209 NOMINATIONS FILED ON FIFTH DAY IN PUNJAB
New Delhi, October 16
As BJP leaders go about lambasting the iconic Taj Mahal and cow vigilantes thrashing the alleged “beef-eaters”, perhaps it is time the senior leadership–both the BJP and RSS–spends time to ascertain the reasons behind the consecutive losses suffered by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) in universities across India.
Courting fresh controversy on Monday, BJP’s UP MLA Sangeet Som not just questioned the Taj Mahal’s place in history but also distorted historical facts to say that it was built by an emperor who imprisoned his father and targeted Hindus.
Meanwhile, the BJP distanced itself from the statement that followed the reported move of the Yogi Adityanath government to exclude the Taj Mahal from an official tourism booklet. And also the humiliation suffered by the ABVP at the hands of the Samajwadi Chhatra Sabha in the Allahabad University Students Union polls.
The ABVP is the students’ wing of the RSS and in those terms a sister organisation of its political arm—the BJP.
Therefore, technically speaking, the losses suffered by the Sangh’s student wing cannot be dumped in the BJP’s account.
Citing the example of Delhi University where again the ABVP performed badly, BJP leaders lament that Sangh “pracharaks” did not include the elected leaders—MPs and MLAs—in university campaigns unlike the Congress.
However, for any common man, or for that matter a student, the ABVP is an extension of the BJP. And this is the reason why the political party needs to be extra careful about the message students from across the country seem to be sending to the saffron leaders.
For observers, the ABVP defeat in Allahabad rings alarm bells for the Yogi government, which took over six months ago. And given the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pitch for youth and overdependence on support from the social media (which is essentially the domain of this group), Assam, Delhi, Hyderabad and Allahabad are also a wake-up call for the central leadership.
While the ABVP’s drubbing in the JNU was expected, DU results came as a big surprise. Allahabad added to the message sent from the Hyderabad University where a panel comprising Left-backed SFI and others defeated the ABVP.
The observers believe university losses echo sentiments of the youth on issues related to unemployment, economy and “divisive politics of the BJP”.
To remain popular among the youth, both the RSS and BJP need to pay heed to the message emerging from these universities—that “divisive politics, dependence on muscle and money power and hard-line nationalism” are not working, they say.
