Building ABVP in Raisoni Campus - Chapter II – The Year of Struggle and Learning (2014 - 2015)
Kedar Deshpande, Raisoni college student and ABVP activist narrates his experience of building ABVP unit in Raisoni Campus
It was one of the initial days of my third year engineering that few students on bikes entered our college and started shouting slogans. I thought it must be some nuisance-creators representing a political party. With the flags, I got to know that this was an ABVP rally. I had little knowledge about the organization, but wished to join the organization to fulfill my wish of being part of social activism. I approached them and instantly was part of their rally inside the college. The rally was followed by college unit declaration and Mahesh was declared as the College Incharge. I tried to meet and interact with him, but could get the chance as he was surrounded by other ABVP activists. My room-partner was classmate of another ABVP activist, and this is how I met Anand. He took my contact details and informed me that he will meet me afterwards. This was how my first interaction with ABVP took place. I still feel today that the bike rally was not required as most of the students looked at it negatively. It looked like a ‘show of strength,’ making me negative about ABVP, but still ABVP was the only option that could introduce me to the world of social activism. Next day I met Anand and he introduced me to Mahesh. I was informed by Mahesh that the college unit is campaigning for the upcoming ‘ABVP Pune City Convention – Chhatra Garjana.’ We had decided to convince maximum students to attend the convention.
While campaigning for city convention, I was asked by Anand to accompany him to a lecture organized by ABVP at NSB Junior College, Yerawada. The experience of my first ABVP event was negative and hence I was skeptical about it. But still in-order to explore the organization, I accompanied him. I was shocked to see that the writer of a book that was prescribed in our syllabus, Prof. Vijay Nawale was the speaker of this lecture. Even more shocking was the fact that such renowned personality who travels entire Maharashtra delivering lectures at mega auditoriums, had come to this small college which had majority of students from slum areas. The lecture went on very well and the college professors thanked ABVP for motivating the students. They informed us that these students usually don’t get a chance to witness such personalities and it was a noble act from a student organization. Prof. Nawale informed me that he is part of ABVP since last 10 years. This changed my view about ABVP drastically. The thought about a student organization which had professors like Nawale Sir and which wanted to motivate students from slum areas for higher education, made me feel positive about ABVP. With this positivity, I took my three friends to the City Convention. I was amazed to see the electrifying environment there. I had a pleasant surprise to know that a student from our college Anand was declared the City Secretary. I thought that it could be an opportunity to learn more about the organization from him and this started our marathon meetings in the college. Next day, Anand informed me about protest at university campus against Ved Prakash Vaidik who had given anti-India statement. I took my friends Abhijeet and Yogesh for this protest, but I regret this today. I knew that this was a symbolic protest. But we went on repeating the protest as one after another media-person arrived. Abhijeet and Yogesh felt negative about it. But, I convinced both as I shared my experience of NSB College. Our first college meeting was about the membership drive. I was happy that my views were taken even into consideration when I had no responsibility in the college unit. We had a brain-storming meeting about the membership drive as the college management had denied us the permission. This resulted in the new members who had joined the organization this year to back out. So as the membership day arrived, we were only 4activists who were ready to be part of the membership drive. We all assembled at 7am near the college gate. We had no banners, no stalls and no posters in the college for campaigning. All we had was pens and writing pads, and yes a lot of determination! We decided that each one would be doing the membership individually at 4 locations in the college. We had decided to keep a target of 500, but even this was an impossible target to achieve. As the membership began, our activists repeatedly got students who informed us that they have already taken the membership. The other three were shocked and confused to know that. I happily informed them that I have already registered around 100 students the previous day hopping from one hostel to another, which gave them a reason to smile! It was like an all-out battle for us. We were seen everywhere. Right from the canteen to class-rooms to the college lawns, we would approach each and every one. The momentum gave us a feeling that we could very well cross the target. At the end of the day, we had enrolled 850 students! The feeling was amazing. We had full confidence that a successful unit would stand-up in the coming days.
The momentum we gained in the membership was lost in the coming days as our team which was responsible for building the college unit was given the task to build college units in the other 20 colleges of Yerawada Bhag. Now instead of discussions of activities in the college, we all were discussing strategies and status of the allocated colleges to each of us. I still feel that the organization should have given us the opportunity to first concentrate in our college, but maybe the organization wanted the students of these colleges to get the platform of a student organization. Maybe they trusted us that along with doing this work, we would honestly complete our basic work of building an active college unit. Coffee shop, the venue for our college meeting remained the venue for the bhag meeting where activists from other college units would come and discuss about the future activities. Even the college meeting would turn into a reporting meeting about the status of other college units. We were successful in establishing our presence in 19 out of the 20 colleges in the bhag. It was a proud moment that most of these units were initiated by Raisoni College activists who travelled to the respective colleges regularly, but this led to stagnation of ABVP activities in our college.
