'BJP's curriculum will make students cheap labour': AISA holds student parliament

NEW DELHI: The All India Students' Association (AISA) held a student parliament at Jantar Mantar protesting against the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and other recent reforms on the education front such as the Common University Entrance Test (CUET), Four Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP), and the Choice Based Credit System (CBCS).

According to a statement from AISA, students from more than 25 universities joined the AISA's student parliament protesting against NEP 2020, FYUP, CUET, CBCS and also the communal hatred propagated by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Teachers, activists and opposition leaders such as Manoj Jha, Dipankar Bhattacharyya, Ratan Lal, Uma Rag, Shivani Nag, Kamlanand Jha, Arvind Kumar, Apoorvanand Jitendra Meena and others spoke at the AISA student parliament at Jantar Mantar.

"People are united. It's time for parties to unite and resist the anti-people policies. Just like the farm laws, it's time to go back to the villages," said professor Manoj Jha while speaking about NEP 2020. CPIML general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharyya spoke about "the unspoken policy" of making it difficult for Muslim women to get an education by creating a Hijab controversy and criticised the Bajrang Dal for training individuals to take up arms on educational premises. Ratan Lal spoke on BR Ambedkar's ideals in the Constitution regarding social equality and public education for all. He accused BJP of attempting to deny this fundamental right.

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"The curriculum that BJP is passing off as education is just a mode making students cheap labour for corporates!" said Shivani Nag, a teacher at the Ambedkar University Delhi (AUD). According to Uma Rag, professor at IPCW and Delhi Teacher's Initiative Convenor, the NEP 2020 is a direct gateway for students to be left out of education and employment. Sandeep Sourav, who is the AISA General Secretary and also Paliganj MLA, said that the NEP has a corporate agenda and it can be traced back to the Ambani Birla report. He further said that the corporates are looking for such kind of marketization and accused prime minister Narendra Modi of giving it to them.

The student parliament organised by AISA resolved to continue the fight against NEP 2020 and demanded its abolition.

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