The AISA Palamu unit took out a students’ rights march on 31 October 2017 at Daltonganj against the Jharkhand government’s 70% to 90% scholarship cuts, the increasing incidents of rape and violence against women students, and the pushing out of Palamu’s students and youth through the ‘domicile policy’. The march started at the Shivaji Park grounds and culminated at the DC office where a meeting was held and a memorandum submitted to the Governor. Addressing the meeting, AISA National Vice President Com. Neeraj said that as soon as the Modi government came to power they started attacking all Universities thinking that the Universities would surrender and bow to the RSS ideology. But the students from the villages in Palamu district are proof that the Modi government has not succeeded in this agenda and the students and youth are organizing themselves to fight for their right to education and employment. He further said that by putting up huge hoardings of Modi and Raghubar with Patel, the government is, at the cost of the hard-earned money of the people, trying to whitewash RSS’s betrayal of the freedom struggle. Similarly, crores of rupees were thrown down the drain in the celebrations to mark the 1000 days’ completion of the Raghubar government while 70% to 90% cuts were made in scholarships to Jharkhand’s SC/ST/OBC students, pushing out lakhs of poor students from the benefit of education. Com. Neeraj pointed out that incidents of rape and violence are increasing in Jharkhand’s educational institutions; no committee against sexual violence has been formed in any institution despite directives from the Supreme Court and the UGC. This exposes the truth behind the hollow slogans of ‘Save the girl child, educate the girl child’ touted by the Modi and Raghubar governments. He said that the student-youth movement would be strengthened through the ‘Chhatra Yuva Adhikar Yatra’ and the struggle for education and employment would be carried forward.
