People's Democracy

SFI Jathas Evoke Good Response

Attack On Jatha In Rajasthan

THE SFI central executive committee strongly condemned the attack on the All India Jatha of the SFI on the night of November 16 in Dewal, Udaipur district of Rajasthan. Stones were pelted in a pre-planned manner on the jatha vehicle while it was proceeding on the state highway from Udaipur to Dungarpur and attempts were made to stop the vehicle. Serious damage has been caused to the jatha vehicle. However, all jatha members escaped uninjured. Ritabrata and Sajeesh were leading the jatha along with other state level activists. An FIR has been lodged regarding this attack. 

Dewal is an area with strong RSS presence and earlier this year on September 12, RSS goons attacked the SFI state vice president of Rajasthan, Gautam. The SFI president and general secretary in a statement strongly denounced this dastardly attack and stated that November 18 would be observed as a Protest Day all over India against this attack. 

The All India Jatha of the SFI started on November 1 in two parts as the North-North East and West-South jathas, and has already covered several districts and university/educational centers in Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry and Andhra Pradesh rallying student support for its 11-point charter of demands. During the month-long campaign through this jatha, the SFI will collect 1 crore signatures in support of the charter of demands to be submitted to the prime minister. The students are giving wide support to this jatha on several issues pertaining to the student community, including, spending 6 per cent of the GDP on education, implementing reservations in all educational institutions of our country and stopping the establishment of foreign and private universities in our country. 

“Attacks on the jatha will not deter the SFI from continuing to rally the student community on policy-level issues. The North-North East jatha will proceed as per plan to all the remaining states. The SFI appeals to the student community to stand in solidarity with this campaign to ensure that the union government is forced to concede to the demands of the student community of our country”. (INN)