The All India Students Association (AISA) held its 10th National Conference at a time when the people of India, and students in particular, have been consistently resisting the fascist onslaught of the Narendra Modi regime for the past nine years. The two-day national conference was inaugurated at the Purbashree Auditorium, Bidhannagar (Kolkata) with paying homage to the departed leaders and martyrs. With the slogans ‘Young India Wants Education and Dignified Jobs, Not Hate Mobs’, and ‘Build India of Bhagat Singh and Ambedkar’s Dreams’, the national conference was organised between August 9th and 11th, with the stage was named ‘Rohith Vemula - Payal Tadvi Manch’, and the hall was named ‘Chandrashekhar - Prashanta Paul’.
An open session was held on August 9th, the Foundation Day of AISA, this was addressed by CPIML WB State Secretary Abhijit Majumdar, Sandeep Saurav, Sucheta De and Jadavpur University Professor Manas Ghosh after which a cultural programme was also organised.
At the inaugural session of the conference, AISF National President Shubham Banerjee said that left student organisations must come together to fight the anti-people and anti-student policies of the Modi-BJP Government, which has unleashed an onslaught against the common people of this country. SFI National Vice-President Prateekur Rahman said that Modi-Shah is destroying the unity, plurality and the diversity of the country by implementing Hindi-Hindu-Hindustan.
Educationist Kumar Rana and founding member of All Bengal Students’ Association Nilkant Acharya, leaders of left fraternal organisations – PSU General Secretary Naufaul Saifulla and DSO State President Manishankar gave their solidarity speeches on the occasion.
CPIML General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya said, “At a time when AISA is having its historic conference, many student activists like Umar Khalid, Gulfisha Fatima who fought for campus democracy and civil rights are languishing in jails under false cases. Just like Bhima Koregaon, the conspiracy to criminalise the anti-CAA protests is part of the larger plan to destroy Ambedkar’s India.” He added that there is a greater responsibility on students to expose how the government is turning young India into mobs to carry out their hate politics against Muslims and other oppressed communities. “It is important that AISA rises to the occasion and stops this practice of young people being used for hate politics and build a strong students’ movement that will build an India of the dreams of Babasaheb Ambedkar and Bhagat Singh,” he said.
At the inaugural session, Neeraj Kumar of Revolutionary Youth Association said, “This national conference is happening at a crucial time when the country’s resources are being sold to crony capitalists. When the youth voted BJP into power and demanded employment and education, the regime gave guns in the hands of Manipur youth to fight against their own people. Youth are being given swords to fight against Muslims in the country, thus subverting the secular fabric of the nation. We need to fight against such an onslaught.” Comrade Indrani Dutta of AIPWA, Kalpana Wilson of South Asia Solidarity Group, and others addressed the gathering.
On the concluding day of the Conference, delegates adopted a report on current situation and tasks along with the amendments to the AISA Constitution. An AISA GSCASH Policy was also adopted by the house.
A National Council with 171 members and an Executive Committee with 65 members were elected at the conference, with Nilasis Bose as the National President and Prasenjeet Kumar as General Secretary. A 15-member office bearers’ team was elected with Madhurima Kundu, Chanda Yadav, Sundar Rajan, Triloki Nath, Klengdung Phangcho, and Shivam Safeer as National Secretaries and Neha Bora, Lekha Adavi, Sabir Kumar, Md. Waquar Azam, Subrat Talukdar and Ankit Uchholi as the National Vice-Presidents.
