|
The mother of Martyr comrade Veeraswamy (Mahesh), APRSU (Andhra Pradesh Radical
Students Union) Secretary, hoisted the AIRSF flag inaugurating the 5th
Conference of the AIRSF, on the morning 19 Nov., 1999. Feeling the presence of
her son amongst the gathering of students, the mother said she was proud of what
her son had lived and died for. All the delegates, the successors of their
beloved martyrs, like Comrade Veeraswamy, responded with slogans "We will
continue the task left by our martyrs,"martyrs are immortal"... and sang the
song "We are Communists" in all languages.
The delegates attended the flag hoisting ceremony after a big rally wound its
way around Delhi University campus. It was an entirely new experience for this
campus. Delegates from 11 states of India, together with fraternal delegates and
volunteers, attended the session. After the conclusion of the inaugural session,
the conference began by 12 noon on November 24th.
The Conference hall, near the Delhi University campus, was named after Com.
Janardhan, General Secretary of the AIRSF, elected at the previous Conference
and killed by the Andhra police in a false encounter. The hall was decorated
with the portraits of student martyrs who had laid down their lives to advance
the revolutionary student movement in India. The outgoing President, Com.
Jayaramchandran, in his welcome address, severly condemned the repression on the
revolutionary student movement, particularly the APRSU. The chairperson of the
Reception Committee, Gautam Navlakha, gave the inaugral address where he
stressed the need for commitment and critical thinking to forge a strong
revolutionary movement.
Later, the representatives of the fraternal organisations delivered their
messages. They were from the All India Nepal Students Association (AINSA); All
Nepalese National Independent Students Union (Revolutionary); progressive
Students Union (P.S.U.), Goa; and the Nav Jawan Chatra Morcha, J & K. The
representative from Nepal gave a detailed account of the ongoing people's war in
Nepal.
After the lunch break, the chief guest of the Conference, Prof. R. S. Rao,
presented his speech. He pointed out that the crisis in education was due to the
seperation of education from the real problems of the people.
Before the final conference, the delegate session, a closed meeting, was held
with elected representatives of all consistuent organisations. This delegate
session was held one month before the final conference to finalise the
modalitise of the Manifesto, Constitution and Political resolution of the
Federation. All the three documents were kept for discussion by the 5 member
steering Committee. All the delegates brought the amendments, questions from
various state forums and all were taken up for discussion. After thorough
discussion some amendments were taken to include and documents were finalised.
All the delegates took serious interest in finalising the documents for final
Conference of Delhi. As it is the year of 50th anniversary of Chinese
revolution, Mahaaashtra VPS delegates put up poster exhibition in the conference
hall. And a film show was conducted on "Scientific education in China."
The political resolution was explained by the Steering Committee to delegates.
The political resolution briefly summed up the present state of education system
and the emerging trends of privatisation, commercialisation and communalisation
of education in the light of national and international political situation.
Basing on the above political analysis, the immediate tasks of the student
movement were identified such as: fight against new education policy and other
imperialist dictated policies, fight against privatisation, commercialisation
and communalisation, fight against imperialist culture etc. On 30th morning the
manifesto and constitution were presented by the steering committee. The three
years work review, the positive achievements and shortcomings were explained in
the Secretary's Report Apart from several movements led by constituent
organisations in their respective states and some central calls by AIRSF Central
E.C, revolutionary students have been continuing to spread the revolutionary
politics among the peasant worker masses through 'Go to village' campaign every
year. AIRSF was further strengthened with three new organisations from Punjab,
Haryana and Uttar Pradesh becoming its constituents. Yet the secretary's report
mentioned in all humility: “our achievements are a drop in the ocean, still we
have to achieve a lot." The report pointed out that many student leaders
belonging to AIRSF constituent units all over India sacrificed their lives in
order to develop revolutionary student movement. Finally a new 12-member EC was
elected by the conference. The EC elected a 5-member secretariat with Com.
Ashish from Calcutta and Com Archana (Delhi) as their President and General
Secretary respectively. Conference passed resolutions on many current issues
such as - against Diesel Price hike, against attacks on minorities, against the
death sentence of the accused in Rajiv assasination case etc.
Around 700 delegates sang the International in all languages bringing to a close
5th AISF Conference on 30th November at 1 p.m.
At about 3 p.m. a procession started from Shyamlal college passed through
working class bastis and reached the public meeting place at Indira Park in
Shahdara. This student rally enthused the workers who poured into public meeting
ground in hundreds.
On 1st December, all the student delegates rallied to HRD ministry office
protesting against the anti-student policies of the Vajpayee government.
Already, all the constituent units of the MRSF conducted a wide signature
campaign on a charter of demands. This charter of demands including the
collected signatures were submitted to the Secretary of HRD ministry. After
returning from the HRD office AIRSF secretariat gave the call to all delegates
to intensify the student movement to achieve all these demands in the course of
the new democratic revolution.
|
