Fed up with radical Left politics, students support our constructive work: ABVP

The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) is one of those organisations that actually got "achhe din" under the BJP regime. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-supported students' body had a dismal presence in the universities till 2013. Now you can find them behind and within every ideological controversy, and those not restricted to campuses. National general secretary of ABVP, Vinay Bidre, explains his side in an interview with dna's Kanchan Srivastava. Edited excerpts:

ABVP was hardly visible two years ago. Who do you give credit for this extraordinary expansion and vigour?

Our membership has seen a steady rise over the years. And it is natural expansion. When the Modi government took over, we had over 21 lakh students across India as our members. Over 10 lakh new members were added in 2014-15. We are yet to compile the 2015-16 data, but the addition is estimated to be nearly 8-10 lakh. The credit goes to students, especially from those campuses where ultra-Leftists have been ruling for years. Our support base has grown exponentially in elite institutes such as central universities, IITs, NITs, ISc and others.

Despite the rising numbers, you hardly seem to be fighting for students' real issues, such as NEET, skewed hostel facilities, jobs and increasing privatisation of higher education. Why don't you go beyond the RSS ideology of ultra-nationalism, saffronisation of education and so on?

Ideological issues constitute only 20% of our agenda. Rest of the 80% is focused on students' issues only. But that work hardly gets any media attention. We have been advocating strongly for the NEET and aggressively pursued the matter with the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD). Eventually, it is being implemented. There are practical issues in implementing it from this year itself, but they can be resolved. This would help keep profiteering of private medical institutes in check.

We are also highlighting the issue of commercialisation of education and how the government's own bodies, such as MCI, UGC and AICTE, have fuelled its growth. We are seeking policy intervention from the MHRD. We organise exhibitions for arts students, technology-cum-entrepreneurship workshops to showcase projects of engineering students, etc. Moreover, thought ABVP and RSS follow the same ideology, the Sangh never interferes in our day-to-day activities.

But your 20% agenda is polarising the campuses and damaging the reputation of the Modi government. For instance, Kanhaiya kumar's arrest under the sedition charges, which boomeranged and made him a hero.

We use our ideology for constructive purposes. Discussion on patriotism is very important, especially when you see how radical Leftists have been propagating intellectual terrorism in the campuses for years. We welcome Leftist student groups and wish to work with them. But we oppose anti-national groups. Ultra-Leftist student organisations and Maoists are the same. Both pursue destructive agenda. The JNU students union is 100% Naxal. A Naxal-student group in JNU was banned by the UPA government, but its members are still working secretly. The law enforcing agencies are helpless. They are not allowed to enter the campus. We are now preparing a list of all such campuses in India where radical Left or Naxal groups are active. We will also seek a policy that allows cops to search the campuses. In case of Kanhaiya Kumar, we didn't hold any protest against him. It's Congress and Commies who made him a hero. We ignore him. Talking about Kanhaiya is a waste of time.

Earlier, you had protested against the screening of 'Muzaffarnagar Baaqi Hai' at Hyderabad central university, for it exposed right wing politics. But now you want students to watch 'Buddha in a Traffic Jam', as the film showcases the right wing agenda.

ABVP supports this film as we want to expose the Naxal groups operating from campuses. We want to show how several professors are drawing salaries from the government coffers but supporting Naxalism directly or indirectly by brainwashing the students. A large number of students in the Left-strong campuses are fed up and frustrated with the negativity. Now, they wish to talk about such pro-Naxal and radical elements. A film like this will help them to speak out. That's why, only 200 students protested against the film's screening while 4,000 supported it.

Have you ever asked Smriti Irani where is that new education policy, for which you have also given inputs? She had promised to bring it out by 2015.

Yes. We are following up the issue with the MHRD and have been informed that it would be released soon. Everyone is looking forward to it.