that: "Ideologically, I am at the opposite extreme to the people who are at present in power," he said. "These people not only cannot tolerate any dissent; they don't even tolerate disagreement. They want everybody who disagrees with them out of this campus." (Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/28/opinion/the-right-wing-attack-on-indias-universities.html. Accessed on 27/07/2016, 23-19 hrs). It was that much undemocratic that even the Allahabad High Court was forced to comment that "the decision violated the basic freedom of expression." (Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/lucknow/Allahabad-HC-quashs-Sandeep-Pandeys-termination-order/articleshow/51954807.cms, Accessed on 27/07/2016, 23-27 hrs). In case of Prof Amit Sengupta, a renowned Professor of English Journalism of Indian Institute of Mass Communication, another central educational Institute, we find that he had expressed his solidarity with the struggles of UoH-JNU & FTII ? so he was transferred to the Dhenkanol Campus from Delhi, that also without citing any reason. The humiliated Professor had written in his open letter of resignation that: "Certainly, this is part of a larger witch-hunt against intellectual freedom, academic autonomy and professional excellence, to target and eliminate individuals who this regime has declared as enemies for reasons only they know". (Source: http://www.dailyo.in/politics/iimc-professor-amit-sengupta-quit-over-supporting-jnu-rohith-vemula-ftii-kanhaiya-kumar-smriti-irani/story/1/9369.html. Accessed on 27/07/2016, 23-37 hrs). Even before this, Parveen Sinclair, eminent educationist & Director of NCERT, has been dropped from her post before two years of completing her tenure. Her "fault" ? she was trying to revert back the saffronisation made during Vajpayee era of the syllabus & text books of school education to a comparatively secular & scientific basis. As soon as BJP ascended to power, she was instructed to stop the process. She refused to accede to the instruction & she was stripped off the post. Right now, a good number of acclaimed professors of IIT (Mumbai) & TISS are also targeted, as because, according to Sangh Brigade, they are "anti-national"!
Since 2014, a lot more changes are going on behind the curtain which are not much attended by the media. Purpose of these changes is not merely increasing the organizational strength in the campuses & throttling the voices of dissent, another significant purpose is to convert the universities & research institutions as a hub of preaching their utterly reactionary ideology. At the initiative of Girish Tripathy, the Vice Chancellor of BHU, and the main culprit of the dismissal of Prof Sandeep Pandey, University Foundation Day has been celebrated through the "Path Sanchalan" programme of RSS! Route March of the Swayam Sevaks wearing the designated dress was named as "Path Sanchalan"! In December 2014, before embarking the educational tour of the Delhi University students, Krishna Gopal, the Jt Secretary of RSS was invited to lecture on the culture of North-Eastern India. Mr Krishna Gopal is for a long time engaged to "bring back" the North-Eastern ethnic groups in the "mainstream Hinduism". In January 2016, a seminar has been organized in Delhi University under the banner of "Arundhati Basishth Onusondhan Pith" established by none other than late Ashoke Singhal, President of VHP; the declared purpose of the seminar was "to mobilize public opinion on Ram Janmabhoomi Temple"! In a similar vein, K Sudarsan Rao has been placed at the helm of Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR), who publicly defends & propagates Hindu caste system, whose sole target as a historian is to establish the events described in Ramayana & Mahabharata as historical fact! Once he was declared as Chairman of ICHR, he stated that "ICHR has to take the role of catalyst to reach the past history of India as emerged through Ramayana & Mahabharata to the common masses of this country". Lokesh Chandra, another "great" persona, has been posted at the top of the Indian Council of Cultural Research. This person had been famous for his statement once Modi came to power that Modi was a "greater leader" than Gandhi, an "incarnation of God", moral values lay embedded in Indian culture, dedicated to the poor, far above from all "political ideologies"! (Source: http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/meet-the-new-iccr-chief-modi-avatar-of-god-bigger-than-gandhi/. Accessed on 27/07/2016). At the one end, rational & progressive people are being removed from the academic institutions by using govt power; on the other, they are manipulating persons appointed by previous UPA govt (like Ved Prakash, Chairman of UGC); finally, the topmost positions of central academic institutions & research centres are getting filled up by the stooges of Modi and his government, irrespective of the fact whether they have the credibility or not; their only criteria is whether they are devout 'Bhakts' of RSS, or not!
Besides this, budget for higher education has been reduced to half at one go, IITs have been directed to start Sanskrit education; Gujrat government is instructing higher educational institutions to take prior approval on research topics to be carried out by research scholars as well as is allowing only the topics which can serve & benefit "development programme" of Gujrat and Modi government.
