Parties wade into ABVP ‘ban’ waters

Dinesh Manhotra

Tribune News Service

Jammu, May 27

The unofficial “ban” on entry of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and other student organisations on campuses in the Jammu region has snowballed into a major controversy with the Congress and Panthers Party joining in to defend the Vice Chancellor of Jammu University.

The university authorities had claimed to have “debarred” the entry of student wings of various political parties, including the ABVP, to keep politics away from campuses, but the issue took a political turn.

After BJP national general secretary Ram Madhav condemned the “obstinate behaviour” of the Vice Chancellor to “ban” the ABVP, the Congress reacted strongly to “political interference” in university affairs by the BJP.

Reacting to statements of senior BJP leaders targeting the Vice Chancellor due to political reasons, chief spokesperson of Congress Ravinder Sharma termed it as the most unfortunate attempt and an assault on independence and autonomy of the premier educational institution.

Panthers Party chief patron Bhim Singh urged the President to intervene and save the autonomy and independence of Jammu University.

He said the educational institution had been set up due to sacrifices of Jammu students so that an independent educational institution could function in the state.

As reported earlier, the authorities had unofficially “debarred” the ABVP and other student organisations from holding functions on campuses in the Jammu region.

Leaders of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad claimed that the organisation had been registered as a non-political student body. ABVP leaders produced registration certificates before the authorities to substantiate their claim that theirs was a non-political student organisation.

“The ABVP was set up in 1949, Bharatiya Jana Sangh in 1952 and BJP in 1980. How is the ABVP student wing of the BJP?” asked Dr Narendra Singh, general secretary of the state BJP.

“The ABVP is an independent non-political student organisation, which is the only registered student group of the country,” he said.

BJP legislators decided to vociferously take up the issue in the ongoing Budget session of the Assembly. Party MLA Ravinder Raina said “banning” the entry of a “nationalist” organisation like the ABVP was a serious issue.

“We will give a notice to the Assembly Speaker for a half-an-hour-long discussion on functioning of Jammu University and the decision of the university authorities to impose a “ban” on activities of various student organisations,” he said.