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Sunday, April 28, 2013

MARTYR COMRADE SUDIPTO GUPTA: THE SPEARHEAD OF STRUGGLE FOR DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS IN THE CAMPUSES!


MARTYR COMRADE SUDIPTO GUPTA: THE SPEARHEAD OF STRUGGLE FOR DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS IN THE CAMPUSES!

2013-04-27


From India News Network (INN)

New Delhi, April 27: Students’ Federation of India (SFI) Central Executive Committee has issued the following statement.

Observe 2nd May as Martyr Comrade  Sudipto Gupta Day throughout the Country!

2nd May will mark one month since the cold blooded murder of our beloved Comrade Sudipto Gupta in Kolkata. The series of events since then clearly reflect the values for which Sudipto Gupta laid down his life. The mass upsurge of anger and grief transcended the boundaries of the state in which he lived, and today he has joined the ranks of those young men and women who in the course of our history have been murdered by the ruling classes, just because they dared to dream of a better world, a world free of exploitation.

There were popular protests throughout the country demanding independent judicial probe into the murder, but this demand is yet to be realized. Police has failed to submit its report to the State Human Rights Commission and the entire state machinery of the state of West Bengal seems to be acting as the arm of the ruling party. Situation in the state has only worsened further, with a campaign of vicious terror being unleashed in West Bengal .Trinamool supporters have been on the rampage across the State and more than1500 offices of the Left parties and student organization have been attacked, vandalized and set on fire.

 Presidency University was vandalized, students and teachers were indiscriminately attacked and the century-old Baker laboratory was damaged by the Trinamool goons who barged into the campus.

  A first year student and SFI activist Comrade Santosh Sahani  of the Surya Sen College in Siliguri was jailed just because he participated in a rally against the Trinamool terror and in spite of being in emotional trauma; his leg was tied in fetters on the hospital bed, an act of medieval barbarism. Entire state is today moving towards a humanitarian crisis, with the ruling party ready to curb every single voice of dissent. Comrade Santosh was in the same bus in which Comrade Sudipto was also there after arrest on 2nd April. He is the eye witness of the murder of Comrade Sudipto.

It is in this context that Sudipto’s martyrdom becomes even more relevant. He died fighting for the restoration of campus democracy in West Bengal, and today when we pledge to carry forward his legacy then it can be only through the further intensification of the struggle of democratic rights in West Bengal as well as in the entire country.

 Students across the campuses have been fighting for their democratic rights which have been continuously denied by the governments. Lyngdoh Committee which professed to cleanse student politics of ‘money and muscle power’ has been actually used to curb student activism in the campuses and the ‘mandatory provision of student union elections’ have been religiously violated by one state government after another.

In the last two decades of neo-liberal reforms, ruling classes have systematically acted to depoliticize the campuses; but instances such as the large scale participation of students and youth after the Delhi Gang rape expose their biggest fear. Infiltration of the non-students by the ruling class political parties has repeatedly been used to label the genuine democratic aspirations as potential threat to the academic environment (as seen in Jamia Millia Islamia, BHU and Allahabad University among many others).

 The fight for campus democracy in essence is simultaneously a struggle against the neo-liberal model of education. And as Sudipto’s death had taught us the fight for the democratic rights of one section of society in essence is also the struggle for the democratic rights of all the sections of society.

When on the 2nd May one Month will have passed since the starry eyed comrade was snatched away from us, it is our foremost duty to intensify the struggle for campus democracy in the campuses across the country.


Today Sudipto Gupta has emerged as the spearhead of struggle for democratic rights in the campuses of the country and in the one month since his death, our experience has taught us that this struggle is going to be a hard fought one. Central Executive Committee of the Students’ Federation of India calls upon all its state units to observe 2nd May as Martyr Comrade Sudipto Gupta Day. The clarion call of 2nd May will be-

Martyr Comrade Sudipto Gupta: The spearhead of struggle for democratic rights in the campuses!


The just and legitimate demand for an independent judicial probe into the murder of our beloved Comrade will be voiced throughout the campuses in the country. Through concrete struggles we will remain true to the memory of our brave Comrade.



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