Our first public protest in the college took place on a Sunday! We had condemned repeated cease-fire violation by Pakistan by burning Pakistan’s flag outside the college gate. I got the first opportunity to take gate-meeting and informed students about the issue. We got tremendous support and the photo of the flag burning was printed in one of the newspapers which got viral in the college social-media network. We got another break-through by highlighting the issue of refund of excessive fees as the college fees was decreased by the Shikshan Shulk Samiti. The college had to refund the fees, but most didn’t know that this issue was raised by ABVP. Still it proved to be a confidence booster for our unit. Abhijeet started studying various norms of All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) and other monitoring bodies and we started complaining to the college managements as most of the norms were not followed. The most memorable of them was Abhijeet’s complaint to get the college annual balance sheet uploaded on the college website as per AICTE norms, but the college could not find an acceptable balance sheet which would probably not find them in trouble.
Our focus on the colleges surrounding our college landed us in trouble. Our college team was working with the JSPM Wagholi Unit to protest against the illegal stationary fees of Rs. 8000 charged by the JSPM institutes, when the actual stationary was of Rs. 400. When JSPM college administration had got the information that the leading ABVP activists were from Raisoni College, they called us along with our Principal and HOD’s to JSPM College. This was a clear attempt to blackmail us to step aside from the protest. We clearly stated in-front of our own Principal and HOD’s that we would not step-back against this fight against corruption and if Raisoni College administration tried to block us, we will be forced to protest against Raisoni College administration too. They were taken aback by our reaction, but they continued to pressurize us. Our Principal would call Anand each day in between lectures and pressurize to leave the protest mid-way. We spread this unethical act of the college administration in all the students of our college. There was great anger against the college administration amongst the students. When the Principal called Anand for the third consecutive day, the students conveyed to their professors that they would be calling for a complete strike against pressurizing a student on an issue which was not concerned with the college. Finally the college administration left the issue, but this gave us incredible support from the students and we had a great in-flow of students in the organizations, especially those who knew us.
We organized a lecture on Swami Vivekanand Jayanti. The college administration tried their best to cancel it. They gave us permission three days before the lecture, but suddenly canceled it a day before. As the preparations were already done, we decided to go on with the lecture, but the college didn’t permit ABVP banner in the auditorium. We tied up with NSS and ensured that we organize a successful lecture. This turned out to be the last activity in the college as most of us got pre-occupied with the next task of the organization. Our college team led the preparations of the city convention, Shankhnaad. Right from the permission department to the publicity department; we had Raisoni activists contributing everywhere. Again our college meeting discussed about the city convention and many activists developed new skills campaigning for the convention.
While campaigning for city convention, I was asked by Anand to accompany him to a lecture organized by ABVP at NSB Junior College, Yerawada. The experience of my first ABVP event was negative and hence I was skeptical about it. But still in-order to explore the organization, I accompanied him. I was shocked to see that the writer of a book that was prescribed in our syllabus, Prof. Vijay Nawale was the speaker of this lecture. Even more shocking was the fact that such renowned personality who travels entire Maharashtra delivering lectures at mega auditoriums, had come to this small college which had majority of students from slum areas. The lecture went on very well and the college professors thanked ABVP for motivating the students. They informed us that these students usually don’t get a chance to witness such personalities and it was a noble act from a student organization. Prof. Nawale informed me that he is part of ABVP since last 10 years. This changed my view about ABVP drastically. The thought about a student organization which had professors like Nawale Sir and which wanted to motivate students from slum areas for higher education, made me feel positive about ABVP. With this positivity, I took my three friends to the City Convention. I was amazed to see the electrifying environment there. I had a pleasant surprise to know that a student from our college Anand was declared the City Secretary. I thought that it could be an opportunity to learn more about the organization from him and this started our marathon meetings in the college. Next day, Anand informed me about protest at university campus against Ved Prakash Vaidik who had given anti-India statement. I took my friends Abhijeet and Yogesh for this protest, but I regret this today. I knew that this was a symbolic protest. But we went on repeating the protest as one after another media-person arrived. Abhijeet and Yogesh felt negative about it. But, I convinced both as I shared my experience of NSB College. Our first college meeting was about the membership drive. I was happy that my views were taken even into consideration when I had no responsibility in the college unit. We had a brain-storming meeting about the membership drive as the college management had denied us the permission. This resulted in the new members who had joined the organization this year to back out. So as the membership day arrived, we were only 4activists who were ready to be part of the membership drive. We all assembled at 7am near the college gate. We had no banners, no stalls and no posters in the college for campaigning. All we had was pens and writing pads, and yes a lot of determination! We decided that each one would be doing the membership individually at 4 locations in the college. We had decided to keep a target of 500, but even this was an impossible target to achieve. As the membership began, our activists repeatedly got students who informed us that they have already taken the membership. The other three were shocked and confused to know that. I happily informed them that I have already registered around 100 students the previous day hopping from one hostel to another, which gave them a reason to smile! It was like an all-out battle for us. We were seen everywhere. Right from the canteen to class-rooms to the college lawns, we would approach each and every one. The momentum gave us a feeling that we could very well cross the target. At the end of the day, we had enrolled 850 students! The feeling was amazing. We had full confidence that a successful unit would stand-up in the coming days.
