the goan I network
PANAJI
The Students Islamic Organisation (SIO) on Wednesday said they will be approaching all national and regional political parties in Goa and across the country with their “Students Manifesto,” as students comprise a significant chunk of the electorate at the Lok Sabha elections and those from minority communities are feeling unsafe.
Addressing a press conference at the “Center for Study of Philosophy and Humanities”, Er Syed Azharuddin, the general secretary of the national SIO said that while students and youth constituted a large part of the voting-eligible population, political parties often did not assign enough importance to them in their election manifestos. As such, the SIO is in the process of meeting political parties with the aim of getting them to incorporate student demands.
Azharuddin also said that in the SIO’s interactions with students across the country which were held before creating the Students Manifesto, it came to light that students were not feeling safe under the current government, and that this had to change, whichever government came to power next.
“There is a lack of security for students especially in Central universities,” he said. “Not only for Muslim students but for students from all minority communities including religious and social minorities like the backward classes, SCs and STs. They’re feeling insecure,” he said.
The youth leader referred to the specific instance of Rohith Vemula who was allegedly forced to commit suicide in 2016 after ideological differences with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), a right-wing student organisation affiliated to the RSS. Azharuddin also spoke about the mob lynchings that have taken place in BJP-ruled states and said that this was a violation of human rights.
Besides this, the SIO also demands that compensation be given to youth from minority communities who have been arrested under false charges. The youth leader addressed students in Mapusa for an hour on Wednesday evening, and said that students would be mobilised to vote for whichever parties heard their voice and included their demands in their manifesto.
The focus of the Student Manifesto is three-fold: Education, Student-Youth Issues, and Human Rights. The youth leader has already met State Congress President Girish Chodankar, who he said had been open to the demands. Members of the organisation said that they would also be meeting leaders from other political parties if time permitted.
