The activist-filmmaker was speaking at a protest in Mumbai.
Around 100 students from the Students’ Federation of India and All Indian Students’ Association protested outside Dadar Station in Mumbai against the actions of the Akhil Bhartiya Vidya Parishad at Delhi’s Ramjas College.
“The ABVP was born in the aftermath of Gandhi’s assassination,” Patwardhan began. “There was a ban on the RSS and to circumvent it, the organisation’s members formed other organisations, one of which was ABVP. And the work that we see today has been going on since then.”
The documentary filmmaker, who has made Ram Ke Naam, about the events surrounding the demolition of the Babri Masjid, and Jai Bhim Comrade, about the activist group Kabir Kala Manch, spoke about the harassment of Gurmehar Kaur after she protested against the group and also referred to an incident at FTII, Pune in 2013 when a group of ABVP members attacked students for not saying “Jai, Narendra Modi”.
He outlined the different between the ABVP of the past and the ABVP of today. “In those days, they would not carry out their activities openly,” Patwardhan said. “That was because people knew that the organisation was involved with Gandhi’s killing. But that has changed since they have come to power.”
This article was first published on Scroll.in