India-RSF: Statement on the Tragic Death of University Students and Civilians in the Building Collapse in Delhi
We hereby share a statement published by Revolutionary Students’ Front (RSF) on their Facebook page on September 9.
Statement from Revolutionary Students’ Front (RSF) on the Tragic Death of University Students and Civilians in the Building Collapse in Delhi
Revolutionary Students’ Front (RSF) expresses its deep grief over the tragic death of more than 7 people, including university students, after a five-storey building collapsed in the Satya Niketan area of south-east Delhi. The death toll has been rising steadily since the incident took place in Delhi on September 6th. Satya Niketan is mainly a hostel and paying guest area for students studying in the South Campus of Delhi University. Students from different parts of the country come here to study. It is to be noted that due to the lack of adequate student accommodation facilities by the government, they are forced to choose these densely populated areas as their preparation areas for important exams at exorbitant rents. One thing needs to be clarified. This building collapse incident is not new in Delhi. Statistics from the last 5 years show that more than 1,000 buildings across Delhi have either collapsed or are showing signs of that. According to the official figures, more than 150 people have lost their lives and more than a thousand have been injured. Although the actual number is much higher.
These are not isolated incidents. On the one hand, this incident is a reflection of the continuity of the way in which public safety in populated areas is being made secondary due to institutional corruption across the country. About 1,500 buildings collapse annually across the country. Not only buildings, but highways are one of the most sensitive areas of public safety. We have witnessed institutional corruption there too. 4,600 crore rupees worth of road tender was awarded to Pradeep Kumar Jain’s company PNC Infratech Limited, thanks to his brother, BJP leader Naveen Kumar Jain, a Rajya Sabha MP from Agra. The terrible condition of that road was widely publicized at the local level. But no action has been taken against this company. Instead, the BJP government handed over two new tenders worth Rs 3,483 crore for the National Highway No. 927 project to Pradeep Jain. Meanwhile, an average of 1.5 lakh people die in road accidents in our country every year. Not only that, last year, many people were killed when bridges built over rivers collapsed in Maharashtra and Gujarat. All of them are actually victims of the institutional corruption ongoing under the current fascist government of our country.
On the other hand, this incident has also once again clarified the state of student safety across the country. The current education system of our country considers students as a tool to earn profit. Educational institutes are organized today to become factories to produce cheap and skilled labor according to the needs of domestic and foreign corporations and the global market. NEP 2020 was a well-planned attack to privatize the education system. In this situation, higher education has become a commodity. The state systematically exploits students not only economically but also mentally. As a result, student suicides are increasing. Again, at the same time, they are reluctant to provide security to students to maximize their profits. Instead of providing adequate hostels, they are forcing students to stay in unsafe accommodation at exorbitant rent. Despite all this, they are still being discriminated against in institutions on the basis of religion, caste, gender and/or class. With the direct support of the Brahminical Hindutva fascist government, organizations like ABVP are occupying campuses. With their help, attempts are being made to end the larger student movement against the government and fascism in all these places. Efforts are being made to maintain state surveillance and repression in the education sector. There is also an attempt to turn students into bigots of fascism through saffronization of educational institutions. Their agenda is also an attempt to mislead the student protests organized against important issues including commercialization and privatization of education.
We, the Revolutionary Students’ Front, demand that the government should provide adequate compensation to every affected person and the families of the deceased who fell victim to the building collapse. Every campus should provide safe accommodation and food for students free of costs. We believe that it should be the responsibility of the state to provide economic, social and mental security to students. At their educational institutions too. But the current profit-oriented education system and the fascist government that runs it will never open that system up to us. This social disease cannot be cured without formulating a socio-scientific education system and therefore building a New Democratic India to achieve this. For that purpose and based on each of the above demands, it is the call of the hour to build a larger student movement. We call upon every democratic, progressive, anti-fascist student organization, mass organization and individual to build a united militant mass movement to ensure the safety of students on every campus and to demand public safety at a larger scale.
