The Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) will organise a nationwide campaign from March 6 to 10, highlighting the need to protect campuses from intolerance allegedly being propagated by Sangh Parivar organisations.
DYFI national president P.A. Mohammed Riyas told the media here on Tuesday that the campaign was to express solidarity with the Students Federation of India (SFI) in the wake of a protest by Delhi University student Gurmehar Kaur against the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), an affiliate of the RSS.
The student, daughter of Kargil braveheart Captain Mandeep Singh, had posted photographs of herself holding a placard saying, ‘I am not afraid of the ABVP, after violent incidents at Ramjas College, New Delhi.
In a democracy, Mr. Riyas said, people, who had the right to elect their representatives, also had the right to criticise them. “Anyone who criticise them were now labelled as anti-national,” he said. The DYFI will organise a campaign against pseudo–nationalism on March 23 by conducting a bike rally across the country. Pamphlets will be distributed between March 15 and 20. The DYFI also planned to make short films on the subject of rising intolerance and the right to freedom of expression on campuses for public screening, he said.