The momentum we gained in the membership was lost in the coming days as our team which was responsible for building the college unit was given the task to build college units in the other 20 colleges of Yerawada Bhag. Now instead of discussions of activities in the college, we all were discussing strategies and status of the allocated colleges to each of us. I still feel that the organization should have given us the opportunity to first concentrate in our college, but maybe the organization wanted the students of these colleges to get the platform of a student organization. Maybe they trusted us that along with doing this work, we would honestly complete our basic work of building an active college unit. Coffee shop, the venue for our college meeting remained the venue for the bhag meeting where activists from other college units would come and discuss about the future activities. Even the college meeting would turn into a reporting meeting about the status of other college units. We were successful in establishing our presence in 19 out of the 20 colleges in the bhag. It was a proud moment that most of these units were initiated by Raisoni College activists who travelled to the respective colleges regularly, but this led to stagnation of ABVP activities in our college.
Our first public protest in the college took place on a Sunday! We had condemned repeated cease-fire violation by Pakistan by burning Pakistan’s flag outside the college gate. I got the first opportunity to take gate-meeting and informed students about the issue. We got tremendous support and the photo of the flag burning was printed in one of the newspapers which got viral in the college social-media network. We got another break-through by highlighting the issue of refund of excessive fees as the college fees was decreased by the Shikshan Shulk Samiti. The college had to refund the fees, but most didn’t know that this issue was raised by ABVP. Still it proved to be a confidence booster for our unit. Abhijeet started studying various norms of All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) and other monitoring bodies and we started complaining to the college managements as most of the norms were not followed. The most memorable of them was Abhijeet’s complaint to get the college annual balance sheet uploaded on the college website as per AICTE norms, but the college could not find an acceptable balance sheet which would probably not find them in trouble.
Our focus on the colleges surrounding our college landed us in trouble. Our college team was working with the JSPM Wagholi Unit to protest against the illegal stationary fees of Rs. 8000 charged by the JSPM institutes, when the actual stationary was of Rs. 400. When JSPM college administration had got the information that the leading ABVP activists were from Raisoni College, they called us along with our Principal and HOD’s to JSPM College. This was a clear attempt to blackmail us to step aside from the protest. We clearly stated in-front of our own Principal and HOD’s that we would not step-back against this fight against corruption and if Raisoni College administration tried to block us, we will be forced to protest against Raisoni College administration too. They were taken aback by our reaction, but they continued to pressurize us. Our Principal would call Anand each day in between lectures and pressurize to leave the protest mid-way. We spread this unethical act of the college administration in all the students of our college. There was great anger against the college administration amongst the students. When the Principal called Anand for the third consecutive day, the students conveyed to their professors that they would be calling for a complete strike against pressurizing a student on an issue which was not concerned with the college. Finally the college administration left the issue, but this gave us incredible support from the students and we had a great in-flow of students in the organizations, especially those who knew us.
We organized a lecture on Swami Vivekanand Jayanti. The college administration tried their best to cancel it. They gave us permission three days before the lecture, but suddenly canceled it a day before. As the preparations were already done, we decided to go on with the lecture, but the college didn’t permit ABVP banner in the auditorium. We tied up with NSS and ensured that we organize a successful lecture. This turned out to be the last activity in the college as most of us got pre-occupied with the next task of the organization. Our college team led the preparations of the city convention, Shankhnaad. Right from the permission department to the publicity department; we had Raisoni activists contributing everywhere. Again our college meeting discussed about the city convention and many activists developed new skills campaigning for the convention.
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ABVP activism helped a lot of us to develop ourselves and to think differently. We failed to organize major events or solve all problems of the students.We failed to garner mass support for the organization, but developed a lot of people who could complete this task in the coming years. We ensured that each one of us had a task to be completed. Each one of us had the opportunity to express his idea. Each one of us had complete authority to criticize us and still remain great friends! Our college which was 22km away from the ABVP Office transformed into a diverse center that could co-ordinate work between 21 colleges was dream come true for us. Our repeated failures created a road-map in our mind to build a wave of student movement that would wake up the conscience of each of the students studying in the college against injustice, which we were able to do the next year. This two years since ABVP was established in the college, proved as a base that would turn the college into a revolution of student activism which would be narrated by Anand in the final chapter. This revolution may be seen as a sudden splurge, but it required efforts of three years in which I joined in the second year. Transforming of lives towards a common goal leaving our negativities, ego’s and interests, is what our college activism taught us and this college unit would be teaching this to every activist in the coming days.
- Narrated by Kedar Deshpande and written by Anand Azaad.
This article is a part of three-article series. You can find the first and the third one by clicking the below links:
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