It is true that Sangh Brigade carried out saffronisation of education during Vajpayee regime, but coalition compulsions kept the advancement restrained, which is no more applicable to Modi government. So, during the present regime, this saffronisation programme of education has gained much more momentum.
It needs not to be elaborated that this aggression by Sangh Parivar in higher education is very much part & parcel of their overall fascist aggression. They vie for imposing their ultra-Hindu reactionary ideology upon entire society. And, by this they further aspire to polarize the entire society in communal line and to suppress people of religious minority. According to this Hindutva ideology, Dalit population needs to be submitted to the so-called higher castes. They even want to even destroy independent identity of the Adivasi population in the name of integrating them with Hindu religious community. They want to send back the women behind the curtain of darkness as was in the medieval era. In this ideology there is no space of scientific thinking, research in the name of reviving old Indian scientific heritage they are trying to establish their unscientific concepts as science. They are trying to distort the true history of India & are recreating a distorted history of India in accordance to their Hindu communal colours in order to increase communal divide. And finally, the most important aspect is the fact that no one has the right to protest against such conspiracy, false propaganda and injustice. Because under this ideology of Sangh Parivar there is no place of independent thoughts, the thoughts of ultra-Hindutva have to be accepted as eternal truth and freedom of speech must be curtailed in case of any opposition.
In order to infuse this fascist ideology on the society, they are leaving no stone unturned to further enhance communal divide from below, to increase oppression on the religious minorities. For doing this, they are taking all efforts to utilize the religious passions of Hindu community of India. Some days back, we have seen how they brought forward slogans to ban cow slaughter in various parts of India by sensitizing Hindu population's passions on cow slaughter and beef eating. Not only that, they instigated riots and attacked minority muslim population by sensitizing this passion. Once it died down, they started to utilize the passion of the masses on patriotism, which, according to them, only stands for opposition to Pakistan and Muslims. Along with this, by cunningly using ever-increasing activities of Islamic fundamentalism and terrorist forces in many Muslim-majority countries, they are attempting to spread hatred against all Muslims, and communalism is being injected in Hind population and thus creating bigger communal divide in the entire society. It is evident from the activities of last few years that Sangh Parivar is planfully progressing towards increasing communal divide in various parts of Maharshtra-UP as well in the rest of India. Thus they are dividing the working class and the toiling masses through communal line. Even in West Bengal, Hindu communal forces are being able to organize armed and aggressive processions in Jute Mill areas during religious festivals. In absence of an prolonged organized position of the working class, they are being able to execute their evil planning comfortably.
On the other hand, a section of the bourgeoisie and petty bourgeoisie, particularly their intellectual and liberal sections, are protesting against this ultra- Hindutva of Sangh Parivar. Some of them are so-called Left Intellectuals whose majority section is still influenced by reformist-revisionist parties. But there is another section which is in favour of bourgeoisie democracy, individual liberty, freedom of speech, as well as in opposition to religious superstitions and communal division and in support for scientific thoughts; and thus they are protesting against ultra-Hindutva aggression of Sangh Parivar and BJP. They are consistently protesting against Sangh Parivar and BJP from ideological standpoint. However, as it is a movement from within the arena of bourgeoisie democracy, it has its own limitations and weaknesses. They are not in position to organize mass movement against BJP by way of organize power of the masses and in absence of trust & confidence on the development of class struggle, they do not have any confidence & trust on the struggling power of the masses. But due to this limitation, we cannot derecognize the opposition they are bringing forward from ideological standpoint. Sangh Parivar is also worried about this opposition. Although the number of intellectuals who are now opposing Sangh Parivar is few, they have influences on bourgeoisie intelligentsia, particularly the educated middle class section of this community. So Sangh Parivar wants to destroy this force and hence is unleashing attacks on them. So they have murdered Kalburgi, Davolkar and Pansare. And they are trying to suppress the voices of many of these intellectuals with continuous threats. Attacks on the higher educational institutions are part of this bigger conspiracy. It probably has two objectives. First they want to suppress protesting voices of this section of the intelligentsia. Secondly they need to establish control of these institutions as these institutions have recognition in bourgeoisie society. So, by way of controlling those institutions, protests might be curbed, as well as the fascist ideology can easily be spread.
Right now, the advanced section of the working class is not present in & prepared for this struggle. It is not also feasible in the current weak condition of the class struggle. But without their active role, it is not possible to build any real resistance against fascist forces, neither in practical struggle nor in ideological arena. Therefore we need to prepare ourselves so that we can truly be able to advance this struggle on ideological plane; at the same time a consistent effort is needed so that the class struggle of the working class and the toiling masses can truly be developed & directed in proper direction. The moot question is, whether we are truly agreed & prepared to play this role, or not!
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