UoH winners vow to fight fascist forces

Hyderabad: The Alliance for Social Justice (ASJ), which swept the student union elections in the University of Hyderabad (UoH) recently, has resolved to take forward the Rohith Vemula movement and the fight against "fascist forces."

"The alliance itself is a message to carry forward the movement. We will continue to fight for the (demand for) Rohith Act (to end discrimination in educational institutions)," Sreerag P, who was elected the president in the last week's polls, told PTI.

The Alliance for Social Justice comprising Students' Federation of India (SFI), Ambedkar Students' Association (ASA), Dalit Students' Union (DSU) and few other groups, had swept the student union elections in the University of Hyderabad (UoH) for 2017-18.

The ASJ bagged all the major posts, including that of president, general secretary, joint secretary and cultural secretary in the elections held on September 21. The ASJ candidates defeated the ABVP-OBCF combine by comfortable margins.

The National Students' Union of India (NSUI), student wing of the Congress, was also in the fray. Sreerag, a member of the Ambedkar Students' Association, said the outcome of the elections was a "message to the entire nation" that the way forward was to unite against the "fascist forces", an apparent reference to the
BJP-RSS combine.

"It is a message to the entire nation...unite against the fascist forces rather than blame each other, given the present political context," he said. Rohith Vemula, who committed suicide on the university premises last year over alleged discrimination by the authorities, was also a member of the Ambedkar Students' Association.

The Dalit scholar's suicide had triggered a nationwide uproar with a number of opposition leaders, including Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, visiting the UoH campus to express solidarity with the agitating students. Sreerag said they aspired to coordinate with like-minded students from other universities to take up united struggles.

SFI's Telangana unit president Nageswara Rao said they would continue to fight for the 'Rohith Act'. "We would struggle against the NDA government's attempts to take away education from poor students," he said.

"Entrance tests for admission into universities used to be conducted at different centres in the country, but their number is now being reduced. Such a move would make it difficult for poor students to travel long distances to appear for the entrance exams," he added.