SFI Leaderships Spoke on the Contemporary Situation

Comrade Ritabrata Banerjee’s well informed speech gave an overview of the imperialist drive and anti-Marxist propaganda of the late 20th century and the new-found relevance of Marxist analysis in the current crisis. He then correlated international experiences with the Indian experience. The renewal of the BJP’s friendliness with the USA also featured in this discussion. The desperation of the national and international corporate media after the resounding success of the Left in the 2004 elections and their elation after the 2009 elections, and the important role of the left to stall the aggressive onslaught of neo-liberal anti-people policies in the intervening UPA-1 government was spoken of at length. He then focused on the demonization of student politics that was a necessary part of this neo-liberal drive, that began with the Kerala court ruling and is continuing with great vehemence till date. There is a great need to constantly combat this tendency to depoliticize the youth and thus nullify the greatest source of resistance to commercialize education, health and other social sectors. Comrade Ritobrato ended by asking all our members not to become like “black bodies”, absorbing all the information available to us, but not executing the task of radiating the information to our fellow students. At this juncture when a news blockade has virtually stifled the voices of the student movement, students must take upon themselves the role of spreading word of their issues and struggles and not wait for any commercial media to bestow upon them a charitable glance.

Comrade Debojyoti Das made short effective speech informing us of the action plan for the forthcoming 2nd of April movement, which will mark one year of our Comrade Sudipto Gupta’s martyrdom. He called for building up resistance against the Private University Bills. He then stressed on the importance of the participation of the student community in the Lok Sabha elections, and the need to bring up students’ issues and nurture awareness regarding the real character of the Congress and BJP governments. The issues of minorities, tribals, backward castes and classes, the planned attack of the BJP and RSS on these economically and socially underpriviledged people, and the need to bring up more leaders from among their midst was seriously noted.

Comrade Madhuja Sen Roy gave a strong call to reclaim the educational campuses, fighting back against the exclusionist politics of the TMCP which is arming its members and using its antisocials to keep members and supporters of SFI from entering their own colleges, from sitting for exams, from contesting union elections. She described the inspiring experience of the Youth Festival'2014 at Ecuador, and drew on it to say how the youth all over the world were rallying around Marxist and Leninist principles to combat the present day crisis. Coming to the governments’ education policy in India she emphasized on how the policies have been framed to help the business class convert education into a profit making industry – that the same policies of withdrawing government support from higher education and opening up the sector for privatization had been followed by both the Narasimha Rao government, and the Vajpayee government after that, and finally by the current UPA-2. The passing of three private university bills in Bengal gives clear evidence that the very same policies of commercialization of education are being pursued by the TMC government. Comrade Madhuja cited an example of a new government college in Cooch Bihar that was “functioning” from a single hotel room with a single employee to emphasise the falsity of the governments claims regarding its “achievements” in the education sector.