While ‘sedition’ and ‘anti-nationalism’ are still rocking Jawaharlal Nehru University and have almost brought Parliament to a standstill, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), one of the students union that had clashed at JNU’s campus, has already set its sight on another educational institution now—Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in Mumbai.
Aniket Ovhal, Mumbai secretary, ABVP told The Hindustan Times that ABVP will “target TISS”. He added,
“We just want to ensure students don’t fall into a trap, and at the same time understand the meaning of nationalism. No one will be forced, but we don’t want TISS to turn into a battleground like JNU.”
Ovhal said that most incidents that have occurred recently in education institutes highlight the presence of leftist organisations on campuses, and ABVP’s aim is to ensure that students focus on education instead of getting into politics.
The last time all three institutions had been embroiled in a controversy at the same time was when ABVP tried to stop the screening of a TISS documentary, Caste On The Menu Card, at JNU in November 2015.
Birsa Ambedkar Phule Student Association (BAPSA), a student organisation at JNU, had at first received permission for the screening of the documentary on beef, but it was withdrawn later. However, the screening was eventually held after students clashed with security guards for over an hour.
In February this year, students and teachers at TISS had registered their protests against how the Central government had handled the situation at JNU. In a memorandum, the teachers had alleged that the ‘bogey of sedition has been raised by the government to threaten the dissenting students and suppress protests’ in both the campuses.
No wonder then that ABVP wants to take on the Mumbai institute head on now. The student’s union says that it is also planning to reach out to students at the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B) and the University of Mumbai.