Statement in Solidarity with Protesting Students & Youth in India

South Asia Solidarity Group organised a march from Trafalgar Square to the Indian High Commission in London on the 26th of July in solidarity with protests in India led by Students and Youth.

The following statement was heard on the day, praising the uprising by students and youth who are demanding basic rights to education in the face of fascist state brutality.

Statement

Friends, we are here today to celebrate the amazing victory of the students who through their extraordinary courage, determination and unity have brought this arrogant fascist government to its knees, forcing the resignation of the Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. We echo the words of Neha Bora, the student leader of AISA, who as you know was on hunger strike for 23 days along with her AISA comrades Manish and Aameen. She said this collective victory fills us with joy because it tells us that more victories are possible.

The young people of India have shaken off the fear and apathy which is what fascism thrives on, and now there can be no turning back. The massive celebrations across India are ringing with the slogan – Dharmendra Pradhan was just the trailer – Modi and Shah are next!

But as well as celebrating we in the diaspora are watching the ongoing persecution of students and youth who participated in the movement – particularly Muslims. This government is not just corrupt, it is not just crony capitalist, plundering for corporate profit, it is not just an ally of the US and Israel on the global stage. It is all those things but it is also a Hindu supremacist fascist regime.

Ethnic cleansing of Muslims and other minorities is its core agenda. Already we are seeing the targeting of Muslim students in West Bengal under the communal Goonda Supression Act which denies a basic right to legal representation or a trial. In Assam too Muslim students are being targeted. And Mohammed Junaid, who was feeding the cockroach protestors from the very beginning as a volunteer has been targetted and his family home threatened with bulldozer demolition.

Meanwhile in Bihar, where live bullets were fired on student protestors, AISA and CPI(ML) activists remain in jail. So government assurances that no-one will be targeted are not good enough. Every single arrested person must be immediately released and this persecution must stop! Home Minister Amit Shah, who is responsible for the pellet guns, sexual assaults, electric prods, and nail studded batons used by the police against students, must resign!

We in South Asia Solidarity Group were here outside the High Commission in 2019, along with our friends in Strive UK, in our hundreds protesting in solidarity with the anti-CAA movement. We remember that activists and scholars Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam are still in jail, awaiting trial and repeatedly denied bail. We demand their immediate release! We were here too protesting in solidarity with the historic Farmer’s Movement in 2021. And before that, we were here to remember Rohith Vemula who was institutionally murdered by his University and to support the movement in his name.

As the students of AISA have said, the movement we are celebrating today was built on the shoulders of those earlier movements, which were led by the most marginalized. We would like to particularly remember the courageous struggle of Dalit student S. Anitha who was the first to challenge the injustice of the NEET system and ultimately died by suicide.

The horrific violence which the students have faced has been long practiced by this regime against Muslims, Adivasis, Dalits, workers, and the people of Kashmir. We know about the terrible damage caused by pellet guns because of their habitual use against the adults and children of Kashmir.

The movement we are celebrating today is about the basic right to education free of corruption and exploitation, but it became about much more than that too. It was a test of whether united, steadfast resistance could challenge the Modi regime and force it to concede. Today the young people of India have given us the answer to that question. It has filled us with hope that this is the beginning of the final defeat of fascism!

Jai Bhim! Inqilab Zindabad!

Images from the day