bhopal

Updated: Sep 21, 2016 10:51 IST

The ABVP – the student wing of the RSS – has decided to take on the BJP government in the state over its alleged indifferent attitude towards quality of higher education and non-resumption of student council election.

The state unit of ABVP decided to gherao the state secretariat in the city on Wednesday over the issues.

The student organisation on Tuesday released a book ‘Disha’ to highlight the poor state of education and problems of students. The book also covers all aspects from recruitment problems to corruption in different fields of higher education, including traditional and medical courses.

“Despite being a part of us and a former ABVP office bearer, chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is not paying any attention to our demands for benefits of the state’s students,” said Vinay Bidre, the national general secretary of the ABVP.

“As we didn’t get any positive response from the chief minister, we opened a forum against his government,” said Bidre, who came to Bhopal to lead Wednesday’s protest.

When asked about RSS’ support in the protest, ABVP state technical wing head Ankit Garg said, “We named the book ‘Disha’ instead of ‘dasha’ because our motive is not just to criticise but also to show the right direction to the state government.”

“RSS leaders are supporting us as they also want upliftment of education in the state. The RSS also believes in democracy and want student election in the state.”

The ABVP leaders said Chouhan was able to brush up his political skill because of the ABVP as he started his political career with the student organisation.

Bidre told HT: “Education minister and chief minister are not willing to implement Lingdo committee recommendations of student council election. Despite demanding for several times, they didn’t pay any attention to it.”

“The student council election is necessary for the keeping the spirit of students alive on campus,” said Bidre.

When contacted about ABVP’s demands, minister of state for education Deepak Joshi said, “ABVP always raised demand for the development of nation. Earlier, we fulfilled many demands of ABVP. We will also discuss all the charter demands and try to fulfill according to rules. I also wanted student council election in the state but it’s not in my hand.”

ABVP state unit general secretary Rohin Rai said: “We feel the government has only talked of higher education but has done nothing to improve the quality of education as a result Madhya Pradesh is lagging behind other states.”

Citing violence on campus, direct student council election was banned in the state in 2008. In 2011, a student council election was held on the basis of merit but it was also banned.

Garg said, “It is not necessary that violence takes place in every election. If violence is a problem, they should ban panchayat and civic body elections.”