HISTORIC MARCH of ABVP THAT GAVE NEW DIMENSION TO STUDENT ACTIVISM
Around 1991, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), a student organization, understood the pulse of the students and took up the task of finding solutions to those issues.
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-Adv. Ray Singh, Mathura
The early 90’s was deeply worrying for India. The nationj was in the midst of political instability, Kashmiri Hindu genocide, mid-term polls, financial crisis, stock market scam, riots and what not. The future looked grim. The government proposed liberalization in the budget, to boost the confidence of people who had lost faith in the institution. The youth, especially, were the most affected. Education, instead of motivating the youth, had turned them cynical. Despite big promises made in the 1986 National Policy on Education, it failed to live up to the expectations of the youth. From corruption to delay and irregularities in admission, examination and results, the education system was a complete mess. Students were reportedly distressed with the government's inaction and its failure to plug the recurring issues in the education system.
Around 1991, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), a student organization, understood the pulse of the students and took up the task of finding solutions to those issues. The Maharashtra unit of ABVP devised a major and a systematic plan, wherein, it decided to reach out and hold substantive discussions with all the stakeholders, from academicians to teachers and students throughout Maharashtra on all educational issues ranging from admission, teaching, examinations and results, scholarships and free ships, institutional infrastructure, and other facilities including hostels. It held round-table discussions. Based on the suggestions received after wide discussions with all the stake-holders, ABVP Maharashtra drafted a charter of demands which centered around the ‘Save Education – Save Campus’ and included demands for reforms in education management to counter rising corruption and administrative apathy, end to commercialization of education, renaming of Marathwada University after Dr. Babasaheb University, and restoration of clean campus culture without any political interference. ABVP decided on mass mobilization of students and organized a peaceful student march and submitted the demands to the state government, to shake the government out of its complacency. After consultation with its activists, ABVP Maharashtra decided to mobilize one lakh students from across Maharashtra for the peaceful march. Since this was planned to be the biggest student-led mobilization after an emergency, intricate planning and execution was needed, ABVP pushed the date to 7th September, 1993. The peaceful march was planned from Azad Maidan to Vidhan Bhavan, and later, submitting the demands to Maharashtra’s Education Minister in the Mantralaya.
ABVP activists devised a detailed plan of all the activities to be carried out to reach out to students throughout Maharashtra and make them aware of the Charter of Demands. ABVP activists listed out the colleges in every district across Maharashtra and started visiting those colleges to establish direct contact with the students and to have a dialogue on the grim situation of education in Maharashtra. ABVP received a phenomenal response from the students. ABVP leaders reached out to around 8 lakh students across Maharashtra, distributed around a million pamplets, did wall-writing, stuck posters around almost all colleges and organised student gatherings in colleges addressed by ABVP activists. Student-leader meets were initially conducted across various districts and at state level which infused energy amongst the student leaders and encouraged them to devote themselves for this cause. A poem written by a student leader ‘उठ दोस्ता उगार मूठ, तूच थांबव तुझ्या शिक्षणाची लूट’ (Wake up friend, raise your fist, stop the looting of your education) became like an anthem for this movement and mesmerized students across Maharashtra. It resonated with the emotions of the students.
As the day neared, ABVP activists in each district made travel plans to reach Mumbai and inform the students who wished to participate in the peaceful march. The locals and other like-minded organizations offered all kinds of assistance so that these students could reach Mumbai and participate in the peaceful march. As the day arrived, thousands of students gathered in each district to go to Mumbai to participate in the peaceful march.
On the morning of September 7, thousands of students poured into Mumbai by trains, bus and other means. As per the documents available, total 1,36,574 students assembled for the peaceful march at Azad Maidan, which included 1,30,967 boys and 5607 girl students. At 12 noon, led by the student leaders, the peaceful march began. Students from across all regions of Maharashtra, with banners, placards in their hands and raising slogans like Students’ Power, Nations’ Power throughout, participated in the march in a highly disciplined and peaceful manner. The march moved towards Kala Ghoda where a large gathering was organized to be addressed by student leaders. The student leaders spoke on the grim situation of education in Maharashtra and the Charter of Demands made by ABVP through extensive discussion with all stakeholders. After the gathering, the student leaders proceeded towards Mantralaya to hand over the Charter of Demands to the education minister. But the education minister refused to meet the student leaders and accept the Charter or discuss regarding the demands. Thereafter, the memorandum of demands was pasted outside the minister’s office.
The government took all efforts to black-out the reporting of this peaceful march. Though the government realized the unrest brewing amongst the students. The government later accepted a few demands and addressed them. Major demands that were accepted and acted upon by the government included renaming of the Marathwada University to Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University, enacting new Maharashtra Universities Act, 1994, to bring uniformity and modernize the laws governing non-agricultural and non-medical public universities across Maharashtra, that were earlier governed by separate, individual acts.
This peaceful march became a precedent on how a march should be planned, how to physically reach out to the students and hold dialogue and the manner in which a memorandum of demands be made after extensive consultations with the stake-holders. At that time, there were very limited means of communication. But after around 2 years of planning and execution, ABVP activists achieved something unachievable.