JNU : This is what is called a fitting reply

JNU : This is what is called a fitting reply

Sitaram Yechury

This is what is called a fitting reply, and this reply has come from the students of JNU. Lal Salam.
We are all proud of you.

It was just this February when the RSS-BJP network decided to focus its attack on JNU as a symbol of all that went against them.

From charges of sedition to mob violence in court premises to sponsored protests to expulsions to doctored videos on some TV channels, the students of JNU went through a horrid time.

Those targeting them had the support of union ministers, RSS pracharaks, and at times, the full force of the State machinery — not to forget the money power of the ruling party — but the students of JNU were never cowed down.

I couldn't be more proud of my alma mater and the values it instills in its students.
JNU was specially targeted by the BJP-RSS for a reason.
JNU is, in a true sense, a microcosm of the country that we live in.

You will find people from all across India, from various communities — backward, depressed and marginalised — and you will find women, all at an equal footing. This is the real aspirational India — with an aspiration to create a better country, a more equal society with equal opportunities for everyone.

Their aspiration is fired by progressive values, of values which don't differentiate between gender, caste or religion, but want to build an India of their dreams. This aspiration is what unnerves the BJP-RSS.
We have won a significant victory in JNUSU but it is only a battle won.
Many more such battles will have to be won before we win the war against the BJP-RSS and its poisonous ideology. Let us use this occassion to rededicate ourselves to this struggle.

In April 1977 , when I won the JNUSU election believed to be impossible, I had said we don't simply thank JNU students for this victory, we salute them for reposing their faith in the Left and their struggle to create a better India. We salute them again, today.

Lal Salam.