Jignesh Mevani announces setting up of SSS

Activist from Gujarat to form dedicated organisation against rightist forces

Jignesh Mevani, a prominent social activist from Gujarat, on Tuesday announced the setting up of Samvidhan Suraksha Samiti (SSS) to counter the influence of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangha (RSS) in the country.

Mevani, an advocate by profession, was addressing the cadres of the Campus Front of India (CFI) during its students vigil conference organised at Town Hall in the city. The conference titled ‘Mothers Cry for Justice’ aimed at ensuring justice for Radhika Vemula, mother of Rohit Vemula, and Nafeesath, mother of Najeeb Ahmed. Vemula, a research scholar at the Central University of Hyderabad (CUH) committed suicide allegedly due to some issues with the university authorities, a year ago. Najeeb Ahmed, a student of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, went missing mysteriously from the campus on October last.

The activist also announced that it was for the first time that he was disclosing before the media about the Samiti that will have its branches in every state and district in the country. Wherever the RSS has a branch, the SSS will set up a branch, said Mevani, with the sole intention of checking the recurrence of Rohit Vemula and Najeeb Ahmed-like incidents henceforth. 

Mevani launched a tirade against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and dared the latter to bring back Najeeb and also Vemula, as he often called himself as a man with ‘Chappan Inch Ka Seena’ (man with 56-inch chest).

Mincing no words, Mevani who called the RSS and other right wing organisations as emerging threats to the internal security of the country, especially after Modi became the prime minister, reminded the gathering that ‘Note Bandhi’ (demonetisation of notes), ‘Manuvad’ (proposition of religion) and the Gujarat model are three dangerous developments in the country.

Mevani termed the Gujarat model as nothing but a combination of fascism and communalism that claimed the lives of hundreds of innocent Muslims in the Godhra pogrom.

Blanket of fear

Prof P Koya, national general secretary of the National Confederation of Human Rights Organisations (NCHRO) from Kerala, appealed to the gathering to remove the wet blanket of fear that has enveloped the country.

Koya said, such is the fret among the people that they have accepted demonetisation of currency notes without any protest. The judiciary and media have turned mute without mustering courage to raise the voice fearing loss of benefits in the future.

He complimented the judiciary in the United States of America (US) where a judge was pugnacious in opposing the ban on immigrants from seven Islamic nations imposed by new US President Donald Trump.

National president of CFI Shuhaid P V gave a clarion call to weed out fascism that is the enemy of not just the society but all individuals.

Shuhaid, who claimed that CFI was the first to call the suicide of Vemula as ‘institutional murder’, wanted the gathering to consider the issue of demonetisation, national education policy and also attempts to scuttle students movement as the issue of every Indian.

Former chairman of Karnataka State Backward Classes Commission C S Dwarakanath, national general secretary of CFI T Abdul Nasar, Rohit Vemula’s friend Sunganna Velpula, writer Yogesh Master and general secretary of national women’s front Lubna Minaaz were also present.