With thousands of heads marching under the saffron flag of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) on the roads of Kerala’s Capital, the communist citadel apparently turned saffron for the day. In a massive show of strength of student community, more than 50,000 students who came from all across the nation to participate in ABVP’s “Chalo Kerala” rally on Saturday marched on the streets of Thiruvananthapuram, thus carpeting it completely.
The march against the left party Government in Kerala was carried out protesting against killings of hundreds of the BJP-RSS-ABVP activists in past. ABVP alleges that these murders are done under the political patronage of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and left Government in power.
ABVP also blamed the CM and members of his party
CPI (M) are responsible for providing ‘political patronage’ for the killings and to the ‘perpetrators’.
Left Democratic Front (LDF) is in power at Kerala and Pinarayi Vijayan of CPI (M) is the Chief Minister. ABVP alleges that Students’ Federation of India (SFI), which is the student wing of CPI (M) rules the campuses in Kerala by creating an atmosphere of ‘terror’ and ‘threatening’ those who dare to stand with ‘nationalist’ ideology.
The massive rally by ABVP was a showcase the India’s “Unity in Diversity” in the real sense as it was marked by the presence of hundreds of students from all states, marching in well organised columns.
Students from Bihar, Delhi, UP, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, all north-eastern States and from almost all states participated in quite large numbers.
Also, students who came from all across the Kerala were almost equivalent in numbers to those who came from outside. They came from almost all colleges and universities spread across all districts of Kerala.
The ‘nationalist surge’ in the left bastion was evident as the strong student community of Kerala reverberated the city with the loud chants of “Bharat Mata Ki Jai” and “Vande Mataram”. Common people said that the massive support for ABVP, especially from the Kerala’s students, is a reason enough to worry not only for SFI but even for its parent party and all left parties in general.
Interestingly, the Kerala students were seen carrying the saffron flag with image of warrior Maratha king Chhatrapati Shivaji” on it. “Shivaji is the real hero and revered character for all nationalist minded people.We take pride in associating with him,” said Shakuntla, a student from Kerala.
Even common people who watched the massive march standing on roadside said that they have never seen such a huge gathering in any rally ever before.”This is indicative of a big change that we are going o witness in coming days. I remember that 10 years before it was hard to find even 10 students of ABVP in the campuses in Kerala but now the things have changed,” said Abhilash , who came from adjoining district of Kollam.
Despite of such a huge gathering the march was largely peaceful and orderly standing true to ABVP’s moto of “Gyan, sheel and Ekta”. However, when ABVP Kerala unit was marching in front of Government Sanskrit College they pelted couple of stones on SFI posters that talks of banning “RSS” and “BJP”. They alleged that it was left students who first threw stones from inside on the rally. However, nothing happened and the march went on peacefully.
The march which started from near Museum located at Vellayambalam road passed through Kerala Legislative Assembly and finally ends at East Fort grounds. The rally was addressed by ABVP office-bearers who came from all across the nation.