The Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) is preparing a book on what it terms the “urban naxal” phenomenon and will be publishing it in March next year, right in time for the elections.
BJYM president Poonam Mahajan said the organisation had, in the course of her tenure, set up study circles to go into issues of the day, and that the book, authored by BJYM office-bearer Digvijay Singh, was a result of one such study circle’s discussions and research on the issue.
“The book is a product of our study circle discussions and research, it consists of nine chapters written by various people who did ground research,” she said. “It is likely to be published in March,” she added.
The chapters will deal not only with the situation in Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected districts, but also sites, which the BJYM feels leads to these ideologies permeating urban spaces, including universities. One such university that has been featured in the book is Pune University. Recent arrests of activists in the Bheema-Koregaon case by the Pune police had created a furore, and has now gone into a protracted legal battle.
The BJP has held fast to its view that the activists were an urban intellectual face of Left-wing armed insurrection, while others have said that activism among tribal poor cannot be conflated with violence.