All student organisations are protesting under one banner. Why is the ABVP protesting separately?
Initially, we offered unconditional support to JNUSU and were under the same banner. But the protest took a different turn. Swami Vivekananda’s statue was vandalised; slogans were raised against Ram mandir and the revocation of Article 370. We realised that the fee hike issue was only a façade and there were ulterior motives to their protest.
In 2017, the ABVP disrupted a programme at Ramjas College where Umar Khalid was to speak.
It was being organised without permission of the authorities and the college union. DUSU was also opposed to it. Besides, the police were probing sedition charges against him. Nobody wanted the college to get a bad name by inviting such a person.
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Would you oppose an invite to terror-accused Sadhvi Pragya Thakur?
She says she was tortured in police custody and falsely charged. If the Lok Sabha speaker can allow her to speak in Parliament, we have no reason to oppose her visit.
Is there anything you would want to change in JNU?
Yes, the student leadership. The left-led leadership has left no stone unturned in besmirching the university. Seditious slogans have been raised every year. We used to complain, but nothing happened. It was only in 2016, when the ABVP was part of the leadership, that we were able to bring national attention to such an incident.
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ABVP students in Aligarh demanded the removal of Jinnah’s portrait from the AMU Union Hall.
Why should we have portraits of Partition’s architects? Many wrong things have remained in our culture for long, but it doesn’t mean they won’t be rectified. This issue was projected as one of a Muslim’s photo being removed.
