New Delhi, Sep 23 ABVP’s victory in three of the four DUSU seats reflects the younger generation’s belief in nationalism and confidence in the student organisation’s work, ABVP national general secretary Virendra Singh Solanki said on Wednesday.
In an exclusive video interview with PTI, Solanki said Gen Z and campus students understand ABVP’s ideology and support its emphasis on nationalism, social harmony and working for the welfare of all.
“The other reason is that students, particularly the Gen Z generation overall, believe in the idea of nationalism. They know what kind of organisation ABVP is – an organisation that stands on campus and raises slogans of ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ and slogans of nationalism,” he said.
“Neither casteism nor regionalism; nationalism above all,” Solanki said, describing ABVP’s approach.
He said students understand that ABVP “does not practise casteism” and believes everyone should move forward together with a sense of social harmony.
“It is a student organisation that believes in taking everyone along and working for the welfare of all from a larger perspective. Gen Z, the younger generation and campus students are with us because of this ideology as well,” he said.
Solanki also attributed the DUSU victory to the organisation’s sustained ground-level work and delivery on promises made in election manifestos.
“I see two reasons for ABVP’s victory. One is the hard work of our workers, who remained engaged continuously at the ground level, and our candidates, who have been raising student issues and working on them for the past several years,” he said.
“The second is that, whenever students have problems, our cadre is almost always ready to work for them. Students can see that ABVP is an organisation that always works for them,” he said.
Solanki said ABVP’s practice of publishing a report card on the implementation of its manifesto promises had helped build trust among students.
“Whatever points we included in our manifesto, whatever we said in last year’s manifesto, we delivered on those throughout the year. We also published a report card. This created a sense of trust among the student community that, ‘They did what they said they would do.’ This year too, whatever we have said, we will present a report card on it next year,” he said.
Asked about student housing, campus infrastructure and safety issues, Solanki said ABVP had been consistently raising them in its election manifestos.
He said the organisation had sought measures including CCTV cameras and pink booths for the safety of women students and claimed that more than 1,000 CCTV cameras had been installed in Delhi University.
“In the DUSU manifesto before last, we had talked about CCTV cameras for girls’ safety and pink booths. After winning the DUSU elections, we also got these implemented. In Delhi University, the Vidyarthi Parishad has installed more than 1,000 CCTV cameras. DUSU has got them installed,” he said.
He said pink booths, where facilities are exclusively available for women, were functioning and ABVP had demanded a “Vamika Van” staffed by women officers for the safety of female students.
“This time too, we have said in our manifesto that more CCTV cameras are needed. Approximately 2,000 CCTV cameras are required to further strengthen girls’ safety. We are making efforts in that direction and working on it,” Solanki said.
On safety within educational institutions, he said ABVP remained in regular communication with the police administration and helped students whenever incidents occurred.
“Whenever any kind of incident takes place inside an institution, we stand with the students,” he said.
On the challenges faced by ABVP in gaining a majority in the JNUSU, Solanki said JNU was “a different kind of fight” because of the presence of students and groups opposed to ABVP’s ideology.
“JNU is a different kind of fight. There are many people there who fight against the ideology of Vidyarthi Parishad. But there are also students aligned with the Left ideology and people who are, in some ways, misguided and are not aligned (with us) for various reasons,” he said.
He, however, said the organisation had made significant gains in JNU over the past decade.
“You will see that at one point, around 2015, an ABVP presidential candidate used to get 200-300 votes. And in the last JNU election we contested, our candidate got around 2,000 votes. So, in some ways, we have grown significantly over the last 10 years,” he said.
Solanki said young people could be influenced in different directions but would gradually align with ABVP as they understood its ideology and emphasis on nationalism.
“But when they begin to understand the ABVP’s movement, understand nationalism and start thinking in the national interest, and understand the country and society from a broader, larger perspective, they gradually align with us, join us, and ultimately the result is reflected in the votes we receive,” he said.
Rejecting the suggestion that rebellion within the NSUI cadre was a reason for ABVP’s DUSU victory, Solanki said the result was primarily due to the organisation’s work and the trust it built among students.
Asked about student union elections being banned or not being conducted in several universities, he said ABVP was demanding their restoration across states.
“Whether it is Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Telangana or Karnataka, we are demanding everywhere that student union elections must be held,” he said.
“One of our top-priority demands with state governments is that student union elections should be conducted. It is through union elections that social leadership can emerge later, and we have always been demanding this,” Solanki said.
He said ABVP had held protests in several states, including Madhya Pradesh, where it protested in every district seeking student union elections.
“Similarly, in Odisha, elections had not been held for a long time. Vidyarthi Parishad protested last year as well as this year. After that, perhaps this time elections are going to be conducted. So, in several states, we are working towards ensuring that student union elections are held,” he added.
(PTI News)
