The dissenting voices echoing in the varsity of the Jawaharlal Nehru College are unanimous in nature. Students across the board, no matter which party they are affiliated with, came forward demanding the rollback of recent changes made in the fee structure.

However, the approach to the recent impetus on the matter is different. The students of JNU left divided by ideologies and slogans raised. While Jawaharlal University Student Union (JNUSU) comprising of four parties – Students’ Federation of India (SFI), All India Students’ Association (AISA) (AISA), All India Students’ Federation (AISF), Democratic Students’ Federation (DSF), vehemently mutinied against the fee hike decision, members of the RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) also did not budge from their stance on the issue. They have gone on an indefinite strike beginning from today, November 22 at JNU. 

Speaking to The Logical Indian, Durgesh, ABVP President of JNU said, “We will not end the strike until our demands are met. We won’t step back until they roll back the recent changes. It’s been our demand from the very first day. And, every member of the ABVP family stands by it.”

ABVP is a student branch of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and maintains their stand on unjustified fee hike.

The students’ organisation led a protest march from Mandi House to HRD Ministry in Shastri Bhawan, Delhi. However, they were stopped midway by the police. 

Different Demand, Similar Motive

According to the former ABVP President of JNU, Vijay, his ‘Communist friends’ have deviated from the whole cause and now fueling the protest by raising slogans against scrapping of Article 370, demolition of Babri Masjid, and desecrating the statue of Swami Vivekananda. “We started the protest together but now we don’t want to associate ourselves with them. Our only motive is to scrap the recent changes without diluting the cause with political talks,” Vijay said to The Logical Indian.

However, being a student wing of the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS), an organisation considered to be the parent of both ABVP and BJP, ABVP still opposes the idea of the HRD Ministry meddling in the affairs of the JNU. 

Vijay further told that ABVP doesn’t want the Home Ministry to formulate a high-level committee to look into this matter as it will weaken the autonomous nature of the university. “My leftist friends always talk about the culture of autonomy in public education and at the same time surrendering to the high-level committee. I believe that they have compromised their position to MHRD,” Vijay added.

Around 30 people from the ABVP have sat down on an indefinite strike at JNU asking for the rollback and dissolving the high-level committee.

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