People's Democracy
(Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)
No. 05
February 02, 2014
|
Vol. XXXVIII
No. 05 February 02, 2014 |
Resolve to Oppose
Private Varsities
Dr Bhausaheb Zirpe
Dr Ravindra Madne
IT was a
scenario of
great zeal and enthusiasm when a procession of shouting slogan
students, with
flags in their hands, hit the busiest roads of the historic
city of
While
addressing
the public meeting, Nilotpal Basu described how the ruling
class parties are
fighting on who will be the next prime minister while the
actual need today is
to change the policies. Dr Ashok Dhawale, at present the
secretary of
Maharashtra state unit of the CPI(M), dwelt on the destructive
role of the Congress
led government at the centre as well as in
On the next
day, the
inaugural session was held at Govindbhai Shroff Hall where the
state SFI president
Bhausaheb Zirpe hoisted the organisation’s flag. Amid loud
slogans, the
delegates and leaders saluted the flag and paid homage at the
Martyrs Column,
before entering the hall. The hall was named after Dr Narendra
Dabholkar, a
martyr, and the stage was named after martyred SFI comrade,
Sudipto Gupta.
Reception
committee
chairman and well known political analyst Jaydev Dole welcomed
the delegates to
the historic city of
A presidium
comprising Bhausaheb Zirpe, Mohan Jadhav, Balaji Kaletwad and
Manjushri Kabade
was elected to conduct the proceedings of the conference. The
steering
committee comprised Vinod Govindwar, Datta Chavan and Shrikant
Bhosale. A resolutions
committee, a minutes committee and a credentials committee
were also elected.
State secretary Vinod Govindwar placed the condolence
resolution, whereafter the
delegates paid homage by observing two minute silence.
State
secretary Vinod
Govindwar placed the draft political and organisational report
which, after
dealing with the ongoing international and national
developments, pointed to
the poor status of education and its availability in the state
and the apathy
of the state government to release the funds for education. He
also mentioned
the major activities taken up by the organisation since the
previous
conference. These included activities to oppose the private
universities act
and the holding of a large rally of students and youth on
November 29, in
cooperation with the DYFI, on the issues of education and
employment. This year
saw a big success in mobilisation of students. The report also
discussed the
recommendations of the Lingdoh committee for student union
elections. In its organisational
part the report noted that though there were signs of
improvement in some
districts, shortcomings still persisted. Regular attendance,
participation of
members in deliberations, regular check-up and criticism as
well as self
criticism will ensure the proper functioning of the state
unit, the report asserted.
Delegates
from all
the districts spoke on the report for about four hours. Apart
from sharing their
experiences gained while doing work in their respective areas,
they mentioned
the problems they are facing and various ways they adopted to
deal with them. The
delegates resolved to build up struggle against the current
policies by taking up
the local issues and to consolidate the organisation.
A special
session
was conducted after that. Dr Ashok Dhawale spoke about the
qualities required in
an organisation leader --- that he needs to be soft-spoken,
clear, cool-headed
and inclusive. He also spoke about Shahid Bhagat Singh’s
passion for books and
his consistent effort to gain knowledge. These are the
qualities that leaders
should imbibe. This will strengthen the organisation and help
us in facing the
opposition.
A total of
12
resolutions were moved at the conference. These were on
opposing the opening of
private universities and on strengthening the government
universities, on the recommendation
by the Lingdoh committee, on the need to fight for various
facilities in tribal
students’ hostels and schools, on taking the organisation to
private and
professional education institutions, on the need to oppose the
communal and sectarian
forces, on the need to oppose social injustice in the form of
caste panchayats
and honour killing, on strengthening the struggle against
gender based
violence, on the demand for increases in scholarships and
freeships for EBC
students. All these resolutions were adopted unanimously.
Balaji
Kaletwad put
forth the credentials report which stated that a total of 185
delegates came
from 17 districts; among that 44 were girls. About 10
delegates were attending
the conference for the first time that indicated that a new
team is getting ready
to take the struggle forward.
The
conference
unanimously elected a 31 member state committee which in turn
elected a 10 member
secretariat, with Mohan Jadhav as president and Datta Chavan
as secretary. A
passionate felicitation programme was held for the outgoing
state SFI leaders
that included Bhausaheb Zirpe, Vinod Govindwar, Shrikant
Bhosale, Seema Jivrag,
Sarita Sharma and Prashant Vidhate.
The newly
elected state
president, Mohan Jadhav, expressed gratitude for the
