A PACKED auditorium with more than 650 students from southern states of India, reverberated with slogans against communalism and a determined conviction to safeguard the unity of the country The national convention ‘Aman Ka Ailan’ was organised by the Students’ Federation of India in Bangalore on February 17 as part of its nation-wide campaign against communalisation. Presiding over the convention, SFI all India president, VP Sanu said that the BJP has two agendas in our country – economic agenda and cultural agenda. They are hiding their economic agenda with their cultural agenda. He gave the example of how our attention was diverted towards Karni Sena’s violent protests over the film Padmavat while there was a huge corruption in Rafael deal. There was no discussion in the media on this corruption.

Sanu said India is the youngest country, but youngsters are not able to access higher education or gain employment. The same neoliberal economic policies are being implemented by the BJP government which were implemented by the UPA government earlier. During the elections campaign, BJP said that they will be creating two crore jobs annually, which means they should have created eight crore jobs by now. But the reality is quite different. There is huge inequality in the income distribution in India. Anyone who wants to discuss these things are accused as being anti-national. The other day, SFI unit was formed in the Central University of Jammu. Next day there were media reports that anti-national people have started work in the university. This type of campaign is going on in India now. Against all these, SFI has started a campaign ‘Aman Ka Ailan’ which was held from January 26 to February 17.

Prakash Raj, noted film actor, director and social activist inaugurating the convention said, “People like me are branded anti-national and I am very much sure that the youth like you who are raising their voice will also be branded as anti-national. In the near future, this country will have a majority of anti-nationals, who are real and true lovers of this country.”

Narrating his personal experiences, Prakash Raj said, “When I started my life as a student, nobody asked me my identity. When I started to work to fulfill my aspirations, nobody asked me my identity. When I started theatre, started mixing with people, nobody asked me my identity. The books, the plays, the poetry which we read, we never asked the identity of their authors. As I became famous in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Kerala or in India, when I went abroad for film festivals, nobody asked me my identity. Today when I raise my voice, they started to say my mother is a Christian, my father is a Hindu. When I say I am a secular person, they start to question the integrity of my mother and father. We are in a state, in a country where our government wants to impose a narrative of their Party. We are in a state where we cannot raise our voice of dissent, the right given by our constitution. The government is answerable to the voters, we have the right to be angry. But today, we no more have these rights, this is what is happening to this country.”

Prakash Raj underscored the need to ask questions and said, “We need to ask questions and join the people who are asking questions; we have to convey to each boy and girl who is asking aquestion, that he/she is not alone. We will not allow a repeat of what happened to Gauri Lankesh. This is the message we need to give. We need a participatory democracy, need a questioning democracy. If you cannot provide that, we will not choose you.”

Retired Supreme Court Judge Gopal Gowda delivering the key note address, said, “My hope and trust is on you young students, who are going to take charge of this country. You are the only ray of hope to counter all these nonsense issues raised by communal forces. We have to tell these communal forces that their voice is very weak and there is one another strong voice which raises the real issues and I also join your voice in this struggle.” Sharing his experiences he said, “I was one of the founders of the Students’ Federation of India in Karnataka. I participated in the second all India conference of SFI in Kolkata, West Bengal in 1973. We are here to defend secularism and against communalism. The word secularism was added to the Preamble of the Constitution of India by the 42nd amendment. We adopted this Constitution so that our governments can govern the country according to the Constitution but today there is a danger to our Constitution. We cannot tolerate this. Parliamentary democracy which we have accepted under this Constitution also empowers to amend the Constitution but cannot change the basic structure of the Constitution.”

Nitheesh Naryanan, central executive committee member of SFI also addressed the convention and explained the diversity and rich culture of India. The convention resolved to wage a continuous and united struggle against the communal agenda of the Sangh Parivar to convert India into a Hindu Rashtra of RSS, which is against the real spirit of India.